The Hiding Place

Cathi and Micah, standing in the Hiding Place



Micah, at the entrance to the Hiding Place


Dear Family and Friends,

After 30 hours of travel, with every flight delayed and one case of motion sickness (thank goodness for barf bags!), we are home safely.

The highlights of our time in Amsterdam were many. The Anne Frank House was so sad, yet inspiring. We repeated our bike trip to the cheese factory/shoe factory. The day was beautiful and the group was fun.

The most meaningful experience was our visit to the Corrie ten Boom Museum in Haarlem. We took the train to this charming little town. The guide told Corrie ten Boom’s story so beautifully in English and Dutch. The ten Booms were a Christian family living in the Netherlands during WWII. They offered refuge for those escaping from the Nazis. They were leaders of an underground organization that provided "safe houses" for Jews and others on their way to locations outside of Haarlem. A small secret room (the Hiding Place) had been added to Corrie's bedroom to hide people in case their house was raided.


We sat in Tante (Aunt) Jan’s room (this is a sitting room directly above the family watch shop) along with about 25 others from all over the world, including an elderly Jewish couple from Israel. We all went upstairs to see the actual hiding place. The guide asked 6 of us to step inside. Micah and I quickly volunteered along with 3 women. We climbed through a hole in the brick wall. The 6th person to join us was the Jewish man. The space was claustrophobic even with the hole in the wall. The people who actually hid in the Hiding Place entered through a 3’ x 2’ opening in the bottom of the linen closet. (Micah is sitting in front of the opening in the photo above.) It had a weighted door that slid down to cover the opening. At the time of the arrest of the ten Booms, there were 6 people who quickly dashed to the Hiding Place. They were in the Hiding Place for 2½ days. I shudder just to think of it. They had no water and just a few biscuits. All six survived their time in hiding. The ten Booms were taken to prison and then to a concentration camp.

“There is no pit so deep that he is not deeper still.” This was Corrie’s message to the world. I just finished reading “The Hiding Place.” Such suffering, but so inspiring. Many times, Corrie described her love for Jesus, and His power to do things that she just could not. As an international speaker, who talked about forgiveness, she met up with one of her former SS guards who asked for her forgiveness. She just could not bring herself to forgive, however she prayed, “Jesus I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.” As she prayed these words, she felt Jesus’ love for this man that almost overwhelmed her. She wrote, “And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When he tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself."

There are many "Corrie ten Booms" at Hope Children's Home. They have experienced pits so deep that we cannot even comprehend and yet they know the presence of God in such real ways. Their love and joy come from knowing Jesus and his love.

Thank you for joining us on this journey. Your comments and emails have meant so much.

Grace and Peace,
Cathi