History and Purpose of Berean Prison Ministry

Berean Prison Ministry was founded by brothers Edward and Paul Meister in 1996. It became a classified Organization exempt from Federal and State income taxes under Section 501(c) of the code.

Berean Prison Ministry sends out 2,000 Bibles a month to inmates in jails and prisons in 47 of our States along with a Bible study course program. This course consists of 50 elementary and fifty intermediate lessons and a certificate is awarded as each entire course is completed. Currently, we are grading approximately 100,000 lessons per year in the English language coming from as far away as Hawaii and about 12,000 lessons per year in Spanish.

Our Ministry has chaplaincies a the following County jails in the State of Illinois: Peoria, Tazewell, Fulton and Stark. They are responsible for the Youth Farm and the Juvenile Detention Facility of Peoria County. We also currently have the chaplaincy at the Sheridan Illinois State Prison. Monthly Bible studies are conducted at the State of Illinois Department of Corrections prisons at Dwight, Lincoln, Statesville and Canton.

Chaplaincies mean that we have regular Sunday services, Bible Study classes and religious counseling during the week. Services are also held every Sunday at the Peoria Illinois Rescue Mission. Additionally, we conduct Sunday evening services eight times per year at the South Side Mission of Illinois and six times per year at the Peoria Illinois Rescue Mission.

Berean Prison Ministry is currently in the prisons of the Republic of Karelia, Russia. Colonel Alexander Safonov is the retired director of the Department of Corrections for this Republic. Colonel Safonov is a friend of the Apostolic Christian Church of America and has visited our churches in Peoria, Illinois, Athens, Alabama, Ft. Myers, Florida and Sarasota, Florida. Permission was also given by the Romanian government to hoold services and Bible studies in all of their prisons. In 2011, Berean Prison Ministry extended its reach to include Australia.

Our ministry has a food, clothing and medicine program. We distribute many loads of these items to those less fortunate in Africa, Mexico, Russia, Jamaica, Haiti, Honduras and Granada. For example, last year we sent 200 bicycles to Mexico.