MK forum

Down and Out has a point, friends. Within 2 weeks of arriving in Bolivia, I was taken from my parents and my 3 brothers. Seven years old, no family and in the middle of a school year. I remember, I may have been small and young but I remember. I had never been away from my family in my own country. Now a foreign country, strangers all around and no one to lean on. Abused, letters sensored so parents didn't know what was really going on.

It still goes on as they had me send my 5 year old(and 6 yo) to a boarding school and right into the arms of abuse at Fanda. To young to fend for themselves and letters sensored to make sure nothering got to the parents that should have be told. No wonder so many don't trust their own parents. WE LOVE YOU KIDS many of us went against field leadership and because of that were asked to leave our field of service.

Do you see a pattern? And they were 20 years appart folks!!!!!

dbarney, do you mean they give parents no choice as to whether to put their kids in a boarding school??

Today, parents have the choice to educate their children where ever and how ever they want in NTM. This is a non-negoiatable.

Back in those days the policy was to put kids in a school. If you went against that was to go against FC. My parents finally took us kids out even though they were looked down on for doing it and other families told them what they thought(negative) But other families followed suit and took their kids out. The thought was that the parents couldn't get enough missionary work in if they had to teach their kids

remember taking records(that surely dates us, doesn't it) and having them ruined during being sensored. "And Here's to you Mrs. Robinson" being one of the scratched out, which ruined the whole record.

I recall hearing, I think back in the 70's, that one of the NTM schools had decreed that in order to make it fair to all children, even families who lived and worked on the school base must put their children in the dorm. Was that in Bolivia? Thankfully I don't think that experiment lasted too long.
Over the decades NTM went through various policies and ideas for meeting the need for the proper education of MKs. Some fields like Paraguay and Thailand decided as a field to not set up schools. (Thailand changed that at some point - the 80s maybe?). On fields where there were schools, there was pressure to support the schools by sending your kids there. Depending on the field and the era, at times that pressure was just the non-policy type, looking down your super-spiritual, super-dedicated nose at those who refused to send their children away. At others times some fields required parents to put their children in the schools, and some people actually resigned from some of these fields rather than submit to such policies. Now NTM is in a more enlightened era, but I have no doubt that educational needs of MKs will continue to be a concern All solutions naturally contain potential danger, whether keeping your kids in the village, importing an untrained young tutor, etc.
A thorough discussion of children's educational and emotional needs, potential dangers of abuse, how to prevent abuse, how to respond to reports of or concerns about abuse ... ALL these need to be discussed ... not just once, but continuously, as young couples continue to venture out to the far ends of the earth with their small children in tow.
Please God, no more innocent, vulnerable collateral damage ...

Very enlightening everyone. I wasn't aware that there was so much pressure put on parents, at least in the past. TOO much emphasis on the ministry at the expense of the parents' first ministry...THEIR CHILDREN.

Raz wrote:
" A thorough discussion of children's educational and emotional needs, potential dangers of abuse, how to prevent abuse, how to respond to reports of or concerns about abuse ... ALL these need to be discussed ... not just once, but continuously, as young couples continue to venture out to the far ends of the earth with their small children in tow.
Please God, no more innocent, vulnerable collateral damage ..."

NOT just internal discussions. But with outside input from various people/orgs experienced in these areas. NTM got into all this trouble by thinking they had all the answers. And by not being willing to discuss/dialogue with even NTMers who had experience other than just what they got thru the training. Group Think is dangerous. Many people with gifts to add to the ministry at different levels were ushered out because they thought outside the "group." It did seem that the most desirable leader was one who grew up as an MK and had internalized this group think mentality. Bolivia is a classic example. That discussion came up off and on in our era and never went anywhere. Obviously.

Just stating what we experienced. If evaluation was labeled 'being bitter," then even stating our experience could be labeled the same way. In most cases, not on this website which is refreshing. Thank you.