In her famous book and film, “The Hiding Place” Corrie ten Boom tells the story of a Dutch Christian family - her family, who had a heart for the Jewish people
Her grandfather Wilhelm started a weekly prayer group in 1844 in the city of Haarlem, near Amsterdam for the salvation of the Jews.
And this weekly prayer meeting continued uninterrupted until 1944 - when the ten Boon family were sent to a concentration camp - for helping Jews to flee from the Nazi persecution in Holland
Corrie tells a curious story about her father Caspar ten Boon.
When the Jews were forced to wear the “Star of David,” Casper lined up for one.
He wore it because he wanted to identify himself with the people for whom he and his family had been praying for all those years.
He was prepared to be so completely identified with the Jews that he was willing to wear a sign of shame and suffer persecution for the sake of the people he loved.
He didn’t HAVE to wear the Star but chose to.
And in the same way, Allan and Paula have brought Ellie here for baptism not because they HAD to - but because they want to identify with Christ’s Church here on earth