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Reliving the Hiding Place: Persecution Continues in 2013

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Regent University - Hiding PlaceThis July my wife, Lea, and I visited Haarlem, The Netherlands, where the Christian family, the ten Booms, ran a watch store as a front for a safe haven for Jews and the Dutch resistance during World War II. Willem ten Boom opened their shop in 1837, and his son, Casper (1859-1944), celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1937, three years before the German invasion of the Netherlands.

Casper’s love of the Jewish people began early when he joined his father’s weekly prayer meeting, begun in 1844, to intercede for God’s chosen people. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews for deportation, it was easy for Casper to open his home as a hiding place for Jews escaping from the Holocaust. His daughters Corrie and Betsie and son, Willem, helped organize the dangerous and complicated process of receiving, hiding, feeding and processing Jews and Dutch resisters. Their courageous ministry ended when a local citizen betrayed them to the Nazis.

When Betsie sounded the secret buzzer just before the officials invaded their home, four Jews and two resistance fighters were able to hide in the 8-by-2.5-foot space behind a brick wall in Corrie’s tiny bedroom. People had to crawl through a small opening at the bottom of the linen closet to access the hiding place. The Germans never found the hiding place, and the six were able to escape from the house. Four of the six survived the war. But most of the ten Boom family did not.Regent University - linen closet

Their story is told in the book by Corrie titled “The Hiding Place.” Billy Graham’s World Wide Pictures made the book into a movie by the same title in 1975. Corrie survived the war and began a ministry that lasted 33 years. She died at the age of 91 in 1983.

God’s children continue to suffer similar persecution in places such as Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, India and elsewhere. Christians are not allowed to express their faith. Non-Christians, especially Muslims, are forbidden from accepting Christ as savior. For example, we have just learned from this source that Pastor Robert Asseryan of Iran has been freed after 43 days of captivity, provided he not discuss his imprisonment. Pray for Christians in Nigeria where many churches have been burned and believers martyred for their faith. The Christian Broadcast Network reports here that more than 900 Christians were murdered in 2012 by the Islamist group Boko Haram. There was no hiding place for these believers.


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