The Smuggler, the Dutch Woman,
and the Salvation Army Officer

I have come to know and love many Christians as I have walked with Jesus over the years, and three of them stand out as having the greatest influence in my life: The Smuggler, the Dutch Woman, and the Salvation Army Officer. They were not my mentors, they were not my best friends, but they were my brothers and sister in Christ, and we had but brief encounters.

The Smuggler was “God’s Smuggler,” a monicker derived from the title of his book about clandestinely delivering Bibles to persecuted Christians in Communist lands. Until that book, he was known to many as Brother Andrew. I knew him by his real name, a name that I continue not to disclose because there are still those who want to rid the world of him and his Bibles.

The Dutch Woman was Corrie ten Boom, a Christian Holocaust survivor who helped many Jews escape the Nazis during World War II—which landed her in a concentration camp for three years. Her best-selling book, The Hiding Place, became a major motion picture.

The Salvation Army Officer was Josef Korbel, a Czechoslovakian who was imprisoned by Communists for more than a decade. His crime? He was a “dangerous...religious influence” for organizing youth bands that played hymns and shared the gospel on street corners.

God’s Smuggler and the Jar of Honey

It was in the fall of 1976 and time for the annual board meeting of Open Doors with Brother Andrew. I came to know Andrew through producing some TV specials with him, writing for his monthly magazine, and providing other communications services. The board members warmly received my progress report. I was blessed to be a small part of the Open Doors ministry.

Frank and Brother Andrew

After the board meeting, I prepared to drive Andrew to the airport. As we were loading his luggage in the trunk of my car, he discovered that a plastic jar of honey among his luggage was leaking through its brown paper bag. He wouldn’t be able to take the sticky mess on the plane with him. So he gave it to me, and en route to the airport told me the story behind it.

The honey jar was given to him several years earlier by one of his Bible couriers. It had been a gift to him from a farmer and underground Baptist pastor in Romania as a token of thanks for the delivery of some Bibles. And with the honey, came the old pastor’s request: “Whenever you eat of the honey, please pray for the suffering Christians in Romania.”

So, from the time Andrew received the jar of honey he had some at every breakfast, and it reminded him to pray for the suffering Christians in Romania and elsewhere (though I doubt that he needed a reminder to do so).

Andrew had that jar of honey on his travels around the world, and now I was the steward of the sticky mess. Thereafter, I carried on the tradition of praying for suffering Christians every breakfast when I ate of the honey. I placed it in a new container, of course, and whenever the level got low, I filled it with fresh honey, which mixed in with the remnant of honey from Romania. Over the years my honey jar always contained a trace of honey from Romania.

To this day, I continue to have honey on toast for breakfast, and it reminds me to pray for suffering Christians in Romania—and in other corners of the world. And I pray for Brother Andrews and the Open Doors team as they continue to minister to the suffering Church.

Brother Andrew told me another story that has stayed fresh in my memory: persecuted Christians the world over pray for the Church in America. Specifically, they pray for a deepening of our faith. You see, their faith is a faith that has been tempered by the refining fires of persecution. Such persecution is allowed by God as a special catalyst for spiritual growth that few of us in America have experienced.

But, to quote Bob Dylan, “The times they are a-changin’.”

We’re in the early stages of persecution in this country. Oh, I know, some people, like Bill O’Reilly, call it a “cultural war,” but, call it what ever you want, it is naked persecution. It’s not about culture; it’s all about Jesus. He said so himself: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you” (John 15:18, 19).

The Dutch Woman and the Chinese Christians

Following my production of TV specials for Brother Andrew, his friend and fellow Netherlander Corrie ten Boom came to me to produce a film (those were pre-video days). It came to be titled “A Visit With Corrie,” and I filmed it in my home church in Mission Viejo, California.

As you can imagine, because of Corrie’s popularity stemming from her books and the popular theatrical movie The Hiding Place, she received many invitations to speak at churches the world over. Though extraordinarily energetic for her age, there was no way she could possibly accept so many invitations. And that is what prompted her to make the film; it was sent to those churches where she was unable to visit in person.

Before I was given the production, however, I first had to alleviate the concerns of two entities that had what you might call a proprietary interest in Corrie—the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Billy Graham’s World Wide Pictures, the movie production company that produced Corrie’s movie, The Hiding Place.

World Wide Pictures was located in Burbank, not far from the Disney Studio where I had started my career. I met with Cliff Barrows, representing the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; Bill Brown, the president of World Wide Pictures; and Jim Collier, director of the movie, The Hiding Place. Out of concern for the reputation of Corrie as well as that of the Bill Graham name, they wanted to produce her film, even though it was to be a low-budget, non-theatrical picture.

In the end, they gave their blessings for me to produce the film.

Frank and Corrie ten Boom at the filming of "A Visit With Corrie"

Though Corrie is now with the Lord, she continues to be an inspiration to millions of people, myself included. One of the memorable stories she told was of a visit to some Christians in China. They were among the survivors of Mao’s attempts to eradicate the Church in China. Years before Corrie’s visit, missionaries had assured them that Jesus would return for them before the coming tribulation. But persecution came, and Jesus did not. And they wanted to hear an explanation from Corrie. So she shared several verses that prophesied Christians will incur the wrath of antichrists in the world today (1 John 2), and eventually the wrath of the Antichrist (the "beast" of Revelation 13)—all before the Day of the Lord (2 Thessalonians 2).

There are many Christians today in some Muslim and atheistic countries who are experiencing tribulation, persecution, and martyrdom (some are burned alive). Tribulation, persecution, and martyrdom are what they are whenever and wherever they occur.

“Do not fear what you are about to suffer,” said Jesus, “Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days [figuratively]. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

The Salvation Army Officer in the Enemy’s Camp

Boris Korbel was the owner of the graphics company that did the color separations for the cover of my first book. He phoned one day to tell me that his father, a Salvation Army officer since the early days of World War II, needed writing and publishing help with his autobiography. That phone call led to my co-authoring and publishing Josef Korbel’s book, In My Enemy’s Camp.

Josef and Erna Korbel

Joe was a simple, humble man who loved Jesus. He survived the Nazi occupation, then came the Soviet Communists. He was arrested for leading a Salvation Army youth band that stood on street corners and played hymns and shared the gospel with passers-by. He was imprisoned for more than ten years, until released through United Nations intervention. His elder son Boris was imprisoned for being a member of the Czech resistance. His younger son Victor was conscripted into the Czech Communist army and then murdered because of his outspoken Christian faith. And while Joe was in prison, his wife Erna and young daughter barely survived, even spending one harsh winter of brutal wind and deep snow in a make-shift tent.

In the book, Joe told of other members of the Salvation Army who suffered similar persecution. He also wrote of a shameful few who avoided Joe’s fate by selling out to their Communist occupiers.

I asked Brother Andrew to write a foreword for Joe’s book. Andrew heard about Joe off and on during his years in Communist prisons. Joe was an inspiration to Andrew and to many others who helped get the Bible into iron curtain countries. Indeed, Christians the world over prayed for Joe and his family throughout that horrible decade.

Joe and his family escaped their separate ways from Communist Czechoslovakia and eventually reunited in the United States.

Joe and Erna continued to minister with the Salvation Army throughout the remaining years of their lives.

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Jesus said to His disciples and to those of us who believe in Him through their word: “In Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And He prayed to His Father: “I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.... As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (John 17:14, 18).

Remember why Jesus sent us into the world and pray that all of us will do our part to carry out that mission.

Remember to pray for the suffering Church.

Remember to pray for the "free" Church in America and elsewhere, especially that today's trends toward worldliness and apostasy might be reversed.

And, if you need a reminder, add a little honey to your daily diet.

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For further reading: Click to read the full text of Frank’s booklet,
The World vs. God’s Kingdom.
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©Copyright AD2010 Frank Allnutt. All rights reserved. Content herein may be quoted, subject to the "fair use" doctrine of U.S. Copyright Law.

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