GOD USES ORDINARY PEOPLE: THE CORRIE TEN BOOM STORY

Corrie Ten Boom's parents, Casper and Cor were married in 1894. They had four children; Betsie, Willem, Nollie and Corrie. Corrie was born in Haarlem, Holland and was the youngest of the four children.

The picture is of the Ten Boom family home, at Barteljorisstraat 19, Haarlem, Holland. In 1837 Casper opened a watch shop in this house and the family lived in the rooms above the shop.

Willem completed theology school and in his disseertation on racial anti-Semitism warned the Dutch that unless they took action, they would fall to the Nazis. One of the younger sisters, Nollie, became a school teacher, married a teacher and had six children. Corrie and Betsie never married.

Corried studied watchmaker and in 1922 she became the first female watchmaker licensed in the Netherlands. Her father was also a watch repairman and was known as "Haarlem's Grand Old Man".

She formed and built a girls' club that came from a small after church group grew into a full network of spiritually based and well rounded clubs.

In the late 1930's the club joined with Girls' Guides and became internationa. But this organization was secular and suppressed the Chrisitian principles on which Corrie had founded her group. She soon left the Girls' Guides, and hundreds of girls went as well. It became a local group again and had as It's symbol the triangle.

The triangle symbolized social, intellectual and physical skills. The triangle was inside a circle which represented being in the right relationship with God.

There were four rules of the Triangle Club:
Seek your strength through prayer.
Be open and trustworthy.
Bear your difficulties cheerfully.
Develop the gifts that God gave you.

The first thing the Nazis did after invading Holland was to shut down her large organization of girls' clubs so that it could not be used by the Dutch underground.

By 1942, she and her family rescued many Jews and other members of the resistance sought by the Gestapo and Nazi SS through the Dutch underground. There were 6-7 people illegally staying in the house. Thus it was known as "the hiding place."

On February 28, 1944 Germans arested the entire Ten Boom family with the help of a Dutch informant. The were first sent to Scheveningen prison where their father died a few days after his capture. Nollie, brother Willem and nephew Peter were released. Corrie and Betsie were then sent to Vught political concentration camp still in the Netherlands. Then finally the sisters were sent to Ravenbruck concentration camp in Germany in December of 1944. Corrie's sister Nollie died there but before she passed said to Corrie, "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still."

Two days after the raid, the six persons in hiding were able to escape through this window with the help of the resistance. The entire story may be read in Corrie Ten Boom's book, The Hiding Place.

Corrie was released on December 25, 1944 which she later learned was due to a clerical error. The next week after her release all the female prisioners her age were killed. She said, "God does not have problems. Only plans."

After her release she returned to the Netherlands and set up rehabilitation centers. Corrie then traveled the world as a public speaker and wrote many books.

At the age of 85, in 1977, she moved to Orange, California. She had several strokes in 1978, was unable to communicate and was an invalid for the last five years of her life. She passed away, April 15, 1983 at the age of 93 on her birthday.

God keeps his distance from the wicked; he closely attends to the prayers of the God-loyal people.