Amy Carmichael

Travel is part of our modern day lives. Whether we take a weekend in Europe or a fortnight in the States, the opportunities to fly and cruise around the world are almost overwhelming. When you stand in an airport and check your flight on the departure board, you see the multitude of destinations also on offer to explore the world. So that makes Amy Carmichael’s story, over 150 years ago even more interesting. Travel back in time (pardon the pun) and you will see a courageous young woman determined to leave Northern Ireland to take the long, arduous journey to India, and never return to her birthplace.

Amy Carmichael was born on 16th December 1867 in the County Down seaside village of Millisle but her influence would extend beyond the Irish Sea shores to many countries and indeed, beyond her lifetime. 

Amy was the oldest of seven children, born to David and Catherine Carmichael. During her time at boarding school in England, while thinking about the hymn Jesus Loves Me, Amy realised that she could not rely on her parents’ beliefs but needed to experience “the mercy of the Good Shepherd.” She gave her life to the Lord Jesus and committed to sharing her faith with others.

The Carmichael family moved to Belfast in the mid-1880s. Amy started a Sunday morning class for the shawlies (mill girls who wore shawls instead of hats). These young women worked in poor conditions and received little pay.

Amy brought them to the church services and as more girls came she decided to purchase a tin building to hold the large numbers. She called it the Welcome Hall and made it a meeting place for the shawlies. That hall became the Welcome Evangelical Church, which has become a thriving part of Christian ministry in the Woodvale area of west Belfast.

Initially, Amy’s attempts to get on the mission field didn’t go to plan. Barely five-foot tall she also suffered from neuralgia, a condition that caused shooting pain and headaches. She was rejected for work in China. She didn’t let this stop her and applied for work in Japan and Sri Lanka. She left for India at the age of 27, around the turn of the 20th Century.

In 1898, Amy passed her exam in Tamil, the local language in the region of India where she lived. Two years later, Amy moved to Dohnavur, a Christian village. The first girl whom Amy adopted from slavery in a local temple, Preena, arrived at Dohnavur. Amy became like Preena’s mother and would go on to become like a mother to many more orphaned Indian children, many of whom she rescued from slavery.

In 1901, she set up the Dohnavur Fellowship to provide a safe home for young girls and women sold as slaves to the Hindu temple priests. The organisation still exists today providing care and education for around 120 children as well as 60 senior citizens. Those that grew up in Dohnavur stay on to look after the next generation so there are currently between 250 and 300 people in the family, as they like to refer to the residents.

In 1931, while touring a medical clinic that was being built, Amy fell into a hole and was severely injured. She never recovered full physical mobility, but from her bed she wrote many books that are still widely available today, such as If, A Rose from Brier, and Candles in the Dark.

The compassion Amy had for the Indian children meant that she never returned to Northern Ireland again and died in India on 18th January 1951. Amy was buried in the garden at Dohnavur. Her grave is marked by a stone bird table inscribed with the word “Amma,” which means “Mother.”

On 16th December 2017, marking exactly 150 years since Amy’s birth, a bronze sculpture was unveiled outside Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church in Bangor. The sculpture celebrates the childhood beginnings and the spiritual inspiration that helped inform Amy's young heart. It portrays Amy in the tenth year of her life looking out from below her hat towards a purposed future that would be filled with devotion to others, a serving life, a giving heart that would impact generations of children to come.

In the sculpture, Amy is holding her diary where she recorded her dreams, her hopes, her future. Because of Amy Carmichael's vision and incredible courage, countless children were given the hope of a new beginning and they were given a future.

Amy is an inspiration to those who want to serve God in other parts of the world. Her tireless obedience to God’s call remains as new generations read her writings and the work that continues through the Dohnavur Fellowship today.

“One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving.” 

Harriet Tubman

Many of the people of faith that have gone before us can inspire us by the words they leave behind in books. We get a feel for their heart, the trials they faced and their unwavering faith in God as we read pages and pages about their journey. Harriet Tubman never wrote books, in fact, she could neither read nor write, she was illiterate. Yet it is her actions during the course of her 90 odd years of life on earth that make her a remarkable woman of faith and courage. 

One of nine children, Araminta ‘Minty” Ross was born around 1820 in Maryland in the United States, a state which is a two hour drive from New York City. It was not a normal childhood, rather than go to school, she was born enslaved, something quite hard for us to imagine in 2024. Around the age of six, Minty was separated from both her parents and was made to work as a housemaid. That early separation, understandably, brought an emotional pain and one which she took risks in order to be united with her family again.

She later changed her name to Harriet, her mother’s name. During her years in slavery, Harriet resisted. However, when she finally got her freedom, the thought of her fellow family and others stuck in slavery motivated her to go back and try and release them, often at great personal danger. The idea that if you are saved, you should save others, as we know spiritually, obviously meant a lot to Harriet too.

“If a person would send another into bondage, he would, it appears to me, be bad enough to send him into hell if he could.”

“My home, after all, was down in Maryland, because my father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were there. But I was free, and they should be free.”

Harriet’s faith came from being a part of a dynamic church culture that gave her a firm faith in Christ:

“God's time is always near. He set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free.”

She often had vivid dreams and these were her feelings when she first escaped slavery:

“When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.”

Quotes that we have from Harriet speak of the heart of her prayers for others and of her unquenching faith that God was with her as she made dangerous and long journeys on foot, to free others.

“I said to the Lord, I’m going to hold steady on to you, and I know you will see me through and I prayed to God to make me strong and able to fight, and that's what I've always prayed for ever since." 

“Oh, Lord! You’ve been with me in six troubles, don’t desert me in the seventh!”

Harriet was widely known in America, her main legacy is as a conductor of the Underground Railroad. Now before you think of a London tube style railway line - think again!

The Underground Railroad was not located underground nor was it a railroad - it was a loosely organised network of connections with no clear defined routes. They provided safehouses and transportation to aid slaves to freedom. There were code words and people were known as passengers. Harriet was never caught and never lost a “passenger.” It is estimated that she saved around 300 people from slavery making around 19 trips south over a period of 11 years.

“We was the fools, and they was the wise men; but we wasn't fools enough to go down the high road in the broad daylight." 

A movie released in 2019, Harriet, is worth watching to give you a fuller flavour of Harriet as an incredibly courageous woman - and of her unique accent. So read these quotes aloud and no, we haven’t made any spelling mistakes - 

"From Christmas till March I worked as I could, and I prayed through all the long nights - I groaned and prayed for ole master: 'Oh Lord, convert master!' 'Oh Lord, change dat man's heart!' 'Pears like I prayed all the time.”

“Why, the language down there in the far South is just as different from ours in Maryland as you think. They laughed when they heard me talk and I couldn’t understand them no how.”

She was given an affectionate nickname, Moses, for being ‘the Moses of her people’ bringing them to the Promised ‘free’ land. 

In Ann Petry's book, Harriet Tubman, we find a remarkable skill Harriet possessed that showed her intelligence:

“It was as the storyteller, the bard, that Harriet's active years came to a close. She had never learned to read and write. She compensated for this by developing a memory on which was indelibly stamped everything she had ever heard or seen or experienced. She had a highly developed sense of the dramatic, a sense of the comic, and because in her early years she had memorised verses from the Bible, word for word, the surge and sway of the majestic rhythm of the King James version of the Bible was an integral part of her speech. It was these qualities that made her a superb storyteller.”

Harriet died in March 1913 and was buried with military honours at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York. From being full of faith in God, to triumphing over extraordinary difficulties with an immense amount of courage, Harriet is indeed someone that can inspire us in the 21st century to resist hate and love our neighbour, just as Jesus commands us to do. 

• Article researched with the aid of www.womenshistory.com and the books, Harriet Tubman by Ann Petry and Heroes of the faith by J. John. Most of the direct quotations used by biographers of Harriet Tubman are possible only because of Sarah Hopkins Bradford, a schoolteacher who lived in Auburn who first recorded them. 

Holocaust Memorial Day

I’ve not marked Holocaust Memorial Day before but tonight I will be lighting a candle at 8pm to #lightthedarkness. I knew of the atrocity of the Holocaust and Hilter’s ambition to rid the planet of Jews, but I never studied it properly in school or read much about it. That is until I bought Corrie ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place. Since then, and with the various lockdowns during the pandemic giving me more free time, I have read books about that dark period in our world’s history and also watched movies related to the second World War.

My fascination has not been in the cruelty of the Nazi Gestapo operation rather in the stories of courage and hope that saw people try and help others through a difficult and incomprehensible period.

Although not a Jew, Corrie and her family hid Jews out of their Christian compassion and Casper and Betsie ended up paying the ultimate sacrifice by losing their lives. Remarkably a survivor of Ravensbruck concentration camp, Corrie was able to share her story and in it, the disturbing and horrific treatment they received there. Almost one and a half million people died in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Over the course of WWII, six million Jews were killed. 

The mind cannot truly perceive the immensity of this and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust recognise this with their 2022 theme - One Day. They are encouraging people to focus in on one particular day in history and learn about that day. It was on 27 January 1945 that Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated and hence why today is chosen to remember and reflect.

Whilst I knew a little about the cruelty of concentration camps, I was less aware of the ghettos that were set up. It was only when researching Irena Sendler’s story of courage did I realise the brutality of life in enclosed spaces, not just in Warsaw but in many cities and towns across Poland and Eastern Europe. Living conditions were poor, food was scarce and Jews were dehumanised, locked in by walls and gates armed by guards 24/7. As a social worker, Irena tried her best to smuggle children out via various means but it was a risky business.

Might I suggest that you read one story - when you read one person’s account or story, it reminds you of the grief, the hurt and the loss their family would undergo and so I would encourage you to read something or even watch a movie to understand a little of the persecution of the Jews and how some people, despite the difficulties, had the courage to try and help.

Here are some suggestions:

Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place (book and film)

The courageous heart of Irena Sendler (film)

Irena’s Children by Tilar J Mazzeo (book)

Schindler’s List (film)

The Zookeeper’s Wife (film)

My family, the Holocaust and me Robert Rinder (BBC iPlayer)

Holocaust Memorial Day also remembers the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. Decades on, it is important for us to examine our attitude to others, how we treat them, which is best done in treating others the way we would like to be treated. Why not light a candle tonight at 8pm to #lightthedarkness.

You can also read my blog item on Oskar Schindler here.

Oskar Schindler

If you’ve watched the Steven Spielberg classic film, Schindlers List, then I expect you were moved by the courage shown by Oskar Schindler during the holocaust.

Although a member of the Nazi party, Oskar was a businessman that saw potential in the war to make money and, who through a series of circumstances, ended up bribing Nazi officials to save Jews from death in the concentration camps.

Unike Irena Sendler’s story of courage, Oskar’s tale is less obvious initially when he is fraternising with those punishing and killing Jews as depicted in the film as he buys Nazi officials drinks. It’s a hard watch and one I had to view in parts because the brutality was just too much to take in one sitting as it was well over three hours long.

The turning point came in March 1943 when Oskar witnessed the Kraków ghetto being liquidated and was appalled seeing hundreds of Jews murdered on the streets as they cleared out the ghetto. Those fit for work were sent to the new concentration camp at Płaszów.

Oskar bribed Amon Goth, the commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, and other officials, with money and goods from the black market. The famous ‘list’ refers to the list of names of Jewish people Oskar wanted to work in his enamelware factory in Kraków, thus saving them from the concentration camps. The list was typed up by Mietek Pemper, a Polish Jew who was Goth’s secretary.

He knew what he was trying to do was risky and he spent time in prison for kissing a Jewish girl and also for black marketeering.

When liberation finally came for the Jews, Oskar and his wife Emilie fled to West Germany and then moved onto Argentina. They separated and Oskar came back to Germany to live, after becoming bankrupt.

In a 1983 TV documentary, Oskar was quoted as saying,

I felt that the Jews were being destroyed. I had to help them, there was no choice.

Oskar died on 9 October 1974 and is the only former Nazi member to be buried in Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

In his final contact with the Jewish employees, they presented him with a ring inscribed with ‘Whoever saves one life saves the world entire’. Schindlerjuden refers to Schinder Jews and in 2012, there were estimated to be over 8,500 descendants living across the USA, Israel and other countries.

Oskar and his wife were named Righteous among the Nations in 1993. The film came out that same year winning seven Academy Awards in 1994 starring Liam Neeson as Oskar. Many of the survivors and the actors portraying them visit Schindler’s grave and place stones on its marker - the traditional Jewish sign of respect on visiting a grave - at the end of the film.

The German inscription on his grave reads, “The unforgettable Lifesaver of 1,200 persecuted Jews.”

Mary Ann McCracken

Mary Ann McCracken was born on 8th July 1770 in Belfast to Captain John McCracken, a Presbyterian of Scottish descent and a prominent shipowner and Ann Joy. The Joy family came from a French Protestant Huguenot descent, which made its money in the linen trade and founded the Belfast News Letter.

Mary Ann was given an education the same as her brother, not something every young girl was afforded in those days and she is said to have excelled in maths. This access to education was something Mary Ann valued and sought to aspire for other girls growing up in Belfast. From her earliest childhood she had worked to raise funds and provide clothes for the children of the Belfast Poorhouse, now known as Clifton House, Belfast. Henry and Robert Joy, her uncles, were founding members of the Society.

She established her own muslin business with her sister Margaret employed handloom weavers in their own homes and she was concerned for the working conditions of other employers in Belfast which was experiencing enormous industrial and social change:

Workers ought to be provided with warm coats and cloths so as to be protected against the evil effects of wet and cold, when going to and returning from their work. A very serious responsibility attaches to those who employ children.

Her brother Henry Joy was a leading member of the United Irishmen and in 1798, led combined forces in Antrim against the British Crown. Mary Ann was known to defy curfew to try and find her brother when he was in hiding following their defeat under his command. Henry Joy was arrested outside Carrickfergus, court-martialled and executed in Belfast.

Mary Ann had walked with her brother hand-in-hand to the gallows. General Nugent allowed the body to be cut down quickly and entrusted it to Mary Ann. She arranged for a surgeon to resuscitate her brother but their efforts proved unavailing.

She cared for her brother’s illegitimate daughter Maria after Henry Joy was executed - this would have been highly taboo at the time but the caring nature of Mary Ann shines through.

As treasurer and secretary of the ladies committee at the Poorhouse, Mary Ann and others lobbied the Gentlemen’s Committee on reform and improvements. They had a particular emphasis on hygiene, for example, dormitories were to be enlarged with no more than two children to a bed, bedding was to be regularly washed and personal hygiene to be examined daily and sound footwear to be provided in winter. At that time, many children would have been walking barefoot in Belfast. Sea bathing was also championed three times a week in the summer months. She campaigned for youngsters to be given candles and books so they could read at night.

She also fought to stop young children being made to work as chimney sweeps that was common at the time.

Living in an era when the suffragist movement had yet to begin, she encouraged other women to speak up and have an active role in decision making such as at the Poor House, understanding they see things that men would not. Her commitment to public service was based on strong Christian convictions. Her family were Presbyterian and attended the Rosemary Street Presbyterian Church in the city. 

Mary Ann supported the anti slavery movement and in protest, never took sugar in her tea, a product of the slave trade and the West Indies plantations. Even at the age of 89 could be seen handing out leaflets at Belfast’s ship yard warning people to be aware of the evils of slavery in America. She is known to have worn the famous Wedgewood brooches adorned with the slogan “am I not a man and brother”. In 1859 she wrote in a letter:

I am both ashamed and sorry to think that Belfast has so far degenerated in regard to the Anti-Slavery Cause.

She died at her home on Donegall Pass on 26 July 1866 and is buried in Clifton Street Cemetery. 

Mary Ann was a woman of courage at a time when women weren’t allowed to play big roles in society. She didn’t let that stop her and her quest for poor children to have access to an education and opportunities was admirable, knowing how much they would help them get out of the poverty trap they were in. She is an example for all those working to reduce poverty today. 

In May 2021, Belfast City Council announced they will erect a statue of Mary Ann McCracken on the grounds of City Hall.

I hope the present era will produce some women of sufficient talents to inspire the rest with a genuine love of liberty and a just sense of her value. For where it is understood it must be desired.

I therefore hope it is reserved for the Irish nation to strike out something new and to show an example of candour, generosity and justice superior to any that have gone before.

Quote from Mary Ann aged 26 years old

C.S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis was born on 29th November 1898 in the Strandtown area of East Belfast. The untimely death of his mother, Flora, in 1908 to cancer, was to change the course of his childhood. 

Jack, as he was affectionately known to friends, and his older brother Warren were sent to Wynyard School in England as their father, Albert, struggled to cope with the loss of his wife. Despite a brief spell at Campbell College in Belfast in 1910, Jack remained in England returning home only on school holidays to see his father and extended family. 

Despite a Christian upbringing in the St. Mark’s Church of Ireland in Dundela, it is well known that Lewis became an atheist at the age of 15. He served in the military during World War I but when wounded, returned to England and studied English and philosophy at Oxford. Lewis slowly re-embraced Christianity, influenced by arguments with his Oxford colleague and friend J. R. R. Tolkien, and he converted to Christ in 1931.

Lewis became a fellow and Tutor in English literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement due to ill health in August 1963. 

Despite the fact Lewis spent most of his life in England, his time in Northern Ireland was nonetheless influential. The landscapes of Counties Down and Antrim in particular are said to have been the main inspiration for Lewis’s best known novels, based on a land called Narnia. 

Living as I do so close to the Mourne Mountains, I can sense how Lewis imagined and had this vision of a place far away where it was “always winter”. When any snow falls, it becomes even more obvious with the forest and mountain tops creating the most white wonderland.

Published between 1950 and 1956, these have become childhood classics revered by adults who now read them to their children as well. Three of the seven Chronicles of Narnia were also made into films, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia distributed by Disney and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader released by 20th Century Fox in 2010. In all three movies, Aslan’s voice is the distinguished tones of Liam Neeson.

Aslan is Turkish for ‘lion’ and Lewis often capitalises the word lion in reference to Aslan since he created him to parallel Jesus.

I’ve chosen to feature Lewis on the blog, because of a quote I came across which featured in his book On stories which I believe tells a lot about his desire to tell stories and create characters to give children courage to face all that life can throw at them:

Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.

I can’t help but wonder was his desire to help other children anything to do with losing his mother at such a young age - he was only 10 when she died and so he faced the pain of separation from a parent. That would have been such a tumultuous experience, enough I’m sure for Lewis to want to help other children face difficulties in life such as he had.

Lewis, who was known as an apologetic Christian, was always trying to promote Christianity and make complex theology into everyday language by the use of story.

One of Aslan’s most famous and noticeable quotes is “Courage, dear heart,” from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (note, you will only find the quote in the book and not the film).  It’s the story of a grand quest, Lucy and the others are on a ship heading into dark, unknown waters.  Everyone is afraid, and they’re getting worried that Aslan has led them in the wrong direction.  

At one point in the midst of all the commotion on the boat, Lucy whispers, “Aslan… if ever you loved us, send help now.”  After she whispers this, Lewis writes: “The darkness did not grow any less, but she began to feel a little … better.” Then Lucy hears a gentle whisper in reply: “Courage, dear heart.”  And even though she cannot see him, she knows that Aslan is near.

Lewis wrote this knowing the words of Psalm 27 in the Bible: 

Wait on the Lord;

Be of good courage,

And He shall strengthen your heart;

Wait, I say, on the Lord! (NKJV)

In addition, Lewis wrote many other books, some which have become ‘Signature Classics’. Lewis was an advocate of the need for courage and in Mere Christianity, Lewis’s legendary radio broadcasts during World War II, wrote this:

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

Despite his talent with the written word, Lewis was by all means a modest man, another outward expression of his Christian faith. He gave away two-thirds of the money he earned and didn’t live the high celebrity lifestyle that some of his literary contemporaries now enjoy. Maybe post lockdown, I will one day visit the humble home the writer lived in, the Kilns in Oxford.

‘A Grief Observed’ was initially printed under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk as Lewis did not want anyone to know, until his death, as he was describing his emotions and feelings from losing his wife, Joy, whom he had only been married to for four years.

In a recent Pints with Jack podcast, Joy’s son Douglas Gresham recognised the courage his step father Jack had in dealing with the loss and putting pen to paper to express his feelings:

“He was suffering enormously but was very easily persuaded to help other people get through it too - that was the courage of the man.”

C.S. Lewis died on 22nd November 1963 with kidney failure, his death overshadowed by the assassination that day of American President J.F. Kennedy. Through his writings, Lewis’ legacy lives on in his books and the beloved Narnian characters whose courage to face fears continues to inspire generations of young readers.

WHY NOT… visit Kilbroney Park in Rostrevor and you can walk the short Narnia trail and meet the various characters Lewis created in his fantasy books.

Helen Keller

Born in Alabama in June 1880, Helen Keller was an American author, international speaker and campaigner. Which is all the more powerful considering she was both blind and deaf.

Helen was a bright young baby who learned to walk and was talking in her first year. However when she was 19 months old, she took a fever which left her unable to neither see nor hear. In her autobiography, The story of my life, she admits to being a wild child, frustrated because of her loss of senses and unable to communicate to those she loved. Her family sought a teacher to instruct and care for her. When Helen was 6 years old, Anne Sullivan, formerly blind herself, was assigned to work at Ivy Green, the Keller homestead. After some time, Anne managed to break through with Helen, fingerspelling words into her hands. She progressed to learn Braille and they worked together on Helen’s speech. 

Helen enrolled in Radcliffe College at the age of 20, aided by Anne, and she graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Helen devoted her life to working for the deaf and the blind, writing many books on this as well as her faith. Her book, How I Became a Socialist, was banned by the Nazis in Germany, because of their views on disabled people. Many copies would have been destroyed during the book burnings of 1933.

Anne and Helen had the most amazing teacher-student relationship and when Anne later married, Helen lived with them until Anne’s death in 1936.

Keller campaigned for those with disabilities, for women’s suffrage, labor rights, and world peace, visiting 35 countries from 1946 to 1957.

Many of her speeches and writings were about women's right to vote and the impacts of war; in addition, she supported causes that opposed military intervention. She had speech therapy in order to have her voice heard better by the public. Below are some extracts from speeches she gave, and where possible, the date and audience Helen spoke to:

“I want you to remember that blind children, and grown-up blind people, have feelings like you, and want the same things that you do. They want friends, they want to play, and they want to go to school and learn to be of some use in the world. Unless somebody helps them, they will be unhappy and discontented, just as you would be if nobody cared about you.”

“You have heard how I was taught how a little word dropped from the fingers of another, a ray of light from another soul touched the darkness of my mind, and I awoke to the sunshine and beauty of life. It was my teacher that gave me eyes and ears within my limitations, and opened the doors of opportunity and friendship for me.”
- Speech to Presbyterian Church in NYC advocating for the blind, December, 1930

“An organisation of women recently wanted to obtain a welfare measure from a legislature of New York. They took a petition signed by five thousand women to the chairman of the committee that was to report on the measure.  He said it was a good bill, and ought to pass. But nothing was heard of it. After the women had waited a reasonable time, they sent up a request to know what had become of the bill. The chairman said he did not remember anything about it. He was reminded that the bill had been brought to him signed by five thousand women. "O," replied the chairman, "a bill signed by five thousand women is not worth the paper it is written on. Get five men to sign it and we’ll do something about it.” That is one reason we demand the vote - we want five thousand women to count for more than five men!”

“Women's influence cannot be eliminated from the world-struggle any more than the stars can be blotted out from the heavens, or the sea wiped from the earth. In vision I see them playing great roles in the drama of the future. Down the stream of the years they keep coming on--the strong women--the mothers of new generations. From the mountains, the prairies and the dark sea they come on, pulling the men with them ! I call, "All hail” to them, and give deep thanks for the Strong Women who keep coming on.”
- Speech given by Helen Keller to the Twentieth Century Club in Washington, 1922

I am so often asked to bring a message of encouragement to the unfortunate, I fear I overstress the thought that suffering is important to our spiritual development. Through suffering we may grow strong and overcome difficulties that we should otherwise not have courage to encounter.
- Speech in Long Island, NY asking for donations to made to the Milk Fund for children January 31, 1933

Helen died on June 1st, 1968 in Connecticut, a few weeks short of her eighty-eighth birthday.

She won the admiration of the world and her admirers in America referred to her as ‘The World’s First Lady of Courage.’ In 2003, Alabama honoured its native daughter on its state quarter with the banner, ‘spirit of courage’. The Alabama state quarter is the only circulating US coin to feature braille.

Sometimes people would ask me, "What gives you the courage to go on?" I answered, "The Bible and poetry and philosophy." When they asked, "How do you feel when God seems to desert you?" I had to answer, "I never had that feeling."

Irena Sendler

Another recipient of the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem was Irena Sendler. Irena was born into a Catholic home on 15th February 1910 in Otwock, a town about 15 miles from Poland’s capital Warsaw. There was a Jewish community living there and her father, a doctor, treated many of them for free as they could not pay for his care. He died of typhus when Irena was only 7 years old. His influence, although brief in human years, was to last a lifetime. He had taught her to respect Jews and to help anyone that needed help.

Irena trained and was employed as a social worker for the Department of Social Welfare and Public Health of the City of Warsaw. Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 and in October 1940 began to segregate Jews into a 16-block area that came to be known as the Warsaw Ghetto. The Ghetto was sealed and the Jewish families ended up behind its walls, only to await certain death. It was estimated that in total, there were 1,000 ghettos set up all over Poland during World War II, Warsaw was by far the largest, holding around 440,000 Jews.

German commanders were afraid of a typhus epidemic spreading to their guards and so they allowed certain health workers into the Ghetto to manage the spread. Irena’s job gave her access, and in time she would use this to great advantage.

As she worked, she saw orphaned children beg on the streets, she heard of parents being taken away to work camps, she wondered what she could do to help the children survive. She knew the only way to guarantee their safety and their future was to get them out of the Ghetto.

She began working with the Polish Council for Aid of the Jews, Zegota, forging ID cards and finding Catholic homes for the children outside of the Ghetto. Then, along with others, she started smuggling them out. As with many things of that nature, they had to be careful, not to use the same methods over and over. Some were taken out in ambulances, babies were given a sedative and carried out in boxes, some children were moved via the sewers below and some via the Courthouse, which had one entrance into the Ghetto and another out the Aryan side of the city. 

Irena would approach parents with the offer of saving their children from the Ghetto. But it came with a cost. She couldn’t smuggle the parents out, so it would mean separation for an indefinite period of time. 

Take a moment to imagine how hard it was for mothers and fathers to send their children away.
To perhaps never see them again. It required a lot of courage on their behalf to let them go.

Many parents worried that they would lose their Jewish identity. To protect the children, Irena taught them to say the Lord’s Prayer and the sign of the cross in case any German guard would test them. 

Irena made a promise to the parents that she would keep track of where the children were going, their new Christian name and the family that they were placed with. Knowing that if the information was ever discovered by the Germans, everyone listed would be at risk, Irena wrote this information down on a piece of paper, tore it out of the book, folded it up and placed it in a jar. She hid the jar beneath an apple tree in her garden near her home so that if the house was raided, the information would not be found. 

German intelligence did catch up with Irena, or Jolanta, her code name in the Resistance, and she was taken from her home. She was beaten, her legs broken as the Germans tortured her for information. She did not give in. After three months of interrogation, she was sentenced to be executed, however a bribe arranged by Zegota allowed her to flee and she survived. 

After the war, the jars were retrieved and attempts were made to try and relocate the children back to their own families however many of the adults had been taken to Treblinka concentration camp and were killed.

Irena’s story was largely unknown until 1999 when a group of American students researched her as part of a history project and wrote a play, Life in a Jar.

They came across a newspaper article that said she had saved 2,500 children from the Jewish Ghetto.

They thought it was a typo so continued to research. Assuming she was dead, they searched for her burial record only to find out that she was alive and still living in Warsaw. They fundraised and visited Irena in Poland who told them more about her experience. She shared how, decades later, she still had nightmares about what she witnessed. 

Irena passed away on 12th May 2008, at the age of 98. Her determination to save as many children as she could from the Warsaw Ghetto and her incredible acts of courage, remains a true inspiration.

WHY NOT WATCH the film The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler which you can currently watch for free on Amazon Prime.

Casper ten Boom

In admiring the courage that Corrie and Betsie ten Boom had to hide Jews in their home in Haarlem, it would be remiss not to mention their father, Casper ten Boom.

It was his gentle and kind demeanour that raised the two girls, their other sister Nollie and brother Willem, along with his wife Cornelia. They opened their home to strangers, not just those who were later seeking refuge from the Nazis. In chapters before the invasion of Holland, Corrie paints a beautiful picture of a large, loving home, where hospitality and grace ruled. They often had foster children stay with them and people came to their side door at lunch to avail of hot soup made by Betsie. 

Casper worked as a watch-maker in the shop he had inherited from his father, Willem ten Boom. Each morning, when Casper came up for his coffee break, he read the Bible with his family and employees. He enjoyed his work and travelled to Amsderdam by train once a week to set his watch against the time of the Naval Observatory. He would then come back to the watchshop on the Barteljorisstraat and adjust the astronomical clock which he set all the watches and clocks he was working on by.

Casper was 80 when Holland was invaded. Five hours after the Prime Minister gave a speech over radio which the ten Booms had gathered together to listen to, bomb bursts began over Amsterdam. 

In her book, The Hiding Place, Corrie writes: 

“We talked often, Father, Betsie and I, about what we could do if a chance should come to help some of our Jewish friends. Each month the occupation seemed to grow harsher, restrictions more numerous.”

It was in all of their hearts to reach out and help Jewish people who were being signalled out and targeted because of their religion. When the Nazis began requiring all Jews to wear the Star of David, Casper voluntarily wore one as well even though he was a Christian. Soon, they were hiding Jews in their home and a special secret room was created in Corrie’s bedroom that would be able to hide up to 6 people if the house were to be raided.

Corrie tells the story of a clergyman who they had invited along, who might be able to take a Jewish mother and baby to his home outside of the city. To their disappointment, the clergyman was not willing to risk it. Corrie writes:

“Unseen by either of us, Father had appeared in the doorway. “Give the child to me, Corrie,” he said. Father held the baby close, his white beard brushing its cheek, looking into the little face with eyes as blue and innocent as the baby’s own. At last he looked up at the pastor, “You say we could lose our lives for this child. I would consider that the greatest honour that could come to my family.”

There is tenderness and a willingness to sacrifice in Casper’s statement. They did risk a lot - their purpose was always to help others and to protect ‘God’s people’ the Jews. 

When the Gestapo raided the Beje and arrested the ten Booms, Casper was taken along with his three daughters and son to the Scheveningen Prison. The Jewish people hidden upstairs would be safe but ten days later, Casper died at The Hague Municipal Hospital on 9th March 1944. Corrie did not know of his death until 3rd May when her sister Nollie, who had been released, wrote a letter to her which she read alone in her prison cell.

The ten Boom Family and their many friends and co-workers of 'the Beje group' saved the lives of an estimated 800 Jews and other refugees. In 1967 Corrie was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem an honour bestowed on non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. This was also honoured posthumously to Casper and Betsie in 2008.

Betsie ten Boom

Betsie’s name is the lesser known of the ten Boom sisters, but her determination and what she experienced is a similar tale of courage that must be told.

Betsie was born on 19th August 1885 with pernicious anaemia and was seven years older than her sister Corrie. With her weakened immune system, after her education, Betsie stayed at home and ran the busy household at the Beje after her mum died.

Whilst she wasn’t active outside of the home during the Nazi invasion of Holland, she did keep everyone who passed through the home fed and watered and was a welcoming host.

After the raid on February 28th 1944, Betsie was separated from Corrie at Scheveningen Prison, they were only brought together again briefly for the reading of their father’s will along with their siblings Nollie and Willem. This was a precious time for the ten Booms to have together after their ordeals and separation. A while after that meeting, the sisters reunited as they were moved to Vught near 's-Hertogenbosch, a concentration camp for political prisoners. Writing in The Hiding Place, Corrie recalls:

Together we climbed onto the train, together found seats in a crowded compartment, together wept tears of gratitude. The four months in Scheveningen had been our first separation in 53 years; it seemed to me that I could bear whatever happened with Betsie beside me.

What is remarkable about Betsie is her positivity and determination that even in such a horrible, hate filled place, she could see potential, she accepted the challenge and whats more, she was the encourager for Corrie, who didn’t always see things the way her sister did. This is reflected in her statement to Corrie after they were inducted and given a torrent of rules by the guards in the camp:

“Corrie, if people can be taught to hate, they can be taught to love! We must find the way, you and I, no matter how long it takes.” I saw a grey uniform and a visored hat; Betsie saw a wounded human being. And I wondered, not for the first time, what sort of a person she was, this sister of mine, what kind of road she followed while I trudged beside her.

A few months later, they were taken to Ravensbrück concentration camp 56 miles north of Berlin. Despite the dread of what awaited them, it was Betsie who thanked God for them being together, for the Bible they managed to smuggle in and even for the fleas that infested their beds. Because of the pests, the guards weren’t so keen on checking their barracks and so the Bible studies were able to be conducted by the ten Booms with no interference from the guards.

One day, Betsie and Corrie were out levelling some rough ground inside the camp wall. As Betsie wasn’t strong, she couldn’t put much on her shovel and when the guards saw her efforts, they made fun of her and then beat her with a whip. Naturally, this enraged Corrie who rushed at the guard before Betsie stopped her, pleading for her to keep calm and keep working. When looking at the mark the whip left, Betsie said, “Don’t look at it, Corrie. Look at Jesus only.”

The harsh treatment, working long days outdoors, 4am starts and lack of nutritious food led to Betsie becoming weaker as winter began. No longer able to do any duties, Betsie was taken to the camp hospital. One morning, Corrie had sneaked around to the hospital window after roll call to see her, only to find she had passed away.

“There lay Betsie, her eyes closed as if in sleep, her face full and young. The care lines, the grief lines, the deep hallows of hunger and disease were simply gone. In front of me was Betsie of Haarlem, happy and at peace.”

Betsie died in Ravensbrück on 16th December 1944, aged 59. The last words she had spoken to Corrie before she died, were, “You must tell people what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still. They will listen to us Corrie, because we have been here.” This indeed was the motivation Corrie needed, as she travelled to over 60 countries and wrote her books, doing just what Betsie had encouraged her to do.

Corrie ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom is often quoted in Christian circles, her testimony one of the most famous told. Her story is a fascinating one of courage and bravery, not only in Ravensbrück concentration camp but in her willingness to hide Jews from the Nazis during the German occupation of the country of her birth, Holland.

Last November I read her bestselling book, The Hiding Place, and I'll admit it was a book I was a little apprehensive about reading, knowing a little of her story. However, Corrie wrote it in such a way that, at times, there was humour, along with a lot of honesty about her feelings as she described the difficult and cruel circumstances of life in a concentration camp. I thoroughly recommend the book, but in the meantime, here is a snapshot of her Tale of Courage:

Corrie was born on 15th April 1892 in Haarlem in Holland and was the youngest of four children born to Casper and Cornelia ten Boom. In 1922, at the age of 20, she became the first licensed female watchmaker in Holland, following in her father’s footsteps who had inherited a watch shop from his father.

She referred to her home in the book fondly as the Beje, shortened for Barteljorisstraat. She enjoyed her work alongside Casper, looking after the business side of the watch shop, and she also established a club for young people with special needs.  In the years before the German invasion of Holland, Corrie lived a busy and productive life, it seemed like she never stopped!

So it was no surprise that when her country was invaded in May 1940, and she saw how Jews living and working around her were being persecuted, that she had to do something to try and help. This was partly due to her own instinctiveness and partly to do with her Christian upbringing and the respect her parents taught her for God’s people, the Jews.

She cycled to underground Dutch Resistance meetings, organised stolen ration books for Jews who were not deemed entitled to rations and co-ordinated long term places of safety for those who came to the Beje seeking shelter. When we remember her age, by then Corrie was in her 50s, and the risk carried with her activity, it is even more a remarkable tale of courage.

On 28 February 1944, a Dutch informant betrayed the ten Booms and told the Nazis about their work. That afternoon, the Nazis raided the home and arrested the entire ten Boom family. Corrie was actually feeling unwell and was resting in her room, which contained the hiding place. Despite the many practices the family had preparing for such a raid, she was almost delirious as the Jews came into the room to get in behind the fake brick wall so that they wouldn’t be caught. 

When taken to prison, she was kept in her own cell as the Gestapo thought she was an underground Resistence ringleader. She later expressed how hard it was to be in solitary confinement. She was delighted to be reunited with her sister Betsie, even though they were taken to Vught, and then Ravensbrück concentration camp. An estimated 35,000 women would have been there at any one time. Their experiences and treatment were horrendous. They were stripped naked as they entered the largest concentration camp for women in the German Reich. They were huddled in barracks with hundreds of other women to sleep, sharing mattresses infested with lice. They had to rise for roll call at 4am, forced to work long days, watched over and berated by guards. In amongst that, the smell of dead bodies from the crematorium permeated the camp.

Betsie died in Ravensbrück on 16th December 1944. Corrie was released on 31st December of the same year, although it later transpired that that was due to a clerical error and the next week, all the women her age were sent to gas chambers.

In the years that followed, Corrie visited over 60 countries telling people her story and witnessing for Jesus who had given her the courage to face such brutality and inhumane treatment in the concentration camp. 

She died in 1983 on her 91st birthday in Orange County, California. Her book The Hiding Place was also made into a film in 1975 which can be accessed on Amazon Prime and other streaming services. She wrote about her childhood and years before the German invasion In my Father’s house and about her global travels in, Tramp for the Lord.

Quote from Tramp for the Lord, by Corrie ten Boom

Celebrating Courage

I remember watching some brave people dive off Harbour Hill in the seaside town of Portstewart last summer. As they stepped up to the edge of the cliff and jumped off, I winched thinking, ‘I could never do that!’ 

Then a small voice in my head said, “No, Rebecca, you don’t have that kind of courage - but you did set up a business after a redundancy - and that is a type of courage too.”

I may not be a confident swimmer and I’ll never make any kind of a diver, but perhaps for the first time, I realised that going self-employed ten years ago was my ‘moment to dive’. 

My ‘display of courage’ - will anyone want me to work for them, will they like my creative ideas, will they laugh at what I suggest, will they pay me? Can I get clients enough press coverage, what should I charge for my time, how long will this project take me to work on, will I do a good enough job that they will use me again?

We don’t all dive off cliffs, or set up in business, but everyone faces a time when they need to have courage. Courage that they will make it safe to shore again. Courage to step out into the unknown. Perhaps, courage to be the first to do something that hasn’t been done before, maybe even say something that hasn’t been said, but needs to be said from the heart.

So that got me thinking that we need to celebrate courage that bit more and help each other as we face the unknown. So join us at Tales of Courage as we tell in words written and spoken, stories of courage from different people. As you take the time to listen and to read, we too hope you ‘take heart’ and celebrate all that courage can achieve.

Rebecca