said Jeannine,“ but we more easily understand the nuances of culture.” After 18 months in Colombia, God opened the door for Jeannine to join the first OMS missionaries in Spain, a country she had been praying for since she was 16. Jeannine served in an OMS coffee house, reaching out to the youth of Madrid and planting churches. OMS Spain purchased a camp a year later, after which Jeannine served as field treasurer, keeping the accounts for the camp building project. The camp, Peña de Horeb, today serves more than 60 churches and 3,000 + people every year.
In 1981, Jeannine graduated from Asbury Theological Seminary with an M. A. in biblical studies. Shortly after, she translated LaSor’ s Hebrew grammar and lessons into Spanish. She began visiting Medellín, Colombia, in 1986 to teach intensive courses at the OMS-related Biblical Seminary of Colombia. In 1989, she moved to Medellín to serve full time on the seminary campus. One of Jeannine’ s students ministered in Bellavista Prison, then known as the most dangerous prison in South America, a place few dared to enter. He invited her to preach in the prison chapel. After the Holy Spirit used her sermon to bring 23 inmates to Christ, Jeannine and a team of Colombians began ministering regularly in the prison. A year later, Jeannine started the Bellavista Prison Bible Institute, one of the few theological institutes inside a prison. More than 1,000 prisoners have graduated from this institute, with more than 55 now free and working as evangelists throughout Colombia; 25 have started churches. When asked how she found the courage to enter such a dangerous place, Jeannine smiled and said,“ Courage is not the absence of fear, but the presence of Jesus.”
Today, Jeannine continues to minister in the prison, and she speaks at men’ s and women’ s retreats, allowing God to lead and use her as he wills. Through her willingness to go wherever and speak whatever the Holy Spirit leads, God has used Jeannine to bring thousands of men and women to Christ. And he continues to spread her legacy of courage through those men and women who also have the courage to follow him.
photos, page 20: Jeannine, as an MK in Colombia and today photo, page 21: Jeannine ministers in Bellavista Prison in the‘ 90s.
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