Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie Ten Boom In Her Later Years (www.clie.es/modules/ shop/shop_image/author/1b...)

There are many heroes of the Christian faith that served the Lord during World War Two, but the one that stands out to me the most is Corrie Ten Boom. She lived a caring and unselfish life in Holland, hiding Jews in her house to protect them from the Nazis. When I read her story, it instantly impacted me. I realized how easy our lives really are, and how hard others have it. The Bible even states that the ones who are persecuted for the Lord’s name shall be blessed. The life of Corrie Ten Boom has shown me that I want to work for God, even though I don’t know where, when or how.

Corrie Ten Boom was a young woman living with her father and sister when Hitler first attacked Holland and German soldiers started filling the streets. The Christian family at once saw that the Jews needed help, so they built a secret room behind the wall in Miss Ten Boom’s bedroom. The Germans did suspect them all the time, but God allowed the Ten Booms to successfully hide Jews in their house without one being caught for a little over two years before they were arrested and taken to prison. Sadly, Father Ten Boom died ten days later. After spending four months in the miserable place, the Ten Boom sisters were taken from prison to a labor camp in Germany, where sister Betsie died of a raging fever. One day, Corrie’s name was called, and she went to see why. They said she was free, gave her a train pass, and opened the huge gates for her to leave! It wasn’t until later that she learned that all of the women her age were killed, and only she was freed because of a mistake in the prison’s paperwork.

After the war, Corrie Ten Boom’s work was not done yet. She traveled to many countries to tell her family’s story and preach the gospel. Even though it was hard, she went back to Germany and helped run a camp for the German refugees embittered by Hitler. Finally in 1977, she settled down in America where she wrote many books, one of them being, The Hiding Place. Not long afterwards, she suffered from a stroke, which caused her to lose her ability to speak. Nevertheless, Corrie Ten Boom kept on serving people by praying earnestly for them every day. She died of a second stroke in 1983. I am sure that when this wonderful woman met the Lord for the first time, he told her, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter ye now into the house of the Lord.”