I told my audience that they had to give their bodies as a pleasing sacrifice to the Lord. I said that although I was an elderly woman, I still wanted to give myself completely to Jesus and do what He desired me to do and go where he desired me to go–to be obedient even to the point of death.

After the service, two nurses approached me. They invited me for a cup of coffee in their apartment. I was very tired. A cup of coffee seemed very appealing, and I gratefully accepted their invitation. But I was not prepared for the steep climb to their room. Many of the houses in Copenhagen are very old and have no elevators, and the nurses lived on the 10th floor. …

“Oh Lord, I don’t think I can make it,” I said. But the nurses were so insistent that I didn’t dare refuse. When I at last reached the fifth floor, my old heart was beating heavily and my legs refused to go a step further. I saw a chair and sat down. I said to the nurses, “Go on to your room. When I’ve rested I’ll come too.”

I asked the Lord, “Why do I have to walk up so many flights of stairs after such a busy day, Lord?” The answer came immediately: “Because there will be such a great blessing up there. It will even give joy to the angels of God.” I looked at the winding stairs, which I could see going on right to the top. I thought, Maybe I am going to Heaven. That will give joy to the angels. I counted the steps. There were a hundred or more.

But if God said the work would make the angels rejoice, I had to go. I stood up and started to climb again. At last I reached the 10th floor, and when I arrived in the nurses’ room, I found a table brightly laid. The meal had been prepared by the parents of one of the nurses. I knew I only had a little time, and I knew that in one way or another, God was going to give a blessing. So I started a conversation.

“Tell me,” I asked the nurse’s mother, “was it long ago that you got to know the Lord Jesus?”

“I have never met Him,” she said, a little surprised at my question.

I said, “Don’t you want to come to Him? He loves you. I have talked about Him in more than 60 countries, and I have never met anyone who regretted giving his heart to Jesus, and neither will you if you do.”

I opened the Bible and read her texts that made salvation through the Lord Jesus very clear. She listened with great interest. Then I asked, “Shall we speak together with the Lord?” I prayed and both the nurses prayed with me. At last, the mother put her hands together and said, “Lord Jesus, I actually know a great deal about You. I just read the Bible, but I now pray for You to come into my heart. I need salvation and cleansing. I know that You died on the cross for the sins of the whole world and for my sin, too. Please Lord Jesus, come into my heart and make me a child of God. Amen.”

I looked up and saw tears of joy on the faces of the young nurses. They had prayed so much for this couple, and now their prayers were being answered. I turned to the father, who had quietly listened to everything. “What do you think of this?” I asked.

“I have never made a decision for the Lord Jesus,” he said seriously, “but I have listened to everything you said to my wife, and I now know the way. I will pray to Jesus, too, for Him to save me.” He bowed his head, and from his lips came a joyful, serious prayer as he gave his life to Jesus Christ. I know that there were angels around us who were praising God. It says in the Bible that the angels rejoice over every sinner who repents.
“Thank You, Lord,” I whispered, as I went down the many stairs, “that you let me walk up all these steps to the top. The next time, Lord, help Corrie ten Boom listen to her own sermons, so that I am ready to go where You lead, even if it is steps up to the 10th floor.”

The late Corrie Ten Boom wrote the international best-seller “The Hiding Place,” which was made into a World Wide Pictures movie. Both told her inspiring story of faith and forgiveness in the face of the Nazi Holocaust.