Ten Boom House

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Real-time obedience

This is a real-time essay. The Lord is calling me to obey him in something today, and I would like to write to you about it as I process it. The matter concerns an angry email I received this morning and my working through how to reply. My first reaction was self-defense. I felt I had grounds. I felt I had been misunderstood. I felt I could justify what I was being accused of.

Still, I have decided to wait a while before replying. In the meantime I have read the Bible, taken a long walk, had breakfast, replied to other emails, and watched a 1974 interview of Corrie Ten Boom.

This was enough time for the Holy Spirit who lives inside me to suggest I trash my scripted reply to the angry letter. It is possible to be right in an argument (and yet I may not be as right as I think I am) but to be called to a higher response than rightness. If I respond to my friend with my justifications, he may agree with me or he may not. But will that produce the best result? Paul says, “The aim of our charge is love” (1 Timothy 1:5). What response could I give to the man that would be most aligned with that aim?

Over the past few hours I have come around to seeing that my words to my friend (the words that prompted his terse email) were not the best; they fell short of Christ’s call to “be perfect.” There are a dozen things I could have said that would have been better—that would have been peaceable, gentle, fruitful (James 3:17). And when we know what is the best thing to do and yet we settle for something less, we sin (James 4:17).

I have found throughout my life that when apologizing and asking forgiveness, it is best to do it cleanly. Tacking on a rider, even a mild and subtle one, ruins a worthy apology. When I speak to my friend next, I will simply tell him that I should not have spoken to him that way—and then may the Lord put a clamp on my mouth. Let me make this a public commitment before you all.

I know that afterward I will feel strengthened in my spirit if I do things God’s way and not in the way of fleshly desire. One always does. The choice of sin always carries its own punishment in the body (Romans 1:27), and the choice o    f obedience its own reward (2 Corinthians 3:18).

 

Courtesy of Andree Seu of Worldmag    

 

Ten Boom | Ten Boom Museum

One Way Door with Corrie Ten Boom

Ten Boom | Ten Boom Museum

The Hiding Place in Glenn Beck's Program, Nov 11th

   

We have a wonderful opportunity to share the story of Corrie ten Boom with the world. Dr. Michael D. Evans will be New York City next week for an on-air interview with Glenn Beck on Tuesday. He is planning to air "The Hiding Place" on his program on next Friday the 11th. Pray that the message of love and sacrifice to save Jewish people that is found in this movie will spread around the world and touch many hearts. We will be promoting the Ten Boom Museum and the virtual tour as well.

Dr. Michael Evans and Glenn Beck shares the same admiration for Corrie Ten Boom's heroism.

Don't forget to join the Corrie Ten Boom Museum in Facebook!

In My Father's House by Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom was fifty years old when she began harboring Jews during World War II. She was imprisoned in a concentration camp, and after her release she traveled the world, proclaiming the gospel. What happened in those earlier fifty years to prepare Corrie for all that lay ahead?

In My Father's House (over 250,000 copies sold) explains how God used life's small beginnings and everyday happenings to prepare Corrie for the suffering and victories to come. The eighth book of the Corrie ten Boom Library, it is the first in the series to focus on the years leading up to World War II and the events of The Hiding Place. More than merely a collection of memories from Corrie's colorful life, this book explores the human side of one of the most authentic Christian witnesses and the faith that kept her going strong.

Holland’s First Female Watchmaker

 Ten Boom was born on April 15, 1892, in Haarlem, in the Netherlands. Before her first birthday, her grandfather died and left his home and watchmaking business, founded in 1837, to her father. The family, which included older sisters Betsie and Nollie, and a brother, Willem, moved into the Ten Boom House on Barteljorisstraat 19, and her father took over the storefront business below. The family lived in a quirky warren of rooms above the shop over three separate floors, and Corrie Ten Boom, she and her sister Betsie shared a room at the back of the house on a high third floor. During their youth, the household also included three aunts, who helped care for the four ten Boom children.

Like Betsie, ten Boom never married, and eventually joined her father’s watch sales and repair business. She also became the first licensed woman watchmaker in the Netherlands. The family members were devout Christians, active members of the Dutch Reformed church, and ten Boom followed in the footsteps of one of her aunts and participated in several charitable aid projects in Haarlem. The ten Boom home and business served as a hub of activity in their neighborhood, and they regularly provided a meal to beggars and took in foster children. All the local children were especially fond of ten Boom’s pious but genial father, Casper, nicknamed “Opa,” or grandfather.

The Kindness of Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie lived in Harlem with her father and older sister during the time Holland surrended to the Nazis. She was 48 then and unmarried. She worked in as a watchmaker in a shop her father started in 1837. They were devoted members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Thei family is known for their kindness.

She was involved with the Dutch underground and began giving temporary shelter to neighbors who were Jews. The word spread about her kindness and people came to her for refuge. She even had a false wall constructed in her bedroom behind which people could hide.

Her home turned into the center of an underground ring that reached throughout Holland after a year and a half. It became The hiding place of the Jews that Corrie Ten Boom started. Many people would come into their shop and she found herself dealing with hundreds of stolen ration cards each month to feed the Jews that were hiding in underground homes all over Holland. She wondered how long this much activity and the seven Jews that they were hiding would remain a secret.

It was on February 28, 1944,  an informant that had worked with the Nazis  disguised as hiding Jews and asked Corrie’s help. Her family  were arrested. Fortunately, the Jews  made it to the secret room in time and later were able to escape to new quarters.

After 10 days of being ill, her father died while Corrie and her sister Betsie emained in a series of prisons and concentration camps, first in Holland and later in Germany. Corrie described in her book how she struggled with and overcame the hate that she had for the man who betrayed her family and how she and Betsie gave comfort to other inmates.

Because of a clerical error, Corrie was released from Ravensbruck one week before all women her age were killed. She went back to Harlem and continued on watchmaking. She didn’t find contentement in doing so. She began traveling and telling the story of her family and what she and Betsie had learned in the concentration camp. Eventually, after the war was over, she was able to obtain a home for former inmates to come and heal from their experiences. And she continued to travel tirelessly over the world and tell to anyone who would listen the story of what she had learned.

 

The hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom on film

orrie ten Boom was born on April 15, 1892 around Haarlem in the Netherlands. She was the youngest of four children. Her mother died of a stroke at the age of 63. Her father, Casper ten Boom, was a watch repairman.

During the Second World War, the ten Boom home became a refuge and the hiding place for fugitives and those hunted by the Nazis. By protecting these people, Casper and his daughters, Corrie Ten Boom and Betsie, risked their lives. Arrested and put into a concentration camp themselves, the ten Boom family members clung to their faith in Christ during their ordeal.

The true story of the family’s plight is told in The Hiding Place, the most popular film produced by World Wide Pictures—the motion-picture ministry of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Billy  Graham talked about Corrie and the film: “Corrie is one of the great Christian heroines of the century. We met her in Switzerland, and her story made such an impression on Ruth that she recommended it to writers John and Elizabeth Sherrill. They jumped at it; and the book and film that followed brought home the horror of those days and the triumph of Christ’s love in the midst of virulent hatred.”

At a reception later that evening, Corrie ten Boom spoke in her distinctive Dutch accent: “People asked me tonight, ‘What did you feel about this [tear-gas] bomb that was falling?’ I was touched. I was sad. Do you know why? Not only because there was in some way disappointment for people who had hoped to see the film but because on that bomb was the Hakenkreuz, the [Nazi] swastika.

“What we have to do,” said Corrie, “is love these people who hate us—love them, pray for them. These people are wounded people who have hate in their hearts. They need forgiveness. They need the Lord. . . . That is the answer we must give.”

 

Corrie’s Fate

Almost like a miracle, the  name of Corrie Ten Boom was included in the of people to be released.She went back to Holland where the hiding place started and could recover from the health problems that accosted her since the time she was kept in prison. She spent in her own house in Haarlem , but she did not remain inactive. As she would say, ”God gave us love to enable us to pardon our enemies”.

Corrie forgave. She forgave the loss of her dear ones and her own sufferings, which had been inflicted on her while at the concentration camp. And she even went farther. Once, in 1947, in Muenchen, a man wanted to greet her and shake her hand. On seeing his face she recognized him immediately as one of the most cruel guardians at Ravensbrück, one of the many before whom she had to march naked together with her sister Betsie when, in accordance with the special criteria set up by the Nazis, they latter selected those who were still useful among those who did not serve any more. How could she shake this man’s hands? He told her that he had Converted to Christianity after the war and that he believed that God had forgiven him for all the evil he had done at the concentration camp, but that he needed that she personally told him that she forgave him. Carrie did so and shook hands with him.

 

Ten Boom House Not Just A Memorial

The history of the ten Boom family is a testimony of their love and loyalty toward the Jewish people. Both Jews and Christians are thankful the Béjé has once again become an 'Open House', a living memorial to the Ten Boom family who lived as Christians by grace and obedience to the Lord. It is hoped that many visitors will find inspiration by the example from the Ten Boom family.

The ten Boom house has been made into a museum. It is not just a memorial. It reflects the spiritual strength and the active life in faith, by means of exhibiting documents, photographs and other mementos. The ten Boom house has been partly restored in the setting of that period, and carries a message for today. The Ten Boom Clock and Watch shop has been refurnished. A watchmaker carries out this meticulous work of repairing watches on the spot in the shop itself.

Extend the 100-Year Prayer Meeting

"God does not have problems. Only plans," proclaimed Corrie ten Boom when a clerical error allowed her to be released from a Nazi concentration camp one week before all women prisoners her age were executed.

Though she was released from the horror of Ravensbruck concentration camp, Corrie continued to live with a remarkable reliance on God, just as her family had as they hid Jews from Nazi terror. Generations of ten Booms held Christian prayer meetings for Israel for 100 years prior to World War II. Click here to begin our inspirational virtual tour of the ten Boom home.

Traveling the world as an ambassador of the power of forgiveness in Christ, Corrie later established rehabilitation centers to help other Holocaust survivors. Her 1971 autobiography, The Hiding Place, became a movie in 1975, inspiring many to see God at work through the darkest of life's circumstances. You can preview a portion of this powerful movie within our virtual tour by using the compass to visit location #3.

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