MK forum

It's 2017. I would love to start this new year with a clean slate. But I can't yet. There is unfinished business to tackle.

IHART/NTM's report on MK abuse at NTM's school in Tambo, Bolivia was made public on Dec. 16, 2016.

Theresa Sidebotham, the attorney who is the coordinator of IHART (which is a "process" of NTM), is clearly a very strategic thinker and planner. It was smart to release this report on Tambo right before the holiday season. I suppose she hoped people would barely pay it any attention at all.

I remember back to the early days of this journey, back in the 2010-2011 time range, when there was actual, real, humble and transparent communication from NTM. There were real facts being posted publicly on the NTM website, and concern was shown for MKs who were in pain as a result of childhood abuse.

Today I looked through the NTM website, searching in vain for any sort of notification that all three of IHART's internal investigations have now been concluded: first Vianopolis, E Brazil, then Panama, and now Tambo, Bolivia.

Nothing. Everything in the Historical Reviews section is the same as it has been for the last couple of years. Anyone reading this would conclude that investigations are still ongoing, and that people who have information or wish to participate in an investigation should contact Theresa.

https://usa.ntm.org/about/historical-reviews

The opposite of love is not hate. It's apathy.

NTM shows through their website how they really feel about their MKs -- the children of their own missionaries! -- they really don't care.

They are just moving on. But I am not. Not yet, anyway.

Agreed.

And most of all - the names of those for whom there was a preponderance of evidence that they were, in fact, guilty of abuse of MKs, and what, if any, action was taken against them. And the names of those who were in direct leadership, both at the field and executive levels, that had, or should have had, knowledge of the abuse, what they did, or didn't, do about it, and what actions, if any, were taken against them.

As we have seen in the ABWE case of Dr. Donn Ketcham, it is important for the public to know the names of abusers. It's quite likely that they have more victims who may be afraid to come forward.

Yes! I have lots more to say, including regarding the protection provided to child abusers by Theresa's refusal to name names! Just need more time to research and write.

After reading both of IHART's reports on their investigations into MK abuse in Panama and Bolivia, I feel I need to clarify/correct something. I cannot blame Theresa Sidebotham for taking whatever NTM tells her at face value and including it in her reports. Theresa is not a veteran of NTM like I myself am, having been a part of the mission from 1952 to 2001. Nor has she been following developments on Fanda Eagles as closely as I have, from 2010 to the present.

From IHART's Panama Historical Investigation Summary Report (pg 28):

"NTM USA initially commissioned the Panama Field investigation due to an allegation made by an MK who had attended EHM in Panama. The student, who was 10 at the time, committed a minor infraction of the rules. A staff person beat this student bloody, with a weighted fishing rod. The student’s parents were actually staying near the school at the time. The parents discovered the injuries when the student could not sit down for dinner. His father confronted the erring staff person, but took no formal action. This student has remembered the pain and humiliation of this incident through the years and reported the incident to the IHART team."

From the Bolivia report (pg 23):

"NTM USA initially commissioned the Bolivia Field investigation due to an allegation made by an MK who had attended Tambo. The student alleged a beating from a teacher. NTM USA decided to have the Bolivia Field investigated."

NTM USA decided to have the Bolivia Field investigated? Oh yes, they did. But that is not exactly how that decision came about.

Here is a better timeline of how things unfolded:

July 2009 - The Fanda Eagles website was created by Kari and Bonnie, two MKs who had been sexually abused in NTM’s MK school in Fanda, Senegal, years before.

September 2009 - Kari and Bonnie agreed with NTM to use GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) to investigate abuse at Fanda.

June 2010 - The Fanda Eagles site expanded with a Forums section for posts and easy interaction. Various sections were added for other NTM schools. Stories of abuse from all over the world and from many decades were posted.

August 2010 - GRACE released their 67-page report on abuse at Fanda, which included detailed recommendations to NTM for consequences to specific, named abusers and those who covered up or mishandled reports of abuse.

November 2010 - A petition, with 528 signatures, was submitted to NTM. The purpose of the petition:
To insist that NTM employ an outside agency to conduct the investigations of child abuse in other locations. Many posters on Fanda Eagles urged NTM to use GRACE for further investigations, but these requests went unheeded.

April 2011 - Pat Hendrix was hired by NTM as the "independent coordinator" who would administer investigations. Pat announced that her team would be called IHART – Independent Historical Abuse Review Team.

March 2012 - Brian Shortmeier sent out a letter to MKs and other interested parties. It can be read in full here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=610&start=280 Here is an excerpt:
"Sept 2011 – IHART received all of NTM’s files on historical child abuse cases in Bolivia, Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Mexico, Venezuela and Panama. Investigations were slated to begin as investigators were in place. Experienced investigators were being recruited, interviewed and oriented."

The implication in IHART's reports is that the Panama and Bolivia investigations were commissioned because of single abuse reports from individual MKs. The truth is that NTM ALREADY KNEW that in their files were NUMEROUS child abuse reports. They set up their sham "company" (as many misunderstood it to be) to conduct "investigations" that were supposed to be "independent", only because of the insistence by many of us (528 of us signed the petition) that the abused MKs from other fields in NTM needed to be heard, and that their suffering must be investigated. We wanted the mission to use GRACE for these other investigations, but our requests fell on deaf ears.

Theresa is what we used to call "an outsider" when I was in NTM. This is the only sense in which she and Pat Hendrix are/were "independent" from the mission. They are not members of the mission, but they have been controlled by NTM USA all along. And they have believed what NTM told them. Even when we have not.

The most recently finished IHART "investigation" was the one done on child abuse in Bolivia.

Keep in mind that IHART is now described as "a process of NTM". Also, in her reports on Panama and Bolivia, Theresa Sidebotham is now using the term "internal investigation". It should be very clear to everyone that these so-called investigations are not independent or unbiased.

I have written extensively about my observations and criticisms of the Bolivia report in a thread in the Bolivia section: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1465 So I will not repeat myself here, but I encourage anyone who is trying to figure out how NTM has handled the many child abuse reports they've received over the years to read that thread.

I also feel it is imperative that I point out the very close affiliation and influence that NTM has with the Child Safety and Protection Network.

Here is a quote from pg 22 of IHART's Bolivia report, under the section titled "Early Years of Child Safety Policies within NTM":

"In the mid-1990s, Scott Ross, legal counsel at NTM headquarters, instigated the formation of a
Child Protection Committee and child protection policy. He was instrumental in helping form the
inter-mission Child Safety and Protection Network and created a series of training programs to
aid NTM missionaries’ understanding of child abuse. While early steps were not without their
shortcomings, Ross was a pioneer in the Evangelical missionary context in regard to improving
child safety and protection."

Scott Ross was indeed one of the founders of CSPN, which has now grown to include over 70 agencies, mission organizations and schools. http://www.childsafetyprotectionnetwork.org/

Anyone who has studied and compared this organization and the response of NTM to child abuse allegations can see the interconnectedness. "Best practices" of IHART are based on the guidelines set by CSPN. Theresa Sidebotham is a prominent participant in CSPN's conferences. In CSPN's "Inquiry Team Training", people from various mission groups and international/MK schools are being taught principles and processes that have guided IHART and NTM.

The wagons have circled, due to the foresight of Scott Ross. On pg 51 of GRACE's report on abuse at Fanda, GRACE notes, "New Tribes has acknowledged that there were between 80-90 NTM child abuse allegations worldwide at the time Scott became in-house counsel for NTM." I think that Scott Ross anticipated the firestorm that was coming, and he came up with a plan to protect NTM and any other missions or schools that might come under criticism for the mishandling of child abuse events in the past.

A recent abuse investigation that concerned allegations from several decades ago (at a non-NTM school overseas) illustrates my point. The team that conducted that investigation had close connections with CSPN. In that "investigation" report also, the perpetrator was never named (also referred to as AO, as in the IHART reports. Which offends me, by the way, since if the investigation verifies that this person was indeed an offender, why would you continue to call this "alleged"??) And the MK abuse survivors were left feeling that their memories were being doubted, the severity of their abuse was questioned, and the people who mishandled their situation at the time it occurred were being protected.

This leads me to warn anyone who might think that they can trust CSPN-trained "inquiry teams" to be very careful. Interviewers can come across as being so empathetic and validating, but if, in the end, an abuse survivor does not get the result they hoped for, these so-called investigations can just heap more pain onto a person whose life has already been difficult, if not intolerable.

My heart breaks for the countless victims of abuse all over the world who reach out for help, only to be pushed back down in the waves.

Tears for the children.