Corrie ten Boom: A Tramp for the Lord

Corrie ten Boom and her family suffered during World War two when they sought to protect the Jewish people from the hatred of Adolf Hitler four members of the ten Boom family gave their lives to hide the Jewish people in their homes Corrie was released from Robins Brook and then for the next 33 years traveled to 65 countries sharing her amazing experience her message was one of God's love and forgiveness to all that would listen Betsy your sister told her wall in Robins Brook that the world would listen to them because they had been through it they both learned that there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still her message is as true today as it was during World War two Vicky Gagne have sought to deliver Corrie ten booms message of God's love and forgiveness she seeks to portray Corrie in her own words and an appearance as Corrie spoke and looked when she was 85 years old she has presented this program to a wide range of groups come and hear the powerful story of Corrie ten Boom when she lived through a very difficult time in history come and witness the hope that she learned through it all once when I was in Russia the government would not let me speak to the people so I asked the pastor may I please greet the people from Holland and from America and he says sure so I greeted them but thirty minutes and then I say to the pastors may I say goodbye to them he say sure so I say goodbye to them for 30 minutes hallelujah the Lord gave me one hour to speak to those people I praise God for that what did Joey my name is Corey Tim boom they call me a trap for the Lord I suppose it's because I've traveled in over 60 countries in some 30 40 years I haven't slept in over a 1000 beds in soft beds and palaces to hard beds and tribal huts and I'm here to tell you a little bit of what I have experienced in my life a most difficult time in my life for it is and those difficult times that we learn much of the Lord yes I was born April 15 1892 to Casper and Cornelia thimble my papa he was an old-fashioned man with a long white beard he was a self-taught man the children in in the village they called him Oh Oprah it means grandfather they loved my father and people would come to the bought shop and ask for advice and my father would open up his word the Word of God and he would give advice from glad he said that was the most important book in our home and it was guided it guided our lives throughout our family he said my mama had laughing blue eyes and he loved her dearly my mama she loved everyone in the village she cared for them made meals for them she was there for their births and for the deaths in their family she had she had a blessing box and if you come to my house our house you a penny would go into the box and then we would count our blessings and then we would we would give it to the missionaries my mama said there's always room at our table for our people she would just put more water in the soup there were five children in the temple family there was my sister Betsy she could make anything beautiful she could make a party out of old teabags and old potatoes then there was my brother William he was the only one educated in our family he was ordained pastor and I looked up to my brother then there was Hendrick he died six months of age of brain-fever and then there was no Lea she was the purity one and she never forgot her handkerchief she was little mother to me and she made sure that I never forgot my handkerchief and then there was me I was the baby of the family born one month too early they did not think I would live but they asked the Lord to save me and he did and when I was five years old I asked the Lord to come into my heart he did not say you are too young he simply came and we have walked together my Lord and I for 80 years when I was a year old my grandfather passed away and we moved from Amsterdam to how a Harlem to take over his watch shop there were three generations that that lived in the bay a which was our home in our reward shop my grandfather was a watched maker of my father was a watchmaker and I was the first woman watchmaker and olive Harman I was told that my grandfather had a love for the Jewish people and he began to hold meetings in 1844 to pray for the Jewish people and for three generations we have prayed for the Jewish people I have found memories of my home there in the bay yay we had my mother's three sisters lived with us so we were a very large family and we would gather around that oval table at dinner time and we would share our joys and our sorrows and our prayers and our places my papa he would pray before the meal and after the meal after the meal he would thank the Lord for the fellowship that we had at that table but sometimes he would have to ask for forgiveness for we had gossiped at the table around that oval table we also had our art of Bible studies and my Papa had us to read the Bible in in different languages in Dutch and German and French and English and Hebrew and Greek the bay EA was a place that was open to anyone who was in need after World War one my father saw that the German children were malnutrition in great need of care so he arranged for watchmakers all over Holland to take the German children into that home to care for them to feed them and then we sent them back to their homes many a German children came to our home in those post-war years many years later World War two began to rage in Europe we would gather around the radio and there came a man he did not yell he did not shout he would scream and it frightened my sister and she would turn the radio off I think you know who this man is a tower fiddler he sought to kill all the Jewish people and to take over the world we were a neutral country in World War one so we thought we would be neutral in this war the Prime Minister even came on the radio and assured us that Germany said they would not take us over I never see my father angry but that night I saw him angry he said it is wrong to give hope when there is no hope he said I feel sorry for the Dutchman who does not know the Lord for Holland will fall but the Lord Jesus Christ will not fall and he kissed us all good night and we have to bear to his bed later the bombs began to drop on Holland and our brave boys fought for five days until they were overtaken and when we heard the news that Queen Wilhemina had escaped with her cabinet out of the country knew it to be true that Holland was no longer a free country I still remember the Nazis heavy boots marching on our cobblestone streets as they came into our village occupation was not so hard at first they set the curfew for 10:00 and changed it to 6:00 p.m. no one was allowed out of their home after 6 p.m. they began to issue ID cards and our Jewish friends had big leather black leather J and given stars yellow Stars of David to where they issued the ration cards you could buy nothing without a ration card they confiscated our radios and we but we were able to hide out at your way so that we might hear the news outside of Holland newspapers no longer reported the news signs appeared no Jews allowed no Jews will be served then our Jewish friends they began to disappear some were going into hiding others were taken never to be heard from again now my mom and her three sisters had passed away and William and no Lee had homes of their own so it was just Papa Betty and I at the bay a so we talked how we might help our Jewish friends my brother William was getting his PhD in German university in 1926 it was then that he began to see the seeds of hate to replace against the Jewish people and he wrote his thesis on it and we people read his thesis they laughed but my brother knew that he had to get involved in the Dutch underground he said Cory if you're going to do this work you must come to a secret meeting of the Dutch underground and so my nephew picked me up after a curfew and took me to this meeting he began to introduce me to people there is mr. Smith and there's mr. Smith there's mrs. Smith there's mrs. Mehta I said to my brother are these people all related he say no Cory if you were ever arrested you do not want to know these names of these people the less you know the better I was told at this meeting that if we were going to hide the Jewish people in our home we would have to have a secret room so the next morning a famous architect arrived at our home his name was mr. Smith he was quite delighted to find that the bay were two houses that were put together he said it will slow the Gestapo down if there is our aid he determined that the the secret room would be in the third floor which was my room and they built a brick wall because when you knock on brick it does not sound hollow then they plastered it and to look as old as the rest of the walls they placed alarm system in the house there was a mother Buzzard in the in the watch shop and one at the door and at the bay window we were told that they needed to get our Jewish friends in that secret room in less than 60 seconds we were able to get it down to 70 seconds we had drills all hours of the days and night if you were sleeping in your bed the mattress had to be turned because then gestapo could feel the warmth on the bed if we were eating all the extra utensils and food had to be taken into the secret room these were these were anxious times but they were also happy times for us sometimes they say to me they say I would save up ration cards and I would buy cream puffs and if they do a real good job on there their drill then I would um cream puffs and sometimes they say to me they say Gouri don't you think it's time for a drill I think they like those green puffs we kept our friends busy by reading books aloud and having concerts and plays and and discussions lively discussions how long we were going to be able to do this we were not sure we knew the risk the Dutch police were a hundred yards away the Gestapo was a block away I knew that sometimes somewhere something would go wrong the work in the Dutch underground went well for two years and we had much work to do once we heard that the Gestapo was going to take and steal was going to take 100 Jewish babies from an orphanage any was going to kill them my boys say we will go and we will steal those babies I think you and they did it you want to know how that did it well in those days they were good German soldiers and they come to me and they say Corrie we don't want to follow Hitler we don't want to kill the Jewish people can you help us and I say sure I said you give me your uniforms and that gave them civilian clothes and then we hid them for the duration of the war my boys they took those uniforms and they went and they stole those 100 babies and then they they took them to different places out in the country I praise God well hallelujah what a joy there were 28 1944 I were sick in bed and there came a man to see me he insisted upon talking to me and I got dressed and I went down to talk with him he said his wife had been arrested for hiding the Jews in their home he said she is a good woman he said and there is a Gestapo they say if I give him 600 guilders that he will release her he said but I do not have 600 guilders and I say what is 600 guilders for a good woman I'll give you the money and I gave him that six hundred guilders that man was a quest Ling do you know what that questioning is a betrayer a fellow a Holland a Dutchman who betrayed his countrymen his wife has not been arrested for hiding Jews the Gestapo said you go see if Corey hides Jews in our home and then he says I think I can get some money too at 5:00 p.m. the Gestapo came in raided our home we had four Jewish friends and two underground workers who were able to get into the secret room William was there with his family for a Bible study in a prayer meeting and Noli and her family the Gestapo came in they beat us but we would not tell them where the secret room was they found our ration cards the telephone the radio but they did not find a secret room they say we will surround the beiiy until they turn they come out or they will turn to mummies later that night at 11 o'clock they took us to the Dutch police station for this in the Lord's room with mattresses and my father could sense a a betrayal among us and he asked if he could have a Bible and the s William with you read Psalm 91 it was a psalm that the you read at the beginning of every new year he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty and I will say to the Lord you are my refuge and my fortress my god in whom I thrust when William finished my father prayed and there was no longer a sense of betrayal but one of trusting the Lord whatever would come our way the next morning they put us onto a truck and all Harlem had come out to see the grand old man of Harlem who they loved my father and as the Gestapo was helping my father onto the talk he said you're an old manual I am prison but if you promise not to hide the Jewish people I will let you stay in your home and you can die there my father said if I am in my home the door is open to anyone who is in need of help and for the one moment that officer arrogant with the power of a sin cuffs and my father trusting in the power of his Lord we arrived at the prison and they helped my grandpa my father down and he sat in the chair and I kissed him on the forehead I said the Lord be with you and he said the Lord be with you my daughter's and then I heard him bless my his grandson and he said we are privileged to be able to help God's people my papa he say that the best is yet to be and ten days later the best had arrived for my father but he set foot out of that prison and into heaven I praise God for that well because I were sick I was put in solitary confinement I had never been alone before I'd always had people around me and I became very frightened I could hear the bombs in the distance and the muffled cries of those being tortured and there came great fear in my heart I say Lord my faith is not strong enough I cannot do this and at that moment there came an ad across the floor and I wiped my rag across his path and he went running to his hole it was if if the Lord said to me you see the antis legs are a weak like your faith is weak but he goes running to his hiding place do not fear these people you must come running to me when you are afraid I was 53 years old I had been saved since I was fired but for the first time there came a peace in my heart in that prison and I knew that his light was greater than any other deep darkness that I while I was in that cell eteri confinement I received a package from Nolan who had been the release from prison and the writing was slanted towards the staff so I carefully undid the stamp and looked underneath and it said all watches safe it was a code that tell me that everyone who was in the secret room were safe you see the Gestapo they had surrounded the beret and and after two days they were afraid they were tired of guarding it so they turned it over to the Dutch police and the Dutch police in those days were double agents so they when they were safe they were able to get everyone out of the secret room and then I remember that my grandfather 100 years before had prayed for the Jewish people his answers were his prayers were answered that very night and I give I praise God hallelujah hallelujah in June my sister and I were united when we were taken to her another to a concentration there in Holland it was not such a bad place although it was bad because our freedom was taken away we didn't know for in one moment to the other moment what would happen to us my sister she had the job of sewing with sewing machines and because I was a watchmaker they put me to working on the radios for the airplanes and I do very good job I take great pride in my work but then one day someone said to me Corey you know that these ratios are made for the Nazi planes and I said oh I tell you little secret I did not do such a good job after that if I was in September we heard that the Allies were getting closer and there came a great hope in our heart that we would be liberated and one morning they marched all the men out of the gate and we could still hear their footsteps they were marching and say until there was no steps at all and then we heard the gunshots a hundred and eighty they were being executed and buried into a mass grave husbands sons sweethearts brothers they were gone and then we were taken to the Train we were put on boxcars boxcars they'd like cattle they put 80 others in the state only forty could fit in and they shut the doors very little air very little water very little food the stench in there too became that we you would you got sick and I began to have fear in my heart and I began to pray Lord you must please do not send us into Germany I had heard the stories about Germany and I feared for my sister and me but when the Lord sends you you go and for three days and three nights we went deeper and deeper into Germany when we RI they opened up the doors there were only a couple of guards but they didn't need very many we were weak and could not fight them they marched us in five five people at the time and then we began to hear its ravensbrück province burka the infamous cruel tab a vert camp that was going to work you to death we arrived inside of the gates and my sister who began to cry I can't do this and then I asked the Lord Lord if you want us to sacrifice in this you must help us you must give us the strength to do this and then my sisters I I can't do it now and then as we went in they took everything away from us they gave us number six six seven two nine was Betsy six seven six six three seven three Oh was my number so is if we cease to become human beings they took all they stripped us and we are in the shower and I wasn't able able to hide a Bible that was given to underground workers under a bench crawling with cockroaches with some woolen underwear and when we came out I was able to hide that underneath my dress and then I saw that they were searching everyone that was coming back and so I began to pray Lord you must send your angels to watch over your word to come into this camp and then I remember angels they are transparent so I pray Lord you make your angels untransparent I know it is on the Orthodox but my God liked it for he answered that prayer and they they searched my sister and the woman behind me but they did not see me and again they searched my sister and the woman behind me and Ginn they did not see me and I was able to bring that Bible into their camp by God's grace if you were caught with a Bible it would be instant death for you we were taken to a barracks 8 where we would be quarantined for several weeks and then after that we were taken to the barracks 28 we thought this would be a nicer place than where we have come from but it was not there was a stench in the air they were there were there were fleas and lice on the bed and I began to cry to my sister and she said we should thank God for this stuff leaves analyze when I did not see it then but later I saw because of the fleas in the lice the guards they would not come in so we were able to hold Bible studies twice a day 96 thousand women died in this camp including my but many died which teases on their lips because the Lord had brought us the ovens Brook the barracks that we were at they said it is the crazy place where people hope because the Lord brought us I thank him that he brought us the Robins Brook because we were able to touch hearts while we were there God had a purpose for that there for us there once I had a cold and I couldn't not not have a hankie and I am I my sisters say why don't you ask the Lord for a handkerchief and I say I'm not gonna ask the Lord for a handkerchief when all these women are dying and being beaten I'm not going to do that but my sister she asked and then later that afternoon there came a knock on the window and I opened the window up and it was one of the my fellow prisoners and she said gave me a package and when I opened the package up it was handkerchief I say how did you know I needed any conscious she says I was working on the sheets in the hospital and the Lord said to me Corey needs handkerchiefs and so I brought them to you it was a little gift from the Lord because even the little things mattered to my Lord even a little things often time we would be at a rolecall this particular morning we were at a local at three o'clock in the morning and we would stand for hours and I began to look at the Stars and I say Lord you have named all the stars which you are forgotten Betsy and I and my Betsy said no God has not forgotten us he has promised to never leave or forsake us and he keeps his promises when he cannot trust our feelings they come and they go but the Word of God God's promises are steady God's promises kept us sane and that man-made health air input in the Ravens Baraka my sister she was weak ever since she was a child from a childhood illness and she could not do the work that the guards wanted her to do and often times they would beat her the other prisoners would hold me back but when I went to her to the dresser wounds she could see that there was hatred in my heart for the guards and my sister said no no you cannot hate them you must pray for them you must love them they need forgiveness my sister she loved them even though they beat her I prayed that my sister would be healed but one morning with each morning she became weaker and weaker and one morning she could not even walk we put her on the stretcher to take her to the hospital it took longer because the women loved her so they would stop and they would pray with her and we finally made it to the hospital I put the stretcher on them we put the stretcher on the floor as she was so weak she was whispering something and I bent down on my knees with her and she said Corrie we will be released before the new year and she said we must go and we must tell the world what we have learned here we must tell them that there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still she said they will hear us because we have experienced this on December the 16th 1944 my sister passed away I was devastated I had lost my companion but when I went to the Russian washroom to see her she laid there there was there was peace on her face she was young like she was back in Harlem it was like the Lord was saying she is with me and there even though I was grieving there was great comfort for me several days later my number 667 300 was called and I went over and stand in line with other women and I asked the young girl next to me she said what are we standing here for and she said death sentence and I say O Lord it is my time please give me the opportunity to share your good news with this young lady so I asked tiny I said tiny do you know of God and she said a little bit I said do you know the Lord Jesus she said no I said well we are all sinners and we cannot come into the presence of God but he sent her son the Lord Jesus Christ to come to this earth to die on the cross and he rose again he he died on the cross for your sins and for my sins and if we believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ we will be with him forever then I look at Kylie and she bowed her head and she received the Lord I praise God for that and then everyone was called away and there was just me and the guard said to me Tim boom Cornelia come I was shocked it was the first time I had heard my name in so long and I followed this girl to the administration building I stood in line and when I came up to the desk the man snapped a piece of paper and he gave it to me and it's released many years later I found out it was a clerical error a blunder of man but I tell you it was a miracle for one week late that all the women my age were killed for God had a purpose for me a reason for me when I was standing at the gates waiting to go out there was one of my sisters said to me she said tiny she died this morning and I praise God that she died with Jesus on her lips and I thank God that he brought us to Robyn's Brook to come and share the gospel with these women I was able to make my way to the train station and I was able to go across the border into Holland now Holland was still occupied by the Nazis they had devastated the land 20,000 Dutch people died of starvation it was hunger winter many survived by eating tulip bulbs I made my way to a nursing home and they took such beautiful care of me they gave me simple food to eat they endure a bath a long bath and they brushed my hair out and then they gave me a room with white sheets clean white sheets there in colour so much colour I could hardly take it in and as I lay there I I heard the bells in the distance ringing and I heard people singing and I began to weep because no longer were was anyone angry with me but they gave they talked to me with kind words when I was well enough to leave I made my way back to Harlem and I walked into the bay a so many things were taken watches clocks but they still my father's portrait was still there his chair the dining room table and and the the my piano but there came a grief in my heart my my sister was gone my father was gone my brother William was dying of illness he contracted while he was in prison later will you find out that his son died in concentration camp but then I remembered that they were now seeing colors so more pure music so much purer they were face to face with their Lord Jesus and even though I was grieving there was a joy in my heart I wanted to get involved in the Dutch underground again but they they said no the Gestapo is watching you and we can't we can't let that happen so I opened up the bay a watch shop and I began to take in the mentally handicapped children for the Nazis would take them and do experiments cruel experiments on them they did not think they were worthy to live it was on May 5th 1945 that can Canada liberated us I still remember we made our way to our church building and we were there it was full of people and we were singing praises and praying and thanking the Lord and we had a minute of silence to remember those who lost their life during this time and they still do that to this day I still remembered that the stained-glass window the Sun coming through and the beautiful colors I praise God for that time and the last thing we did was to sing our national anthem we had not sung it in so many years and we cried when we sang it I remember when I were still in the Robins brook with Betsy and she woke me up one night and she said the Lord has given me three vision for three mish ministries if she says one will be for the the the German people they will be devastated and we need to minister to them and love them the second will be for the Dutch survivors of the continent Racing camp they will need some help and we will minister to them and loved them and she said the third will be for the world we must go and we must tell everyone what we have seen here what we have experienced here and they will listen to us they will hear us but the first ministry to the Germans they gave us a concentration camp we tore down the bobbed water fences and plane painted the houses of beautiful bright colors and painted fly and planted flowers and ministered to them and many hearts were changed through that ministry there and then in Holland that woman gave us her mansion to help with the Dutch survivors of the concentration camp and as I walked through this house it was exactly as Betsy health had said right down to the particle floors and there are we ministered to those people and that summer I wrote my first book a prisoner and yet and because of that book I traveled the world over twice and to speak to whoever would listen to me to share about the love and the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ one of my favorite places to go to was in the Russia I had had worked with Bertha Andrew and I was smuggling Bibles into Russia and I had Bibles in a big red suitcase and I was waiting at the customs place and I saw that the customs officers were going through all these suitcases and there came a great fear in my heart and then I said Lord you must send their angels to watch over your world to bring it into the Russian people and then I saw an angel appear of top of my suitcase and then he was gone but then so was my feelings when the custom officer came to me he said this is big suitcase I see yes he said big suitcase for an old lady like you I said yes he said well I have a break I'll carry out to the your car for you I wanted to shout hallelujah but I did not another time I was in the Russia speak to a young girl in the park and she was frightened to talk there and I said well let's go back to my hotel room and we can talk there she said oh no that is the most dangerous place because they have hidden microphones in the room and they tape what you say and they pass it from official to official to official so I went back to my hotel room and I said on the bed I said Laura you have brought me to Russia but I cannot speak to the people I said Lord you must make a way for me to speak to them and then I noticed on the on the floor there was something like a pepero box and then when I got down closer and opened it up it was a hidden microphone so I began to give them little sermon I said you Russians have problems coming to every all men sin and death but I hold in my hand a book called the Bible it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ who came to this earth to die for your sins and for my sins and he rose again and if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you will be with him forever for eternity he take your sins and he cast them into the deepest sea and the Bible does not say it but I say he puts a sign up that says no fishing is allowed every morning I get up and I I get on my knees and I preach little sermon to them hallelujah what a joy and they pass it from official to official to official I praise God for that once I was in Russia in in Germany and there and after I finished the talk there came down the aisle a very tall German man and I recognized him he was one of the cruelest guards at the ravensbrück who has been especially cruel to my sister and there came a hatred in my heart for him and he came to me he said Fraulein Tim Tim boom you mentioned the Robbins Brook he said I was a guard at ravensbrück I said yes I know he says phrallan Tim boom I have asked the Lord to save me and forgive me for my sins and he has forgiven me and I'm a Christian but I have asked him if he will give me one of my victims that I might ask their forgiveness he said Fraulein Tim boom will you forgive me now there came such hatred in my heart I could not forgive this man after he treated my sister the way he did but then I remembered Romans 5:5 for the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us and I thank God that his love is greater than my hatred and my bitterness and I say Lord all I can do is lift my hand you will have to forgive him through me and the minute our hands touched I say brother I forgive you with all my heart and I mean it I tell you when you learn to forgive you tap into the ocean of God's love as you have never experienced before my life is like a weaving between my Lord than me I do not choose the colors that he worketh steadily of time II weave a sorrow and I and foolish bride forget he sees the upper and I the underside not till the loom is silent and the shuttle ceased to fly with God unroll the canvas and explain explain the reason why the doctor's orders needful in the skill was Weaver's hands as the threads in gold and silver in the pattern he has planned our God does not have problems with our life he has plans we are living in very difficult times when we look at the world we become distressed when we look within we become deeper dispersed but when we look to Jesus could be at rest with Jesus even in those darkest moments the best remains and the best is yet to be Shalom my friends do you know what Shalom means it means God's peace and I pray for you God's peace this day this difficult day that you will know the peace that passes all understanding shallow my friends shallow in August of 1978 Corrie ten Boom suffered her first major stroke and lost most of her ability to communicate as she once did she suffered a second stroke in May of 1979 and another in October 1980 the last five years of her life were silenced but her eyes still spoke of her love for her Lord Jesus Christ on April 15 1983 her closest friends were with her to quietly celebrate her 91st birthday that evening about 11:00 p.m. the best had come for Corrie ten Boom Corrie went home to be with her Lord in Jewish tradition they say that only very blessed people are allowed the special privilege of dying on their birthday Papa had always reminded his children when Jesus takes your hand he keeps it tight when he keeps it tight he leads you through life and when he leads you through life he brings you home safely Corrie ten Boom is safe at home her gravestone simply reads Jesus is the victor Corrie ten Boom 1892 to 1983

Channel: Answers in Genesis

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Length: 44min 12sec (2652 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 24 2020