The Secret of Growth Through Fellowship

BEFORE FREEDOM to practice Christianity came to Romania, a man from the Netherlands known as Brother Andrew smuggled a load of Bibles in his Volkswagen Beetle across the Romanian border and past communist guards. He checked into a hotel and began praying that God would lead him to the right Christian groups—the ones who could best use his copies of the Scriptures.

That weekend, Andrew walked up to the hotel clerkand asked where he might find a church. The clerk looked at him a little strangely and answered, “We don’t have many of those, you know. Besides, you wouldn’t understand the language.”

“Don’t you know?” Andrew replied. “Christians speak a kind of universal language.”

“Oh, what’s that?”

“It’s called agape.”

The clerk had never heard of it, but Andrew assured him, “It’s the most beautiful language in the world.”

Andrew was able to locate several church groups in the area and managed to arrange a meeting with the president and secretary of one of them. Unfortunately, although both Andrew and these men knew several European languages, they found they had none in common. So there they sat, staring at each other across the room. Andrew had traveled hundreds of dangerous miles with his precious cargo, but there seemed to be no way of telling whether these men were genuine Christian brothers or government informants.

Finally, he spotted a Romanian Bible on a desk in the office. Andrew reached into his pocket and pulled out a Dutch Bible. He turned to 1 Corinthians 16:20 and held out his Bible, pointing to the name of the book, which they could recognize. Instantly, their faces lit up. They quickly found the same chapter and verse in their Romanian Bibles and read: “All the brethren greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.”

The men beamed back at Andrew. Then one of them looked through his Bible and found Proverbs 25:25. Andrew found the verse in his Dutch Bible and read: “As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country.”

These men spent half an hour conversing and sharing— just through the words of Scripture. They were so happy in this fellowship—one that crossed all cultural boundaries—that they laughed until tears came to their eyes.

Andrew knew he had found his brothers. When he showed them his cache of Bibles, the Romanians were overwhelmed and embraced him again and again.

That evening at the hotel, the clerk approached Andrew and remarked, “Say, I looked up agape in the dictionary. There’s no language by that name. That’s just a Greek word for ‘love.’”

Andrew replied, “That’s it. I was speaking it all afternoon.”

Have you discovered that beautiful language? In this guide, you’ll learn about how God can bring all of us into His great circle of love.