Bellavista Prison had become a training ground for the city's killing fields with the prison aisles becoming just another harsh dimension of Colombia's internal wars. ''Fiscal adjustments'' had gutted the military forces and created a police shortage. Crime and drug trafficking had increased dramatically. Military intelligence estimates reported during that time that three thousand contract criminals specializing in homicide, kidnap and extortion prowled the city and that over one hundred and twenty gangs were willing to kill for pay.

Colombia's second largest newspaper, The Colombiano, stated that ''homicide during the decade of the nineties oscillated between 20,000 and 30,000 cases [of violent death] PER YEAR.'' Paramilitary movements were engaging in guerrilla warfare and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were trying to topple the government.

The small revival effort inside the prison began in 1976 with Canadian missionaries who built a Protestant chapel in the prison and formed a prison glee club. In the intervening years, the Salvation Army, the Baptist church and Prison Fellowship joined in bringing the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ into the darkest corners of that desolate prison. When the warden gave permission to hold the prayer meeting in 1989, over 300 Christian inmates gathered as prayer partners, and together, these Christians were an incredible witness to God's power and the boldness of His people.

Through them revival spread throughout the prison. The changes at the prison since that day are dramatic and profound.

More than 150 believers pack the chapel at dawn every day. Scores of others meet twice a day in every patio. Each patio or pavilion has two or three elders, one of whom serves on the governing body of the Church behind bars. There is a daily radio broadcast that offers counseling and provides opportunities for inmates to tell their families about their transformations. The counseling service produced 50 calls during its first two hours of service. During weekend visitation, inmates hold evangelistic services for their families.

It's a Fallen World
After the planned attack against Jeannine, a former colleague, who had worked side-by-side with the Christians, expressed dismay at the depth of evil planned against them by an inmate who had worked among the Christians, Jeannine reminded them that we live in a fallen world where pride, ambition, fame, and money can ruin God's servants. ''Sin'' she said, ''destroys, but we are not to fear those who kill the body. We are to fear the sin that will destroy us eternally. Our greatest concern ought to be that we die to sin daily.''

Occasionally, as she ministers in the prison, Jeannine remembers the time when she was eleven years old. Her parents, Margaret and Harold Brabon were missionaries who raised their four children in Medellín. They were of the generation and missionary society (OMS International) that founded the seminary where Jeannine teaches. At eleven years of age, Jeannine heard the voice of God calling her to be a missionary following in her parents' footsteps. ''But I can't be a missionary,'' she said. ''I am not brave enough.''

Those who see her today know that she not only is brave enough, she has the boldness spoken of in her favorite verse Phillipians 1: 20-21. ''According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.''

When asked to explain what is happening inside Bellavista, an inmate says, ''God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.''

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Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D.  recently coauthored the book, A Different Kind of Strength, with Beverly LaHaye. She served as a university professor, debate coach and academic administrator before becoming a Bush Presidential Speech Writer.