Colombian prison chaplain gets 2009 WMC Peace Award

MEDELLIN (Columbia) – Dr Jeannine Brabon, a Bible teacher and prison chaplain, received the 2009 World Methodist Peace Award on July 31, 2009 at the Seminario Biblico de Colombia here.

She is the daughter of the seminary’s founders, grew up in Colombia, studied in the United States, and currently teaches Greek and Hebrew at the seminary. She is also the founder of the Biblical Institute of Colombia which teaches Bible in Colombia’s prison system.

She was honoured for her “courage, creativity and consistency in working with prisoners” in one of the most dangerous prisons in Colombia, transforming the lives of inmates, prison officials and others by introducing them to Jesus Christ.

She began teaching the Bible in the infamous Bella Vista prison in 1991, a year in which Medellin’s murder rate exceeded 10,000, and 30,000 killings occurred in Colombia. At that time the prison culture reflected the outside world.

In 1991 there were 30 to 50 murders a month inside Bella Vista prison. Since the Biblical Institute began inside the prison, the prison murder rate has been reduced to less than 10 in the last 18 years.

A church has been formed within the prison walls, and the lives of many inmates and their families have been transformed by the presentation of the Gospel there.

Dr Brabon has exhibited courage, creativity and consistency in her ministry to students and to inmates. She grew up with first-hand knowledge of the persecuted Church, and has committed her life as a teacher and prison chaplain to helping people understand the transforming power of the Gospel. – World Methodist Council.