The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
Week 1: Introduction & Background — The Beje and the Ten Boom Family
Read the Preface and Chapter 1 of The Hiding Place. Key Scripture: Psalm 46:1 — "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."
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Before Corrie ten Boom became a prisoner, she was a daughter, a sister, and a watchmaker — and the world she grew up in shaped everything that followed. Take a moment to consider how your own family and early life have formed the person you are today.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.The ten Boom home — the Beje — is described as a place of warmth, hospitality, and faithful Christian practice. What specific details stand out to you about how the family lived? What rhythms of faith had Casper ten Boom built into family life?
2.Casper ten Boom is one of the great quiet heroes of the book. What kind of man does he appear to be in these early pages, and how does his character foreshadow the choices the family will make later?
3.The ten Booms had a long history of friendship with the Jewish community in Haarlem, rooted in their reading of the Old Testament and their love for God's chosen people. How does that theological conviction differ from mere political sympathy — and why does the difference matter?
a.Where does your own care for others come from — obligation, compassion, or something deeper?
b.How might a stronger rootedness in Scripture change the way you see and respond to people who are suffering?
4.Corrie reflects on her childhood and early adulthood with a kind of tender clarity. What do you learn about her own personality and inner life in these opening pages? What are her longings, her insecurities, her gifts?
5.The Beje was not a grand estate but a cramped, oddly-shaped house above a watch shop. Yet it became a place of extraordinary refuge. What does this suggest about the relationship between ordinary faithfulness and extraordinary courage?
6.Think about the concept of a "hiding place." The title of the book is drawn from Psalm 119:114 — "You are my hiding place and my shield." How does the physical hiding place the ten Booms built point toward the spiritual hiding place Corrie discovered? What does it mean to God to be a hiding place?
7.If you had been a neighbor or acquaintance of the ten Boom family in 1940 as the Nazis occupied Holland, what do you think you would have done? What would have made obedience hardest for you?
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for the gift of families and homes where faith is practiced and love is lived out in ordinary days. We confess that we often take the safety and warmth of our own lives for granted, forgetting that everything we have comes from Your hand. As we begin Corrie's story, open our eyes to see the ways You have been preparing us — through our families, our failures, and our faith — for the moments of obedience You are calling us toward. Be our hiding place, our refuge and strength, even now. Amen.
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