Prize winner


On Friday night I attended the award ceremony for the Peace Prize of the World Methodist Council. I took my video camera along in case there was a fight. But the stage was filled with portly clerics who looked as if their copies of Wesley´s Journal were missing the bits on fasting.

Jeannine Brabon, one of our lecturers, received the award for her 22 years of going into one of the world´s worst prisons. Medellín´s Bellavista prison holds 7000 violent men in a 1500 capacity institution and the inmates are in control. Jeannine is one of those naive Christians who believe that you should go into a lion´s den with prayer and a big, floppy Bible. Quite a few of her tamed lions were at the award ceremony.

The criteria for the Prize are courage, creativity and dedication. Creativity is typical of missionary work and there's an opportunity just now. At our Seminary prayer meeting a pastor´s wife reported that in the last month 25 people had been murdered around the church. She feared for her husband.

It's a difficult one. Jeannine's working at her prison ministry, Olwen's in Scotland for 5 weeks seeing the family. But if you're free, I can lend you a big, floppy Bible.

Photo: Jeannine in full flow, with her medal around her neck

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