For Corrie, this particular whisper came after an extended time of weariness, petty annoyances and frustrated effort. She wanted to quit. She had done enough. After all, hadn't she already lived what some might regard as three different lives of faithful service? Many would think so.

     Her first faithful "life" began when she witnessed to soldiers at a recreation center run by her aunt. Corrie was only twelve, but she knew what it meant to have the Lord Jesus as your personal savior and she wanted share that hope at every opportunity. She was an energetic scamp who loved a good practical joke but her spiritual focus was strong and she longed to share Jesus with others in need.

     Corrie continued faithful through her teen years, but at twenty-three, when the only serious boyfriend she ever had dumped her for another, she was heartbroken and a faith that had seemed easy as a child, matured into the faith of a woman.

     Because of her age and lack of prospects, Corrie accepted the fact that she would never marry and instead funneled her considerable talent and energy into a career becoming the first woman watchmaker ever licensed by the Dutch government. But, beyond her career, she poured her heart into the evangelism and training of young girls. She reached out, protected and counseled hundreds of teens and preteens during eighteen years of active ministry forming scores of Triangle Clubs all over Holland, but the clubs were declared illegal when the Nazis invaded and all ministry was stopped.

     It took about two years for the Ten Boon family to adjust to their new life and find their role as Christians living under a despotic regime but by 1942 their path was clear. They joined the Dutch underground.

     Hiding Jews and others whose lives were threatened, Corrie's second phase of life began. Secretly housing and feeding as many as fifteen additional people in their small, downtown shop and home, Corrie-at age 52, the youngest in the family-traveled hundreds of miles on her bicycle at night seeking food and making arrangements for those fleeing the country.

     Then, in 1944, they paid the price for these "illegal" activities with the arrest of the entire family and Corrie along with her sister, Betsie, were sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp. Although the imprisonment lasted only eleven months, Betsie died there and days later a clerical error released Corrie on New Year's Eve.

     Eventually she found her way back to Holland where impoverished and with half her family dead, she again took up the work she knew best: reaching out to others with the good news of Jesus.

     As the war ended, Corrie's work expanded and she set up rehabilitation centers for refugees who were shattered in both mind and spirit. For fifteen years she would provide personal care and raise funds to support these centers, then God opened up what might have seemed like a third life to this remarkable woman.

     Corrie had always traveled extensively around her homeland. But as the years became decades, her heart was moved beyond the borders of Europe and out to a dying world. What could one "old" woman (she was now past the age when most people retire) do to challenge a world grown complacent, self-centered and deaf?

     The answer? She could write. She could speak. And, she could travel.  For the next twenty years Corrie used every opportunity she could find to tell others around the world "There is no pit so deep that God is not in the bottom of it" and she would become famous for such statements as, "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."

     It was then-after eighty two-years of faithful living-that she felt the devil whisper "Poor Corrie." And, she began to listen.

     It sounded so reasonable. "Why must you always live out of your suitcases?" she thought. "After all, you are no longer young. You've lived like a tramp for many, many years. You've earned your reward." So she wrote to a friend back home.

     "I believe the time has come [to retire]. I am tired of all this traveling and I cannot stand having wheels beneath me any longer. Will you arrange to have a desk-a big one-put in front of the window in my room; and an easy chair-a very easy one-on the right?"

     In her mind's eye she could see the cozy room. It felt like heaven. She longed to be there and rest. But, despite her weariness and frustration, Corrie knew she was still God's soldier and under orders, so she opened her Bible and asked "Lord, what would you have me do?" The tenth chapter of Romans came alive: "How shall they call on Him of whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?"

     She would later write, "I sat there a long time-thinking. It is not our task to give God instructions. We are to simply report for duty. [Then,] I laid my Bible on the bed and picked up pen and paper. "Forget about that last letter I wrote. I am to coming home to Holland. I refuse to spend the rest of my life in a pasture when there are so many fields to harvest. I hope to die in harness."

     Yet, "dying in harness" was not to be Corrie's future. She would indeed retire three years later due to health reasons and spend the last five years of her life as an invalid, unable to speak. Because of her health, we will never know what her final words might have been, but could she have looked back on all the many, many years I suspect the words might have been echoes of something she often taught, "There is not panic in Heaven! God has not problems, only plans." And, I think she might have advised that although we may one day retire, we should never quit.

My brothers had all been saved while at church camp so the first summer I was able to go, I followed their example and I made a profession of faith. But it was only an emotional experience, not true salvation.  For years I kept going to church, GMA's and singing specials in church, but inside I was looking for something. I just didn't know what.

As a young adult, I became a "functioning" drug addict and although I used drugs every day, all day, most people couldn't tell. I was an IV drug user for 10 years and addicted to prescription drugs even longer. Finally, I was arrested for writing bad checks. But, I fooled everyone into thinking I had learned from the experience and turned my life around. I reported every month to probation and did my community service yet kept right on doing what I had been.

One day I went to report and failed a drug test. I was sent to jail and had to remain there a month while I waited for an opening in a drug rehab facility. In jail, I began reading my Bible and John 16:33 became very special to me. "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Peace. That was what I had searched for so long. I wanted peace and asked God to give it to me as well as take away my addiction and pain. But, I never realized before such a miracle could take place He had to be Lord of my entire life. I was sent directly from jail to rehab and managed to stay off the IV drugs, but went right back to abusing prescription medicines.

Two years later, my family had reached the point of not helping me anymore and I was told that I could no longer stay in my parents' home. I looked horrible, weighed 95 lbs. and my skin was gray. I had hit rock bottom and lost everything. That was when a church offered to help and purchased a bus ticket to send me to the Jubilee Home in Corpus Christi.

At first I wondered what I'd gotten myself into. Girls were "chanting bible verses." I thought I'd ended up in a cult or something, but soon after I arrived God started working on my heart and I realized that I was lost. At Jubilee, I told God I would do whatever he had for me. My life had been wasted for so long but it now belonged to Him. I surrendered everything and at last found the peace I'd been searching for. At Jubilee, I learned how to live all over again.

God allowed me to stay there for two more years where I helped other women like me. Those were some of the most rewarding years of my life and I'll never forget the people God allowed to pass through my life while I was there. One thing that I especially remember was Pastor Cowger telling graduates, "You were bought with a price and you are not for sale!"

Life has not always been easy since I left Jubilee. Circumstances have not always been good and there's been much heartache, but God has always helped me through each storm and He's given me a joy that nothing in this world can ever take away. No matter how difficult the days have been, He is always there. This was especially true when I had to face what drugs did to my beautiful daughter. There's a "just one more time" mentality that addicts suffer from. But they seldom realize how permanent the results from that "one more time" may be.

After an overdose, my daughter now lies in a nursing home where she's dependent on a feeding tube. She is able to breathe on her own and other normal body functions work, but that is about it. She had two small daughters and was five months pregnant when she took drugs to temporarily escape the problems and sadness in her life which had overwhelmed her. It was a "temporary" that changed our world forever.

Now, three beautiful little girls live without their mother and are cared for by their paternal grandmother. The two oldest remember their mother (for now at least), ask about her and want to see her, but the youngest never even saw her mother smile. She was born three months after the overdose. This perfectly healthy child, definitely a miracle from a loving heavenly Father, will never know the wonderful person her mother was or how very much she loved her girls.

I praise God for protecting me and keeping me safe no matter how far I sank in sin. He never left me even when I turned away from Him. He restored me to my wonderful family and I found that they and others never gave up praying for me. God has even given me a wonderful Christian husband to share the rest of my life.  I know I've been wonderfully blessed. It could have been very different.

My life verse is now Galatians 5:1: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." I know I will never see that yoke of bondage to drugs again. If you're praying for someone, don't stop; don't ever give up, God still answers prayer and he still works miracles.

(Cindy is now a new bride of less than a year and works for a small church. You can contact her at curtiscindymorgan@yahoo.com)