Chapter 26 · 7 min read
Appendix B: Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Reflection Guide
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.”
— James 1:22, ASV
This guide is for personal reflection, small groups, or a reading course of about twenty weeks. Its purpose is not to make Corrie ten Boom an object of admiration, but to let her life hold up a mirror in which readers can examine their own discipleship under Scripture. Groups may find it helpful to begin each session with the chapter’s opening verse and to end with prayer.
Chapter 1 - The Beje
Central idea
A century of small faithfulness in a Haarlem watch shop, including a weekly prayer for Jerusalem begun in 1844, prepared the family for a test they could not foresee.
Scriptures to revisit
Psalm 122; Matthew 5:10; Luke 16:10.
Reflection
1. What do we pray for every week? 2. Whom do we make room for? 3. What small faithfulness are we building now?
Chapter 2 - A Father Among the Watches
Central idea
Casper ten Boom’s settled love for “God’s ancient people,” drawn from Scripture, was lived in ordinary courtesies long before it became dangerous.
Scriptures to revisit
Genesis 12:1-3; Romans 9:4-5; Romans 11:1-2, 29; 1 Peter 2:17; Philippians 1:21.
Reflection
1. Which of our convictions would we be willing to wear on our sleeve? 2. How do we speak of and treat the Jewish people?
Chapter 3 - The Youngest Daughter
Central idea
Loss of a mother and of a hoped-for marriage shaped Corrie deeply; her father taught her to let blocked love find another way.
Scriptures to revisit
Psalm 68:6; Isaiah 54:1; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.
Reflection
1. Is there a blocked love or disappointment in your life? 2. Have you killed it, or asked God to redirect it?
Chapter 4 - The First Woman Watchmaker
Central idea
Twenty years of patient, precise work formed habits the underground would need, and made a shop into the perfect cover.
Scriptures to revisit
Luke 16:10; Colossians 3:23; Proverbs 22:29.
Reflection
1. How do you regard ordinary work? 2. Is it a waiting room, or a workshop where God forms you?
Chapter 5 - Clubs, Children, and the Least of These
Central idea
Girls’ clubs, classes for disabled people, and foster children were quiet works that turned out to be preparation.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Who are the least in your community? 2. What habits of love are you forming in quiet years?
Chapter 6 - May 1940
Central idea
The occupation crept in step by step, and at each step it was easier to comply than to resist.
Scriptures to revisit
Esther 4:12-16; Proverbs 31:8-9.
Reflection
1. Where is it easier for you to comply than to speak? 2. Where might you have been placed for such a time as this?
Chapter 7 - The First Knock
Central idea
The rescue work began one frightened person at a time, until the Beje became a hub of the underground.
Scriptures to revisit
Proverbs 24:11-12; Hebrews 13:1-3.
Reflection
1. Who is the next person God might send to your door? 2. What keeps you from opening it?
Chapter 8 - Ration Cards and Lies
Central idea
Hiding people required ration cards, false papers, and deception, and Christians, including the ten Booms, disagreed about lying.
Scriptures to revisit
Exodus 1:15-21; Joshua 2; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25; Acts 5:29; Romans 14:5.
Reflection
1. How do you hold together truthfulness and the protection of the vulnerable? 2. How do you disagree with fellow Christians without breaking fellowship?
Chapter 9 - The Angels’ Crib
Central idea
The hiding place was built and drilled with a stopwatch, while the household lived with music, classes, and laughter.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Where do you need both practical preparation and joyful trust? 2. What is your final hiding place?
Chapter 10 - 28 February 1944
Central idea
The raid: the hiding place held, but the house did not protect those who built it, and not all six survived.
Scriptures to revisit
Psalm 91.
Reflection
1. How do you read Psalm 91 in the light of suffering? 2. What does God promise, and what does he not?
Chapter 11 - “Father Was Released”
Central idea
Casper’s death, and Corrie’s solitary confinement, where she found God near in loneliness.
Scriptures to revisit
Psalm 27; Genesis 5:24; Proverbs 12:10.
Reflection
1. Where have you found God near in loneliness? 2. How did Corrie speak to the man who interrogated her?
Chapter 12 - Vught
Central idea
Reunion with Betsie, the society against grumbling, the executions, and the embroidery lesson.
Scriptures to revisit
Isaiah 43:1-3; Philippians 2:14-15; John 21:18.
Reflection
1. What would it mean to see your present suffering as the underside of the embroidery? 2. What sorrows do you need to leave with God?
Chapter 13 - Barracks 28
Central idea
A hidden Bible, daily readings, the fleas story set beside the 1945 account, and thanksgiving in hell.
Scriptures to revisit
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; Hebrews 13:5.
Reflection
1. What would it look like to give thanks in your present trial? 2. Do you look for God’s hand in everything?
Chapter 14 - The Bottle That Did Not Fail
Central idea
The vitamin bottle, told already in 1945, and the moral danger of selfishness in the camp.
Scriptures to revisit
1 Kings 17:8-16; Luke 4:25-26; Philippians 2:4.
Reflection
1. Where is the “Ravensbrück that destroys” at work in you? 2. What could you give out of your poverty?
Chapter 15 - Betsie
Central idea
Betsie’s serenity, her plans, her illness and death, and the saying “no pit so deep.”
Scriptures to revisit
Psalm 139:7-12; Job 1:10, 21; 1 Corinthians 15.
Reflection
1. Who has been a hiding place for you? 2. How does your faith face death?
Chapter 16 - Entlassen
Central idea
The punishment roll-call, a week in the hospital barracks, release, the journey home, and the “clerical error” weighed.
Scriptures to revisit
Psalm 124.
Reflection
1. How do you give thanks for deliverances whose causes you do not understand?
Chapter 17 - A Letter to the Informer
Central idea
Liberation, pity for women whose heads were being shaved, and a letter of forgiveness written in June 1945.
Scriptures to revisit
Matthew 5:43-48; Romans 5:10; Romans 12:17-21; Ephesians 4:32.
Reflection
1. Is there someone you need to forgive before you feel like it? 2. Could you write the letter?
Chapter 18 - Homes for the Broken
Central idea
Bloemendaal, Darmstadt, and preaching to former guards: answering evil with good.
Scriptures to revisit
Reflection
1. Whom do you avoid because of wrongs done to you or yours? 2. What good could you do instead?
Chapter 19 - The Hand in Munich
Central idea
The famous handshake, told as her own later memory: forgiveness given by God when she could not give it.
Scriptures to revisit
Romans 5:5-10; Matthew 18:21-35.
Reflection
1. Whom do you find impossible to forgive? 2. Will you tell God so, and ask for his love?
Chapter 20 - Sixty Countries
Central idea
Thirty years of travel, “Jesus is Victor,” The Hiding Place, honours, and the controversies.
Scriptures to revisit
2 Timothy 4:1-8; Colossians 2:15.
Reflection
1. What have you seen of God’s faithfulness? 2. Whom are you telling?
Chapter 21 - The Five Silent Years
Central idea
Strokes, silence, and being carried, echoing her mother’s last years.
Scriptures to revisit
Isaiah 46:3-4; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.
Reflection
1. How do you face the prospect of helplessness? 2. How can those years still be a witness?
Chapter 22 - The Legacy of Corrie ten Boom
Central idea
The museum, the Righteous Among the Nations, ordinary people, and the two hiding places.
Scriptures to revisit
Isaiah 32:1-2; Psalm 119:114; Hebrews 11.
Reflection
1. Where have you found your hiding place? 2. For whom could you be a shelter from the storm?
Chapter 26 complete
Appendix B: Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Reflection Guide