Keeping Alive the Corrie ten Boom Tradition of Care

The Corrie ten Boom Fellowship and its sister organization, The Corrie ten Boom Foundation of Holland, are also charged with carrying forth the vision of the ten Boom Family. Specifically, that vision is to care for and protect the Jewish people and to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, which was a 100-year weekly tradition in the ten Boom household.

The ten Boom family were devoted Christians who dedicated their lives in service to their fellow man. Their home was always an “open house” for anyone in need. During the Second World War, the ten Boom Hiding Place home became a refuge, a hiding place, for fugitives and those hunted by the Nazis. Like the famed Oscar Schindler, the ten Booms were instrumental in saving nearly 800 Jews from the Nazi death camps, and were imprisoned themselves for their efforts. Life in the camp was almost unbearable, but Corrie and her sister, Betsie, spent their time sharing Jesus’ love with their fellow prisoners. Many women became Christians in that terrible place because of Corrie and Betsie’s witness to them. Four members of the ten Boom family gave their lives for the family’s commitment, but Corrie came home from the death camp. She realized her life was a gift from God, and she needed to share what she and Betsy had learned in Ravensbruck. At age 53, Corrie began a worldwide ministry that took her into more than 60 countries in the next 32 years.
The Jerusalem Prayer Team is a direct outreach of the Corrie ten Boom Fellowship. The family ten Boom started a weekly prayer meeting for the Jewish people in 1844, after a moving worship service in the Dutch Reformed Church of Rev. Witteveen. Willem ten Boom felt the need to pray for the Jewish people, so he started the weekly prayer meeting where the family and others who stopped by specifically prayed for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). These meetings took place every week for one hundred years, until February 28, 1944, when Nazi soldiers came to the house to take them away for helping local Jews and hiding them in a secret room. On that day, the family was together for a Bible study and prayer meeting. Following the tradition of the ten Boom family in the ten Boom Hiding Place, Jerusalem Prayer Team continues to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and encourages Christians to exercise their faith by helping the Jewish people – God’s ancient people.