Ten Boom House

Cornelia Arnolda Johanna ten Boom, better known as 'Corrie', is a real hero of the Christian faith. Her house I went to see at Haarlem in the Netherlands, and I shall confess to my eyes welling up as I touched its sacred, yet ordinary-looking, walls. It was here that Corrie and her family hid Jews from the authorities in the 1940s, of whom 800 may have been saved with help from the wider Dutch Resistance. When the Gestapo discovered the family’s activities and the secret hiding places, they were sent to prison, and eventually to that very annex of hell itself, Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. Even in that darkest, most evil of places, she and her sister Betsie led Christian worship using a smuggled Bible, after long days of forced labour, winning many to Jesus Christ.

This was no haughty palace or lofty cathedral, but a humble townhouse from which the power and life of the Holy Spirit shone forth most powerfully. I reflected that if God endowed me with as much courage and love as Corrie had in just her little toe, I would be much the better for it.

Here is a little from Corrie, this diminutive yet mighty woman of God:

"If you look at the world, you'll be distressed; if you look within, you'll be depressed; if you look at God you'll be at rest."

"Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open."

"You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have."