Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Bible Smuggler?

Do you have what it takes to be a Bible smuggler?

Let's find out!

1. Vision Beyond Borders provides a lot of information for travelers to keep in mind on smuggling trips. You should:

Memorize all of it.

WRONG (Probably!) Unless you are the sort who memorizes entire books of the Bible this is not really reasonable. But do focus on the important stuff and what is most relevant to your trip.

Print a copy of everything and bring it with you.

WRONG. It's not a good idea to wind up at a security checkpoint with a sheaf of papers explaining how to smuggle items past that checkpoint. The customs agents might find that, you know, suspicious...

Ignore it and trust in the Lord.

WRONG. It sounds pious, but is also presumptuous, along the lines of the joke about the man waiting out a flood on a rooftop. After rejecting several offers of help from rescue boats and helicopters he was swept away and died, only to complain to God as to why He hadn't made any effort to save him.

Just let your team leader handle it all.

WRONG. A team needs a good leader. And a leader needs a good team to be successful. Missions is all about serving others, and that starts within the team.

Learn the key points and what pertains to your trip.

CORRECT! You probably cannot memorize everything, but you should make an effort to learn the important stuff to be well prepared. Who knows what souls may be saved and lives impacted for eternity if you succeed in getting through with your Bibles?

Do things your own way to throw off customs agents.

WRONG. It is better to act based on accumulated wisdom and experience than guessing or doing something rash and getting into worse trouble.

2. When approaching customs/security checkpoints at the airport, you should:

Smile and make small talk with the agent.

WRONG. The goal here is to minimize the time you spend around the agents whose job is to catch you. Not make friends with them.

Avoid eye contact and keep moving through unless personally stopped.

CORRECT. This is what everyone else is doing, so you won't look suspicious if you just act like a weary traveler hurrying to finish the trip.

Hang back and wait for a distraction.

WRONG (mostly). This has worked on occasion, but you cannot count on it and it risks an agent seeing you and wondering why you are hesitating from entering the checkpoint.

Stop and ask for directions.

WRONG. It's not likely to result in a strip search, but why take the risk? There will be plenty of other people around that you can ask if you need some directions.

On one occasion a Bible smuggling team approached an X-ray checkpoint, wondering how they would ever get their Bibles through without being noticed. As they approached the X-ray they silently prayed. Customs agents directed the man in front of them to place his belongings on the conveyor for the X-ray. Evidently not a frequent traveler, the confused but compliant man clambered up onto the conveyor belt to go through the baggage X-ray. The customs agents doubled over howling with laughter and in the resulting mayhem the team advanced undisturbed through the checkpoint. The Bibles were safe!

3. You are stopped by security and asked to open a piece of luggage. You should:

Have another team member create a distraction and make a run for it.

WRONG. That only works in the movies, folks.

Stop and follow directions, but do not volunteer anything.

CORRECT. Remember God is in control. The goal now is to reassure the agent so they release you, which works best if you act innocent and unconcerned.

Pretend you don't understand.

WRONG (mostly). In a busy situation, stalling can work in your favor as the agent won't want to create a backlog of irate people behind you. But you still need to get them comfortable with the idea of letting you through, which means letting them see what they are interested in.

Start arguing with the agent and assert your rights as an American.

WRONG. You are a guest in their country, and the agent really doesn't care if you are an American or a Martian. Creating a scene or demanding that the agent set aside their own judgment and let you through because you are being difficult is a sure way to get yourself into more trouble, not less.

4. You are traveling to a closed country to smuggle Bibles. You should:

Be sure to wear lots of explicitly Christian clothing to be a Gospel witness.

WRONG. Part of being "as wise as a serpent" (Matthew 10:16) is judging when to speak and when to keep silent. There is a time to share the Gospel, and there is a time to focus on getting God's Word through to believers who have been waiting and praying for it, often for years.

Take your largest personal Bible and read it in public to help start conversations.

WRONG. While agents will often let a personal Bible through even in many closed countries, this can alert agents to all the other Bibles you have stowed away. A phone Bible app may be a better alternative.

Avoid wearing any Christian clothing/jewelry and do not publicly pray or read Scripture.

CORRECT! The priority here is getting God's Word through to those who lack it. You are not denying God just because you left the WWJD bracelet and Youth Bible Camp T-shirt at home to help serve the persecuted Church.

Be sure to hold hands with the entire team and pray before going through security checkpoints.

WRONG. Yes, prayer is powerful, as we learn on trips like these. But that doesn't mean God should have to multiply miracles to get us out of all the dumb situations we put ourselves into by acting unwisely. Keep separate so other team members are not identified by customs agents if one of you is stopped, and pray silently.

On a trip to smuggle Bibles into China some years ago a team stopped in a McDonalds in Hong Kong for a meal. Several members talked openly and with excitement about their plans to sneak Bibles across the border into China. The team leader tried repeatedly to get them to quiet down and told them other people on the same flight could be at the restaurant. Sure enough at Customs another patron at the McDonalds informed the agents about the team carrying Bibles in; they lost the precious cargo due to their indiscretion.

5. You've had the joy of successfully delivering a load of Bibles to our friends in the underground Church! You can celebrate by:

Posting pictures of you and your contacts holding Bibles on Facebook for your friends to enjoy.

WRONG. Facebook is great for letting the whole world know what you're up to - including the friend of a friend of a friend who is a security agent in charge of arresting Christians in the country you are visiting.

Telling everyone on Twitter of your success and the date and destination for your next trip so friends can join you.

WRONG. You may have succeeded this time, but blurting out the news of the next trip to everyone in cyberspace won't improve your chances the second time around.

Praying and rejoicing quietly with your contacts and your team.

CORRECT! Let us rejoice in the Lord for His mercy and grace, without endangering our contacts or the success of other trips.

Emailing friends and family with a blow-by-blow account of the whole trip, how you got through customs, when and where you delivered God's Word and so on.

WRONG. It's natural to want to share with friends and family. Our traveler's information packet will help outline how to share without giving away key details that could endanger Christians in the underground Church.

6. Customs agents open one of your pieces of luggage and start finding Bibles. You should:

Volunteer nothing; say nothing about other pieces of luggage - let other team members take them if possible. Do not mention VBB or any information about our contacts.

CORRECT! Don't volunteer information beyond what they ask for, and keep our contacts safe. They bear much greater risks than the Americans bringing them Bibles.

Tell the agents you are planning to sell the Bibles and are willing to pay import duties on them.

WRONG. Lying doesn't help, and the agents aren't concerned over whether you are selling them or giving them away; they just won't want God's Word brought in if they can help it.

Let the agents know you have Bibles in your other luggage so you don't get in trouble for that too.

WRONG. This isn't a situation where plea bargaining is going to give you immunity or a reduced sentence. At worst they will confiscate the Bibles and in an extreme case send you home. You'd be surprised how often they simply ignore other pieces of luggage laden with God's Word, allowing you to get most of your precious cargo through.

Insist on your Constitutional rights as a citizen of the United States of America! Demand to see the American consul.

WRONG. In another country you are expected to abide by the laws of their country. The American embassy typically isn't going to be able to force the other country to let you take your Bibles through in contradiction to their own laws.

Call for your team leader to come join you and help you out.

WRONG. While it is natural to want to have a friend by your side in a scary situation, you cannot place the success of others in your team at risk by tipping authorities off to whom you are with. As noted above travelers typically face no personal risk if caught, besides seeing their Bibles taken and, worst case, being sent home. Remember that God is always with you, and that is better than any team leader.

If you are caught, don't panic. This photo, surreptitiously taken by a travelers oldest daughter when she was 15, sums up her first experience as a Bible smuggler: Hours of wrangling with the customs agents as they tried without success to show where in their regulations it said you couldn't bring Bibles into their country. It was more boredom than stress, and in the end they got half their Bibles in. (Most teams have no problem or do better than half.)

7. You've arrived at your hotel room/guest house. You should:

Unpack and arrange everything for the remainder of your stay.

WRONG. Keep Bibles stowed away, and that means keeping clothes and other items with them to keep them from being easily discovered in your luggage.

Unwrap any Bibles in gift wrapping.

WRONG. As above, you want to keep the Bibles from being easily discovered even in your hotel room or while carrying them to the hand-off point.

Deliver as many Bibles as you can to your contacts at the first opportunity.

CORRECT! Complications and interruptions may arise that prevent, limit or delay subsequent meetings with your contact. And your room may be searched by hotel personnel serving as government informants or by police tipped off by airport security.

Let the hotel/guest house owner know you are storing Bibles so room cleaners will not disturb them.

WRONG. Hotel operators are often required to submit guests' passport information and report on their guests activities to the police.

"On my first stay in a closed country we unpacked our Bibles and hid the ones we weren't taking with us our first day under the bed. When we got back to our rooms we found our guest house owners had thoroughly cleaned our room. Over a hundred Bibles were neatly stacked on the furniture. Whoops! It would have been better to leave them in the luggage. Thank God no harm came of it!"

8. Your contacts in the destination country:

Are there to feed and serve you should you need anything.

WRONG. Your contacts will typically be wonderfully hospitable and may well feed you, even when food is scarce. But remember that you are there to serve them and the persecuted Church.

Need to keep a low profile and avoid attention from police and government surveillance.

CORRECT! Your contacts living in the closed country face much greater risks from your visit than you do. "Typically it's after the Americans go home that the police show up at our door."

Have cleared their schedule and will meet your every whim.

WRONG. They have their own lives to live, and often struggle just to find food or wait hours in line for fuel. This is a chance to serve as Christ serves us. Don't treat it like a vacation.

Will turn you in if you cross them.

WRONG. Ministry trips like these are a wonderful chance to practice and to see the love of God in action. Prepare to be an encouragement and to be encouraged in ways you never thought possible.

9. What is the best gift to give someone?

A box of their favorite candy.

Uh, no.

The toy they've been asking for all year.

Still no.

A new gaming system.

Not even close.

The Word of God.

CORRECT! With it's message of salvation and hope for eternal life and reconciliation with God, what could be more precious? "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17)

VBB smuggles Bibles into closed countries where Christians cannot purchase a copy of their own even if they had the funds. Many have waited and prayed for years for their own Bible.

10. Why can't you be a Bible smuggler?

I'm too young.

My seven year old daughter is a veteran Bible smuggler. Are you younger than that?

I'm disabled.

Being disabled creates all kinds of challenges in this life. It also creates opportunities for God to show His power. "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." (2 Cor. 12:9)

My fourteen year old daughter is mostly paralyzed on her right side, gets most of her food through a tube and has titanium rods immobilizing her neck. She too is a veteran Bible smuggler. We've actually gotten more Bibles through because of her infirmity, as well as a wheelchair delivered to a young child in a closed country who had no use of his legs and who had nothing for his disability.

I don't speak another language.

Neither do I, or most of the travelers on our Bible delivery trips. We don't let that stop us. Many people in other countries know English, and God works it out.

There is no reason I cannot be a Bible smuggler.

Then what are you waiting for? Will you pray about it?

Now that you've learned a little about the adventure and joy of serving God as a Bible smuggler, will you pray about it? When you are ready, check out our GO page to learn more. We have trips every month and there is a need for more Bibles than ever in closed nations around the world. Will you help fill the need?

"Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation."

Romans 10:1