On March 31, 2017, Hans Kristian Neerskov, founder of the Danish European Mission, died at the age of 84. Neerskov was born on May 12, 1932. He first trained as a merchant before studying theology and becoming a priest. A few years before the founding of the mission in 1964, Hans Kristian, as a pastor in Blåhøj, received a personal call from God to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" while reading the Gospel of Matthew chapter 28. This biblical call to mission, which was also Jesus' last words to his disciples before he went to heaven, is the foundation of the work of the Danish European Mission.
Bible smuggling and translation
Hans Kristian first and foremost realized his calling in countries that were closed to missions and where Christians were persecuted. The Danish European Mission organized Bible smuggling to the Eastern Bloc, where Christians often could not legally own their own Bible. Several Danes were involved in this Bible smuggling work, including from the secret base in southern West Germany.
Neerskov has spoken about this work at countless meetings in churches and it is said that there is no mission house in Denmark where he has not spoken. Through his preaching, in the more than 40 books he wrote and thousands of lectures he gave about conditions in the Eastern Bloc, many people have been built up in faith and inspired to help persecuted Christians and thereby strengthen the Christian testimony in closed countries.
In addition, parts of the Bible were translated into non-Slavic languages in the former Soviet Union in collaboration with the Institute for Bible Translation in Stockholm, which the Danish European Mission founded together with Ljus i Öster in Sweden and Misjon bak Jernteppet in Norway.
Debater facing political headwinds
Finally, Hans Kristian was a well-known profile and debater in Denmark. He documented how Christians and other dissidents in the communist Eastern Bloc were subjected to systematic discrimination and punished with imprisonment and labor camps in Siberia. Under the auspices of the Sakharov Committee, he organized hearings at the Danish Parliament, met with politicians and diligently wrote letters to the editor.
During the Cold War, a large part of public opinion in Denmark was left-wing, and the social model that the Soviet Union tried to develop was seen as exemplary by many. However, the revelations of the actual conditions in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 largely confirmed Neerskov's analysis of conditions in the East.
From the communist to the Muslim world
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Danish European Mission decided to focus on the Muslim world, where Christians are subjected to violent persecution in many places and the Gospel is only spread to a limited extent. The persecution was most recently demonstrated by the Islamic State's brutal expulsion of Christians and other non-Sunnis from large parts of Iraq and Syria. Danish European Mission continues in the calling God gave Hans Kristian Neerskov, helping the persecuted Christians in the Muslim world and giving them the tools to spread the gospel so that all people have the opportunity to hear the gospel of salvation and eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Honor the memory of Hans Kristian Neerskov
