Comments on: Letter from Mik parents

By: Pamela E. Bennett

Pamela E. Bennett — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 23:45:48 +0000

How we should be humbled after reading this exposure from a mum who loved her daughters and yet felt her responsibility in allowing this to happen. Too bad New Tribes seems to be kicking and screaming rather than humbling admitting what THEY allowed. The churches have allowed these mission boards/agencies whatever you want to call them full reign and they too are reaping this. Don’t lecture me that New Tribes is now offering “sorry” as from what I can read, only because they have been forced to do so just like ABWE was forced because of the bangladeshmksspeak blog.

By: Tara

Tara — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 04:50:45 +0000

I ache in my heart for the pain I read in your words! But you have found the answer in our God of truth! My parents did bootcamp twice but were asked to leave both times because they questioned the staff about the abuse of power they saw. They were told they were to submit to the authority of the staff and not question their leadership. This was in 1981 and 1984. My parents felt that they had failed. They were embarrassed and disillusioned. Reading your story and other stories I am heartbroken and grieve over the loss of innocence and the warped view of God many must have. To not have the hope of knowing God’s love because of what men did. This place of CHRIST ALONE and not mans pride or wisdom, is the only place for healing! I believe as a church, we should all examine our part that we have played to contribute to the way of thinking that allowed this to occur. Do our churches promote accountability? Do we treat each other as better then ourselves? Do we encourage compassion and humility toward others? From what I have experienced it’s more about status or name. It’s more about judging and gossip. NTM is sick and so are our churches which encourage the same behaviors and thinking! God help us as a church! I pray that God would shake us up out of our complacency and open our eyes to the pain we are causing our young ones, the damage we are doing to the seekers, the Holy Spirit that we are taught not to listen to because we might go overboard! God sure did go overboard for us! My heart aches for all believers, because we are accepting this lying down! Wake-up church! Open your eyes to Chirist not to manworship! It could’ve been me as my parents felt strongly about going to Senegal. I would have been there! My prayers and thoughts are with you and all the victims! So brave,all of you!

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:35:52 +0000

This entry was so moving. I’m only just now discovering what happened at Fanda. I’m an MK, grew up in East Brazil at Vianopolis- a boarding school, as well. I’m heartbroken, though not shocked- and that’s because it happened at our school too. Years of abuse went on and it was covered up, hushed up, put away, and never, EVER dealt with!! I’m glad the Fanda “kids” have had the courage to stand up and say, “Enough!”

This post resonates with me. I can hear my parents voice in it…it makes me so sad!!

By: Tuti Hess

Tuti Hess — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:48:47 +0000

Dear Diane, Thank you for your courage through all of this. I can relate to a lot of what you are saying. I feel shame because I had bought into this thing of the work is most important so I neglected my children and saw them as a hindrance. I so love my kids now and know that thinking was wrong. I thank God for a couple who confronted us and made us see we had to put a priority on our kids. Thank God for His rebuke and correction on our lives when we need it. God saved my kids and my marriage.Keep speaking out and fighting for what is right. Well done sister.

By: shadowspring

shadowspring — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:03:03 +0000

R.C. : Sad though your story may be, I think you have misdiagnosed the cause. Hundreds of children are raised overseas every year and they turn out just fine. Thousands if not more children are raised in the USA who are raped and molested. Location has little to do with, the problem here were the people who abused the children and the people who turned a blind eye. PEOPLE are responsible for their actions, we cannot blame things like LOCATION. I was an MK who lived overseas and all of my friends who lived in dorms were just fine. Your problem was that dorm parents were not chosen carefully enough or monitored enough, and no measures were taken to prevent abuse from happening. I’m very sorry for what happened to your daughter and I am in no way trying to minimize what happened to her, but until you realize the cause pf the problem, you will never be able to fix it.

I seriously doubt that every one from your dorm is "just fine". Boarding school for young children is a horrendous idea. The abandonment alone will deeply affect every single child sent off the a boarding school- the younger they were rejected i.e. sent away, the more severe the damage to that person's psyche. So while you may claim that you and all your friends are "just fine" I say wait for life to trigger your own buried traumas. I believe you will then find out that "just fine" was nothing more than "in denial".

By: Diane Mikitson

Diane Mikitson — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:00:46 +0000

By no means did we mean to imply that Africa was the problem, nor that Location is the problem. We loved Senegal. Dorm life is not God’s best plan for raising children. Of this we are certain.
Your comments about “cause of the problem” and fixing it are naive. “All my friends who lived in dorms were just fine” is naive.
I doubt that you are receptive to hearing the truth of the pain and turmoil most adults who lived in dorms as children will attest to.

By: Deb A

Deb A — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:34:10 +0000

As a student from a NTM boarding school there was bad physical abuse from a dorm mom that did not want to be at the school. It was not a good experience. Then we went to Senegal where my girls received and abservered the physical abuse that the above classmates had. We were told that we were not to visit our daughter in the dorm because it only made things worse and they didn’t want parents there. Our daughter hated the dorm and the things going on.

By: R.C.

R.C. — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 03:00:15 +0000

Sad though your story may be, I think you have misdiagnosed the cause. Hundreds of children are raised overseas every year and they turn out just fine. Thousands if not more children are raised in the USA who are raped and molested. Location has little to do with, the problem here were the people who abused the children and the people who turned a blind eye. PEOPLE are responsible for their actions, we cannot blame things like LOCATION. I was an MK who lived overseas and all of my friends who lived in dorms were just fine. Your problem was that dorm parents were not chosen carefully enough or monitored enough, and no measures were taken to prevent abuse from happening. I’m very sorry for what happened to your daughter and I am in no way trying to minimize what happened to her, but until you realize the cause pf the problem, you will never be able to fix it.

By: Elijah III

Elijah III — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:36:40 +0000

John and Diane, your story is moving, yet prophetic… You said: some of us would be shocked…and feel the horror…and sadness as we read the stories…and that we might even think about it during the middle of the night… –Here it is 3 am… Yes, and more… Some of us have wept over the GREAT SIN that has been committed in the camp and buried in the tent…
May I leave a few prophetic words with you that have come to mind to encourage you these wee hours of this new day: God is not mocked…seeds of deceit, lust, immorality, pride, selfishness, and cover up…that have been sown in the darkness, are called forth to come under the search beacon of the Son of Light, for the time has come for judgment to begin in the House of God—in the Name of Jesus! Be encouraged! It will come to pass!

By: Bill Lapworth

Bill Lapworth — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:23:52 +0000

I am very sad too read the story of the familly Mik and can imagine exactly how humiliated and abusde they must have felt. I was approximatly 8 years old when I went to Fanda in the late 70′s and the description of the leadership is very typical of how I experienced Fanda and NTM. However I would like too testify that at Fanda I experienced the love of Jesus and the fatherly love from my dorm father Hammy as never before or after in my life. If I think of the way he showed me love and affection I can only be very thankful for ever meeting and having someone like him look after me and show me a fatherly love I never experienced from my own father. My own father never gave me a hug or encouragement as Hammy did. I’m not telling this to put my own Dad down but too explain that like me you can also be very lucky too have had a great dorm Dad whom I love and remember very dearly. Your daughters got sadly the wrong dorm Dad I’m very sory! but glad you had the courage too tell the world! and keep looking up!