Corrie Ten Boom's Hiding Place

Since you asked to see these photos, I'm putting them on the blog. In July 2003 I had the opportunity to travel to Haarlem, Holland, where Corrie Ten Boom lived with her father, Casper and her sister, Betsie. The house (left) is now a museum and the watch shop is still in operation today. The Ten Boom family, under the leadership of Casper, risked their own safety to harbor Jewish refugees during World War II. Their living room sits atop the watch shop with the dining room and kitchen behind. The rest of the house winds around and up behind those rooms. No architectural changes have been made since they lived there.

Here is their dining room window. If you remember the story, they would put the small, red, triangular Alpina Watch sign up as a signal that it was safe for Jews to enter the house. You can see it perched on the middle of the sill.

The Hiding Place was created behind a fake brick wall in Corrie's bedroom. It is approximately 6-feet wide and not even 2-feet deep. 6 people could fit uncomfortably inside this compartment. In order to enter the Hiding Place we were instructed to lie face-down on the floor with our feet toward the closet to the left. Then we had to back into the space and stand up as quickly and quietly as possible. It was a challenge! You can see that some bricks have been taken out of the space and plaques in different languages are hung with prayers for God's people written on them.

Summary of September 22 Care Group

We met at the DeVivo's home and started the evening with a warm cherry crisp and banana bread brought all the way from Butler by Debbie and Eric. We sang about "How Deep" the love, mercy and grace of Christ are in our lives. From our discussion questions on the Paul Tripp CDs we talked about how none of our lives has gone according to our own plan. God leads us to places and circumstances where we don't want to go in order to accomplish in us what could not be done any other way. His loving purpose in our lives is our sanctification and He accomplishes just that as he "turns up the heat" in our lives and purifies us from our 'ore'-ific state into the likeness of His Son. We discussed how we must trust God's timing with our lives and not question His infinite wisdom.

Maria shared the analogy of the tapestry from Corrie Ten Boom. She said that our lives are a beautifully woven tapestry that, if only viewed from earth, resembles the underside of any embroidered piece with knots, frays, and loose strings. The design is usually unrecognizable from the underside. But when the piece is turned right-side-up we can see the beautiful design from the correct point of view, as we will see our lives from heaven. Only then will we understand all of our "knots, frays, and loose strings" that can baffle us in this earth-life.

Can you relate to some of those knots and loose strings?

And one day we will see...

Summary of September 8 Care Group

We met at the DeVivo's home and began the evening with warm apple crisp lovingly prepared by Cheryl. After a short time of fellowship and singing "I Will Glory in My Redeemer," we discussed how we can be used more effectively in our daily lives for God's glory to share the Gospel and serve the brethren in our church. Tony reminded us of the scripture verse that Cheryl shared with us last month from Psalm 9:10 "And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you." We agreed that it is imperative to put our trust in our God for every situation in life, both those that we face and those that we see our dear friends facing. We also talked about living with a view toward heaven. Wade shared that there aren't many things on this earth that have much allure for him these days. We talked about how to practically live here on earth while preparing to be with our Lord in heaven someday.
Then we took some time to share individual concerns and struggles. We are growing as a caring, redemptive community of believers who want to hold each other accountable, help each other to grow in holiness, and encourage each other to love Him more and more. Thanks everyone for a beautiful time of true fellowship!