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Peter van Woerden (ten Boom): The forgotten story.


Have you ever felt you have made a sacrifice for God, but didn’t see the immediate outcome? For most of us, we obey God, not because of what we think might happen, but because we know that’s what God wants us to do. That’s the attitude of young Peter ten Boom. He was the nephew of Corrie ten Boom, the woman who achieved fame for helping to hide Jewish people during World War II. The ten Boom house, a short ride from Amsterdam in the Netherlands, became a safe house to which Jewish refugees could escape from the Nazis.

 

When Dutch patriots learned that the dreaded SS troops were systematically raiding the orphanages and taking Jewish children, then sending them to their deaths in the concentration camps of Europe, brave Dutch men impersonated SS officers at the risk of their lives, raided the orphanages, and took the Jewish babies to the ten Boom house. Then the babies were sent to safe houses and farms where non-Jewish Dutch citizens adopted them as their own. Only God knows how many children were saved, but their numbers were in the hundreds before the Germans finally raided the ten Boom home and sent members of the family to prison. At about the same time, Peter too was arrested and sent to prison. He was only sixteen years old.

 

Although many of his family members died, Peter survived the ordeal under the Nazis, and after the war, he went throughout the world with the same message as his famous Aunt Corrie: Forgiveness is the only answer to hatred that never dies.

 

Many years later, while Peter was on a speaking tour in Israel, he had a heart attack. Going home was out of the question. Immediate surgery was needed to save his life. As the cardiologist chatted with Peter before the operation, he said, “I see your name is ten Boom. Hmm. Are you by any chance related to the ten Booms of Holland?”

 

“Yes,” Peter replied. “That is my family.”

 

The doctor got excited. “And I am one of the babies that your family saved!”

 

At that moment, God pulled back the curtain on His mysterious ways and showed Peter ten Boom just a sliver of what Peter had accomplished by obeying God even when it nearly cost him his life! Now Peter’s life was being saved by the very person he had had a part in saving years ago! What an encouraging moment of faith!

 

You too will find moments of faith to encourage your walk with God. Perhaps the encouragement will come from the way God works out circumstances, how He answers prayer, or how He protects you in the midst of trouble. These really are special moments in our Christian life. We can remember them and treasure them forever.

 

I encourage you to keep a journal of the moments of faith that encourage you and spur you on.  When you are discouraged, look back and thank God for what He has done in your life.

 

By Vonette Bright

 

©2025 Copyright Bright Media Foundation

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