Turning Relief Into Belief

Andy Bishop Champions the Cause of Refugees and Proclaims the Love of Christ

By Clint
Kelly

Jump:
Andy's involvement
in the world

Relief must be kind (Honduras). Bishop helps occupy an El Salvadoran refugee child, one of war's littlest victims.

Relief must be practical(keyna). Bishop brings comfort and food to famine-stricken people in the Pakot region..

Relief must be swift (Switzerland). Bishop
(second from left) negotiates with other relief executives and a UN official.

One night in 1993, Beverly Bishop woke her husband and said, "I think we ought to go to Russia."

"But dear," said Andy Bishop sleepily, "we just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary and you said 26 mailing addresses in 30 years is enough."

"I know," Beverly replied, "but when I pray, I keep seeing Russia."

Ninety days later, the Bishops boarded a plane for Moscow with their financial support raised for five years. Without a hint of doubt, they believed "the Lord wanted us to go."

Danger is a given in Andrew Bishop's business. Disaster, both natural and man-made, is part of his job description. He'd prefer you call him Andy, but his exploits are pure Indy - as in Indiana Jones. He might roll his eyes at the comparison, but how else to explain his fascination with the used camel market in Timbuktu? Or Rambo, his pet black gibbon that took an intense disliking to Beverly and was summarily dismissed? Or his passport visa to outer Mongolia?

Wherever the Holy Grail of international missions and world relief takes him, Andy Bishop follows. Since graduating from Seattle Pacific College in 1966 with a degree in microbiology and public health, he has lived or worked in 44 nations, championed the cause of refugees from Burma to Zaire, and proclaimed Jesus Christ from Cambodia to Siberia.

Next month he comes full circle to Seattle Pacific, where the seeds of overseas service were sown and where he will be honored at Homecoming as the 1997 Alumnus of the Year. "I can't imagine anyone who has met the physical and spiritual needs of more of the world's displaced people than Andy," says SPU President Philip Eaton. "By his leadership and persistence, he's helped spread the gospel in a mighty way. His life exemplifies the mission of SPU."

"Train for service. Serve as unto the Lord. Serve with excellence. These are the admonitions I remember hearing again and again at Seattle Pacific," Bishop says. "I wasn't the best scholar in the world. Cellular metabolism was no fun. But I learned how to take an active role in service with a Christian world view. Since my wife and I already felt called to missions, it was the right preparation."

According to his brother, Joe Bishop '66, Andy's ability to appraise-and-take-charge of a situation appeared long ago when the five Bishop boys fought mock battles with wood, rocks and frozen potatoes on the family cattle ranch in Eastern Washington. When a warrior went down, Andy turned medic. Once when his teacher mom startled a mouse in her classroom, seven-year-old Andy had the presence of mind to step on the rodent. Says Joe with a chuckle, "He was the only one who could move."

The brothers grew up in the Free Methodist Church and at age 10, Andy Bishop went to summer camp and committed his life to Christ. At 16, he volunteered in a skid row mission and strongly felt the pull of foreign missions. In his early twenties, he was attracted to Beverly, a nurse and nursing educator, because she felt the same leading. They were married before Andy enrolled at Seattle Pacific.

In 1970, one year after Bishop earned a master's degree in public health administration from the University of Hawaii, the couple flew to Zaire to run a medical center for the Evangelical Covenant Church. Andy was hospital administrator and trainer of national administrators; Bev was pharmacist.

The die was cast. In 1974, they equipped a children's hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CAMA), only to be driven out by the communist takeover before the first bed was occupied. They were evacuated over the border to Bangkok, Thailand. Andy Bishop was himself a refugee.

Soon thousands of people, homeless and in shock, fled over the Thai border from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Malaria and tuberculosis followed. Open sewage ran between makeshift shelters in what one observer grimly called "the end of the world."

Into the sweltering misery of the jungle wilderness plunged Bishop with trucks full of rice, medicines, clothing, blankets and temporary housing that he requisitioned from private and public sources.

"Andy literally carried the sick and the elderly in his arms over the border to safety," says Cliff Westergren, director of CAMA Services. "His motivation was simply love - loads of love."

It was there the global missions strategy called "Turning Relief Into Belief" was born. A number of refugees wanted something in their own language to read and to use in teaching their children to read. They were given Bibles. "Three months later, they had questions," Bishop says. "Why were we there? The Muslims weren't there. The Buddhists weren't there. Why us?"

Sixteen refugees became Christians. From that nucleus, a church was formed in each camp and soon thousands of refugees had been won to Christ.

For the next 20 years, Bishop worked tirelessly as "the refugee's friend." Church relief consortiums such as the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) found it in their best interests to "get Andy" if at all possible. He had the uncanny ability to swiftly bypass bureaucratic roadblocks and get help directly to the suffering without alienating the sometimes agencies - and ideologies - involved. He worked as international vice president for the NAE, director of CAMA Services in Asia, and director of projects for Samaritan's Purse, a Christian relief agency headed by Billy Graham's son, Franklin.

When the Iron Curtain fell in 1992, the Christian church rushed in. Their eager choice for chief logistician was Andy Bishop. He was appointed executive director of arrangements for CoMission, an alliance of 80 churches, parachurches and missions organizations supplying Russian schools and school teachers with curriculum and training in Christian ethics and morals.

"I became a Christian thanks to the Bishops," says Helen Kazakova, a senior Seattle Pacific transfer student from Udmurt State University in Izhevsk, Russia. She was hired by the Bishops to translate for Beverly's Medical Profession Skills Enhancement program. Because each class began with Bible devotions, Kazakova needed to study and understand the scriptures herself in order to be linguistically accurate. "I was caught!" she says with a laugh.

To this day, Andy Bishop corresponds with people he led to Christ 20 years ago in countries all over the world. His global friendships include several SPU graduates, a few in high places. "The minister of foreign affairs in the royal Thai government graduated from Seattle Pacific," he says.

Lynda Collins '64, chair of the Alumni Board Awards Committee, is awed by Bishop's total dedication to serving Christ. "Wherever in the world a need arises, he's there. He's absolutely unselfish."

Admittedly, Bishop misses having a permanent address "come fall when it's time to go deer hunting." Life in Moscow has been an adjustment. After two months afoot, the Bishops finally procured a car only to have it stolen two days later. And it's tougher still being apart from their two grown sons and the grandkids in Africa (where the oldest son, Andrew, works with refugees in Guinea). But they trust God to fill the void.

Next stop for the Bishops? After their term with CoMission expires in a year, they plan to travel 600 kilometers northeast of Moscow to Izhevsk where the response from nursing students to the gospel has been among the most positive.

From there, who knows? For Andy Bishop, world servant, that next move could come to him in the middle of the night.

Where Angels Fear to Tread Some of the international "hot spots" where Andy Bishop has served: Zaire 1970-72 Trained nationals in medical administration. Ecuador 1973 Arranged student exchange program in public health. Cambodia 1975 Administrated Phnom Penh Children's Hospital. Thailand 1975-77 Supplied camps for refugees from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. France 1977-78 Resettled Southeast Asian refugees. Zaire 1977-78 Set up program for refugees from Cabinda region of Angola. Lebanon 1977, 1982 Rehabilitated war-torn villages. Gabon 1978 Constructed and equipped a surgical clinic.

Irian Jaya (Indonesia)1978 Rebuilt native churches among the Dani tribes people. United States 1979-81 Served as vice president of World Relief, with projects in 25 countries. Honduras 1981 Aided El Salvadoran refugees. West Africa 1983 Established famine relief among the impoverished in Sahel region. United States 1989 Provided temporary housing for victims of Hurricane Hugo and supervised relief work in Ethiopia, Zaire, Kenya, Mali, India and the Carribean. Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon 1991 Coordinated aid to Kurdish and other refugees from Gulf War. Russia 1993-Present Coordinates efforts of multiple Christian agencies for CoMission from Kiev to Magadan, Siberia. Mongolia and Kazakstan 1996 Delivered scarce study materials to a Bible school.