Corrie visiting prisoners in the Philippines
As soon as she was well enough, Corrie began to tell of her experiences. When the war ended a few months later, she told people about Betsie’s vision of a house for people who had suffered during the war. One person who heard it was a lady whose son had returned from prison in Germany. She was so grateful to God that she gave her large house to Corrie for this work. It was just the kind of house that Betsie had seen in her vision!
In that house many people found peace and comfort through the loving care that Corrie and others gave them.
After a while, news of Corrie’s experiences reached other countries. She was invited to speak in America, England and many other countries. The hardest place for her to go was Germany, with all its bitter memories. But God helped her to love and to forgive, even when she met some of the former guards from Ravensbruck.
Then a Christian relief organisation in Germany asked her to help run a camp for refugees and people who had been made bitter by their experiences of life under Hitler. It turned out to be just like the concentration camp Betsie had seen in her vision! Again Corrie passed on the message of God’s love and forgiveness.
Corrie also wrote several books about her experiences. As a result, she received many more invitations to speak.
For over thirty years Corrie visited country after country telling bitter, sad people how wonderful God is, just as Betsie had foretold. She went to nearly every country in the world, including Russia and other communist countries. Sometimes she travelled with Brother Andrew, another famous Dutch Christian.
Wherever Corrie went she tried to visit people in prison. She knew just how they felt. She had spent four months alone in a cell. She had been beaten. People she loved had been cruelly treated; some had been killed. But she also knew that God can take away all feelings of bitterness and hatred.
Corrie wrote down her story in a book called The Hiding Place, which was later made into a film of the same name. She also wrote several other books telling of her life before the war and her experiences travelling around the world.
Finally Corrie became too old to travel. In 1977 she settled down in a beautiful, peaceful home in America, where she continued to do all she could to share God’s goodness with other people. Although she later had a stroke and could no longer speak, she remained full of the peace of God, and prayed for people who write to her or visit her. She died in 1983.