MK forum

Dear sweet Fanda Eagles and Brave Ntm's who choose to follow the path Jesus pointed to:
I have no words to describe the weight that descended upon my heart when I heard of All the pain endured by missionary children at the hands of those who were supposed to care for them. I was on Facebook when I got a notification of the name change. Immediately I smelled a fish, and was grateful for a generalized comment that suggested I check google for a possible reason. I read the comments of the Fanda forum. I was devastated. I didn't actually read the this is my story, as I am prone to depression. What I found out is completely inexcusable. The cover ups, the denials, and the platitudes wrapped in scripture are simply nauseating. I read till 5 am, then had to cancel my morning coffee date to to the overwhelming sense of anguish in my spirit. So I spent my entire day reading..Lori's Gary Earl thread. I even asked myself what am I accomplishing for the kingdom through this? Nevertheless I persisted, I needed to know. My final decision was to devour ethnos360, to see what was to be said of this nightmare. The blithe quotes regarding only mere responsibility for historical abuses highlights just how deep the mould of selfrighteouness still resides within the current organization. Not one word of apology. Not one mention of remorse or repentance. I just wanted to let you know in the end this sly name change will probably alert many, many supporters. This.. This disgusting abuse of the Gospel. I have more to say, but my shift begins in 30 minutes. I am so infinitely proud of you Eagles, and missionaries who stepped out into the great unknown so as to have nothing to do with evildoers.

Stacinator, thanks for reading. I had some long long nights too, reading and writing. The posts you referenced about Earl Gray are intense in their honest appraisal and recall. I love that you read them.

I'm prone to depression too . . .try to keep well.

Thank you so much, Stacinator, for taking the time to check into things ... many people just don't want to find out what might be bad news about a mission they thought could be trusted. I know it is very painful to learn about things that happened to the children of missionaries. And also very hard to understand why New Tribes Mission would not want to respond to these concerns in the right way; the Godly way. Thank you for your message of concern and support! We appreciate it very much!

I also want you to know I am gently informing the folks who care to ask on the comments section why this name change is poppycock. whenever someone asks to simply go look. Someone directly asked me what I was speaking of.. So I put up a comment, left it for the time being, then converted the direct request into a message. At the very least, at the moment they are not deleting comments. It's funny though some old lady said that name sounds like a bad video game. To which another lovely soul said oh this isn't the place for such venom...honestly what is it about criticizing people who have a different opinion? Its the most public forum ever..facebook. NTM called this meeting by notifying me of the name change. Even grannies can use Facebook. And me thinks there's going to be some very twisted knickers when they figure out how to use google.

I'd like to add to Rachel's post about Sidobotham by re-posting about Scott Ross, who continues, from I last heard, to still be engaged with NTM. The C&MA, the mission I was born into, hired him around 2008 to investigate reports of abuse C&MA alumni were making. They posted this flyer (with a picture of him and his wife) regarding his experience. When I called Scott Ross and asked if he had reported the perpetrators he had proven guilty to law enforcement and child protection agencies, he said "well no, I'm just now realizing I should have". We recommended C&MA alumni not submit reports; those that did submit reports were found to have insufficient grounds to move the inquiry forward. Its no coincidence of course, that he and Sidiobatham eventually partnered, and that she became a lead internal investigator for NTM.

I deeply admire your courage, D&A, in making the decisions you have. It's not easy; and so very few in the C&MA, NTM and other denominations have had the courage to leave their place of employment regardless of the evidence of systemic endangerment of children within many mission cultures.


Scott Ross
The Ross Group
Principal

Scott Ross has been a member of New Tribes Mission for 22 years and House Counsel for 14 years. He is a graduate of Idaho State University and Gonzaga University Law School and is licensed to practice law in the states of Washington, Idaho and Florida. For 10 years Scott had a general practice of law in Spokane, Washington with an emphasis on criminal defense and then for 2 years served as a City Attorney.

Scott and his wife Debbie together with his two children served with New Tribes Mission in Papua New Guinea from 1987 until 1993 when he was transferred to New Tribes Mission’s home office in Sanford Florida to join the Crisis Management team handling the kidnapping of three of NTM’s missionaries in Panama. For the next 11 years Scott worked on kidnappings in Panama, Colombia, Indonesia and the Philippines as well as filled the House Counsel role for New Tribes Mission.

At present Scott is General Counsel for New Tribes Mission, consultant to the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, an adjunct senior trainer for Fort Sherman Academy, an international crisis management training academy. He has consulted on several crisis events for numerous missions and has been lead investigator in over 120 mission child abuse investigations. Scott has produced a 5 part video series on child abuse and a video on common mistakes made by churches and missions when confronted with a child abuse allegation which is being used by several mission agencies in their child safety programs.

He is considered one of the premier investigators in resolving charges of abuse by missionary children. His success rate in proving the guilt of the perpetrators is well over 85 percent. He is the author of training material for NTM related to preventing child abuse and a key player in establishing the Child Safety & Protection Network of mission agencies.

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"He (Scott Ross) is considered one of the premier investigators in resolving charges of abuse by missionary children. His success rate in proving the guilt of the perpetrators is well over 85 percent."

Of course most are not even considered because NTM can't find the evidence that sits right in front of their noses. They are so far sighted they can't see the evidence so Scott Ross has an 85 % success rate.

My husband and I were in one of the boarding schools that was investigated by iHart. But we were the lucky ones - there was abuse before we got there - and there was abuse after we graduated. As far as anyone knows, there was none while we were there. However, we were interviewed by iHart because we knew some of the perpetrators. I was glad there was a report being made, glad some of this was coming out - expected retribution and conviction. Sounds like that is not going to happen.

When our children were both grown, just barely out of high school, we came home on a furlough (allowed one year) and realized that both of our kids were floundering. We asked the mission for an extension on our furlough, could we stay 2 years instead of one to help get them better established. The answer was no - we could leave the mission, stay as long as needed, then return to the training camp and rejoin. So we resigned - and never went back. We had been involved in tribal ministry and kept our eyes focused on the people where we ministered. We were vaguely aware of many problems, but most did not concern us so we ignored them. It was finally too much and we left.

I sincerely believe, no matter what the explanation being given, that the basic reason for this name change is to try to get away from the stigma now attached to NTM.

Thanks for your post, Batty. Yes, I agree with you. There is definitely a stigma.

One thing that will happen now, I guess, is that when someone Googles Ethnos360, Google will no longer show links to this Fanda Eagles website ... so in that sense, yes, they will feel more protected. People won't connect their new name with child abuse, lawsuits, investigations, and the arrest and conviction of one of their missionaries, Warren Scott Kennell.

Raz if there are a lot of threads on Fanda Eagles that names Ethnos360 often it will come up quicker on google.