MK forum

I think you've hit the nail on the head. And how many of these "heros" start believing they truly can walk on water and that rules are for other lesser people and then the slippery slide down the slope begins. And eventually they loose touch with reality, stop caring and some wander across the line into abuse.

And it is exactly the same for missionaries, but with a few extra features. Take one average suburban male, going to work 9 to 5 with a few prospects of promotion, maybe one day. Offer him a chance to be a big fish in a small pond, but don't teach him humility and how to cope with it and oops a recipe for disaster. Then you have a sudden "hero", who has "adoring" natives, a subservient wife and prayercard perfect smiling kids. Throw in a church or two, who hang on every e-mail of foreign expedition and generously cover all costs at the drop of a prayer request and no wonder some wander across boundaries.

But where are the checks and balances to stop this happening?

In the system that we were in, the missions relied in the Bible colleges to screen out miscreants. On the day I moved into the dorm, one kid was going out in handcuffs--he abused one of the children from the "married students housing".

There was a way to get around any rule. Any pretty easy to get points in the "who's more spiritual" wars.

Once you graduated, had a church behind you, no one ever did other reference checks beyond those . . .

And suddenly, you are an authority. And able to make up your own rules.

The checks and balances I remember were these:

1) always try to get the single male missionaries to get married, lest they burn
2). Watch out for new missionaries--make sure they keep up with their daily devotions. Pray together--this is a good way to check on their walk with The Lord.
3). That's all I got

Maybe instead of watching out for everybody else's spirituality it might be wise to keep track of my own. Did they never think about this? Full stop.

Pamela, that's what keeps me in check!

Sorry, as i remember it was one of those older single guys on campus that lurk year after year. Most everyone is a kid to me. We used to watch them drive up on the second/third day after the freshman arrived to check out the fresh meat.

According to my Facebook feed, today is "Shine a Light on Slavery" day. The slavery we seek to raise awareness about includes sex trafficking. Which brings me back to the Tom Randall orphanage case. A source I trust tells me that children/minors from the Sankey Orphanage in the Philippines were being sexually used and abused, not only by orphanage staff, but by others as well ... hence the trafficking charge.

There is more to this story that will hopefully be revealed in the near future. For now, the side that has received the most publicity is the claim that Tom Randall was jailed for false accusations, and that his Filipino staff members have not done any of the things they are accused of doing. The truth, as I believe it, is that Tom himself did not abuse children, but he very naively trusted the people he had left in charge of his orphanage (spending most of his time far away in America), and has continued to believe their lies, instead of trusting his long-time American missionary friend and co-worker who was trying to alert him to the abuse reports that had been smuggled out of the orphanage.

Tom Randall continues to hold tightly to his version of this mess. Here is the latest post he wrote on the Free Tom Randall Facebook page:

Update from Tom: 2-25-13

Dear family and friends;

I am enjoying my freedom, my improving health and unrestricted time with Karen and friends! Your overwhelming support and prayers have proven the power of the body of Christ in prayer and faithfulness of a gracious Savior. My dilemma, because of the incredible volume of prayers from so many people, churches and countries is my inability to personally call and thank you all! Please accept my heartfelt indebtedness and gratefulness even though I have not yet reached out to you personally.

I have just finished my third medical procedure since returning to the US and am recovering at home. I enjoy talking to the kids in the Philippines (monster phone bill!) but loving hearing their voices. As I left home yesterday morning for this most recent procedure some of the girls sang to me one of my favorite songs. We are learning the depth of God’s immeasurable Grace.

We rejoice that over half our kids are back under our care and protection and returning to school with their brothers and sisters. Hearing their voices and listening to their horror stories of their time of detention and interrogation at the NBI Headquarters motivates me to get the rest of the kids released from various DSWD (children’s services) facilities and back within the protection and care of the family that loves them.

The unnecessary “raid and rescue” (read arrest) of all of us resulted in their being split up, scared to death, and spread around the country with their school achievements for the year ruined. If that wasn’t enough trauma they had to watch me be handcuffed and knew I was in jail for 22 days. Please join us in prayer to free our remaining kids and satisfy their desire to join the rest of their brothers and sisters in Lucena City under our love, protection and care.

There are proper procedures and a process to address complaints or allegations of abuse at orphanages in the Philippines. I was warned before my arrival on December 11 that there were existing allegation of abuse at our children’s home, Sankey Samaritan. I began the process of cooperating with the local and regional NBI and DSWD leaders and to submit to their investigations and recommendations of how to proceed. The DSWD thanked me for cooperating fully and said they would recommend the next steps we might need to take once their investigation and interviews were complete. Before the local DSWD could give us any advice as to what steps, if any, would need to be taken the “raid and rescue” operation took place. Unfortunately, the national DSWD and the NBI Headquarters in Manila were not communicating and unaware of the ongoing investigation by their local counterparts in Lucena where we are located. This lack of communication and confusion between agencies and the very serious but completely untrue allegations urging an emergency raid culminated in my illegal arrest and the kids being detained.

After 22 days in jail no probable cause was found and my charges were dropped. The kids have no reason to continue to be held but only half of them have been released at this time. And we believe that in time the trumped up charges against Toto and Jake will also be dropped.

Please pray that we can free the kids and reunite our family. Knowing that a few phone calls between agencies, less gossip and interference by others outside of Sankey, could have avoided so much pain and not put so many lives in danger. This has taught us the importance of the sovereignty of God. We have been driven back into His arms, dependent on His Grace alone! Our family at Sankey feels more compelled than ever to love each other and serve God more faithfully.
Because of Christ,
Tom


This story is not over. I will post more here when more is revealed.

Hang on the story has changed somewhat. Now we have an account of cooperating with the authorities before the "raid". But then the "raid" took place and the authorities are in the wrong because it was deemed unnecessary.
Without wishing to cause offence, someone is starting to believe they are a caped hero and anyone who gets in the way is a villain.

And ain't we heard all this before?