Africa church receives smuggled Bibles and banned training materials

A Christian volunteer from the U.K. recently brought in Bibles to a North African country where Christian materials are prohibited, and she brought home many amazing stories.

Holly (not her real name) recounted how God "blinded" the eyes of authorities as they passed through security checks at the airport with bags full of Bibles and training materials. They were carrying about 40 books – but security did not see even one.

"When we saw some of the suitcases going through, all the suitcases were being checked, all of them, except ours!" Holly said. "Maybe God did what he did with Brother Andrew and 'blinded their eyes' to it. It was amazing that we were the only ones who didn't get searched."

Holly was a volunteer for Open Doors, an organization started by Brother Andrew who went beyond the Iron Curtain to bring in Christian materials.

Although Holly was glad about how God made the airport security overlook their bags, she was not prepared for more miraculous stories from the Open Doors partners they were visiting.

Christians are highly persecuted in the African country they visited. Locals who are caught with Bibles and other Christian books could face at least two to three years in prison.

The organization partners that Holly and the team gave the books to were going to face the ordeal of traveling to their respective local communities carrying prohibited books. And they were going to pass through 20 checkpoints where the whole car could be searched. Checkpoint authorities have been known to be extremely thorough that they searched even under people's bonnets and inside their boots.

"But it was amazing because [the Open Doors partners] said, 'We can keep the Bibles on the back seat of the car, they'll just never see them,'" Holly said.

The reason? The church holds a 24/7 prayer meeting that began in 2003 and continues until today. The local Open Doors partners said constant prayer has helped the church avoid getting caught by the authorities. It has also made the church grow so fast.

There were also stories of miracles showing God's protection for His people. In one such instance, a man planned to kill his son, who became a Christian, by giving him poisoned tea. To his surprise, his son did not die.

"You were meant to just die instantly, but I can see now that your God protected you from that, and so this whole family will follow your God," the father told his son.

Stories like this seemed commonplace in the church, according to Holly. She said local believers prayed with intense faith that they were not surprised when they see God move on their behalf.

"We're not even surprised any more, this is what happens, it's what God does," they told Holly.