MK forum

Good to hear.

Could this be ABWE's "Fanda moment"?

I am imagining this phone conversation between Larry Brown, Chairman and CEO of NTM-USA, and Al Cockrell, interim president of ABWE:

Al: This has been a tough couple of weeks, brother. Things are looking pretty bleak for us.

Larry: I feel your pain, Al. I went through the same thing, six years ago when the report on Fanda was released.

Al: Six years ago? Wow, I am surprised you organization survived! This negative publicity is making a lot of people ask us tough questions.

Larry: Believe me, your organization will be okay. I'll tell you, when the Fanda report came out, I lost a lot of sleep. I really didn't know how things would turn out for us. I traveled up to our mission's Refresher Course for furloughing missionaries, and there are folks who will remember how I shed tears of sorrow over what happened to our MKs in Senegal. People could see I was devastated, and they worried about my physical and mental health. I am thankful that with the prayers of God's people, I survived, and everything turned out well.

Al: I am concerned about the attitudes of those MKs from Bangladesh who say they were abused by Donn Ketcham. Even though we bit the bullet and put the entire report from Pii on our website, they don't seem to be completely satisfied. Even though they are all adults now, I am not sure they are ready to forgive and move on. You could be praying for their hearts in all this. I am praying that God will heal their hurt so they can just let things go.

Larry: I understand your concern. I was worried about the MKs from Fanda too. Some of them seem to be hanging on to bitterness. I am not sure they are all walking with the Lord, you know? They still seem to be holding on to the past. They have kept their Fanda Eagles website up, for the whole six years since they got their report! This has caused a lot of unrest among MKs from other countries, who say they had a hard time too. So we've had to come up with ways to ride out this rocky period in our mission's history. I think things have gone pretty quiet now. We are just waiting it out, till everyone calms down.

Al: So when it's all said and done, you don't think the fact that children of your missionaries were harmed sexually and physically has had an adverse effect on NTM?

Larry: No, I don't think so, praise God. Financially we have been receiving ever increasing amounts of money. Most of our donors have never heard of Fanda, and are not even aware that there is any controversy. Our candidate enrollment is down considerably, but we think that is due to other current factors, and has nothing to do with reports of child abuse.

Al: Well, this really encourages me, brother. Maybe things are not as bleak as I feared. This has been a bitter pill to swallow, but maybe in a few more weeks our situation will become old news. The American public has a short attention span, and this is an election year, so there is plenty of other news, about politicians, and restrooms, and such.

Larry: Yes, just hold on. I am sure everything will turn out fine. I have such a heart for the work, and I know you do too. We are together on this. And you can count on CSPN too. They've got our backs. That organization has been really helpful to us and to others who have these small issues come up. They have trained a number of investigators who can help you, if any other abuse reports surface. You know our Scott Ross was part of the founding of that group. We are thankful God led him to help in forming that group when he did.

Al: Well, I understand Scott also had a hand in getting Professional Investigators International going! You guys assured ABWE they'd be a good group to take over the Bangladesh investigation when we fired GRACE. And now look how things turned out. This was not quite what we hoped for.

Larry: Well, I do have to apologize for that. (chuckle) Pii has changed quite a bit in their stance. Maybe when they started talking to MKs about their childhoods, it just got to be too much for them. I don't think they knew ahead of time just how many abuse stories they would hear. I am an MK myself, you know. I understand why some MKs have complaints about what things were like for them. But I turned out just fine.

Al: Yes, most MKs are grateful for their childhoods, and the way their sacrifices helped make their parents' ministries a success. We just need to keep praying for the few who insist on bringing up complaints about things that can't be fixed.

Larry: Yes, brother. We continue praying that God will move in their hearts so they will stop dwelling on the past. But as for you, and ABWE, I just want to assure you: you are going to come out of this season just fine. Believe me, I know. We are all praying for you. You know we are with you in this.

Al: Thank you, Larry. Your support means a great deal to us. If any more abuse reports surface, we won't make the same mistake again. We have learned from you. Using an independent company to investigate is too risky. We know now that there is a safer way to handle things.

http://piisafe.org/wp-content/uploads/2 ... eport2.pdf

Pii writes 18 pages about the preferential treatment given to Dr Donn Ketcham. See pages 99-117 of the report.

(Underlining added.)

"This section will demonstrate decades of preferential treatment afforded Donn Ketcham
by ABWE in dealing with his inappropriate and abusive behaviors toward fellow
missionaries, missionary children, and Nationals. This will include an overall picture of
how his family name, his medical profession, and his domineering personality played a
part in this preferential treatment i.e., the various inappropriate behaviors he exhibited,
his responses to his inappropriate behavior, and actions taken by Donn Ketcham toward
other missionaries. This analysis is critical in that if ABWE and its leadership had at any
juncture removed Donn Ketcham from the field and/or from the organization, significant
portions of his affirmed pedophilia of young women on the hospital compound, and
perhaps in the National population, would not have been possible."

"Exceptions to the rule and inconsistencies in discipline:

The investigation affirmed that the ABWE Board and Administration
repeatedly violated its Principles and Practices and consistently gave Donn
Ketcham preferential treatment."

"ABWE’s Principles and Practices were not enforced for Donn Ketcham"

Does this sound familiar, for those of us who have been following developments in NTM?

Have there been any signs of preferential treatment given to child abusers, because of a family name, family ties to people currently serving in the mission, or someone's domineering personality?

Yes, indeed. Prevalent. Because of the intermarriage that has taken place in the mission family, and because multiple generations often continue in "the work", there have definitely been instances when it appears to me that people have received preferential treatment. We don't want to upset people's children or grandchildren, do we? (I am not unsympathetic to the deep and painful consequences to family members, when a missionary's abusive past comes to light. But that does NOT mean a perpetrator deserves protection. What they did was WRONG. It is just as wrong if the son of a mission leader commits a crime as it is if a short-term nobody does it.)

NTM has repeatedly violated its own rules. Such standards hold no value, if mission leadership keeps coming up with "valid" reasons not to enforce them.

Why was Gary Earl required to resign, instead of being dismissed, as required by mission policy?

Why was Frank Parker's pedophilia softened to "acts of misconduct against minors", when the IHART report clearly stated that he had committed sexual, physical, and emotional abuse? Why were his supporters not informed of the findings?

Why is Susan Major still listed as a retired member of the mission?

Time and again, NTM has not followed through with the consequences spelled out by their own policies. Yes, I know these situations are complicated. Yes, I realize there are often many factors to consider, including the collateral damage inflicted on innocent people.

But for goodness sake! What's the point of having policies, if there's always a way around them??

Integrity. Integrity means being consistently honest and moral. If principles are not consistently followed, I don't think the word "integrity" really fits anymore.

What do you think, NTM?

Any preferential treatment in your history?

And Donna Beach.

MK Safety Net Canada has posted a Reader's Guide to Pii's report on abuse by ABWE's Dr Ketcham in Bangladesh. You may find this helpful in navigating the detailed report.

http://mksafetynetcanada.tumblr.com/pos ... nn-ketcham

And here again is a link to the report itself:

http://piisafe.org/wp-content/uploads/2 ... eport2.pdf

There would be no need for a long report by many investigators if this was the report:

Committed Crime
Captured
Convicted
Only one victim
Justice served

Instead we have a complete disaster, which has cost many dearly.

Precisely.