MK forum

I know this has been raised elsewhere, but perhaps we can put our collective thoughts and information together and answer the question- Why all the secrecy?

I was informed a week ago that a church in my area had received information from NTM about the abuse allegations. I was not given any details by the pastor and was answered in a one word answer that left no room for questions.

I emailed this to Larry Brown a week ago and have heard nothing:

Dear Mr. Brown:

I am writing in regards to the GRACE report and the abuse that occurred at the Fanda mission school. I have some questions as to how NTM is handling the notification of the churches who support NTM missionaries.

Would you be so kind as to inform me how this process is being handled and what information supporting churches are receiving?

As a graduate of NTBI-Jackson and a former associate member with New Tribes Mission, I am extremely grieved to learn of the abuse these precious missionary's children have suffered at the hands of NTM personnel.

I look forward to seeing you and the executive committee facilitate bringing about swift justice to those who have clearly committed criminal acts of abuse.

I know some others have asked about the report NTM is sending to supporting churches. Has anyone received an answer?

I plan to resend my email and add more of the EC to it.

Maybe we should all send emails on the same day to NTM and inundate them. I don't know. I just don't get the secrecy. Secrecy is only necessary when there is something to hide.

I am so grieved over this and I did nothing wrong. How can the people who allowed the abuse to continue by not taking proper action and covered up the abuse live with themselves? How are you not bowed low by the conviction of the Holy Spirit?

How can you go on, leaders of New Tribes? If you are truly repentant, put on your sackcloth and ashes and sit on the sidewalk outside of your building in Sanford, and wail and cry and mourn and beg God for His forgiveness and mercy. Stop everything within the mission until you have this sorted out, taken care of and are in good relations with the people you hurt. Until you have exhausted every means possible to ensure no child abuser will ever be within your oganization again.

Someone said, "God doesn't need New Tribes to fulfill the great commission." I 100% agree. I believe wholeheartedly that God will only honor you (collectively *and* individually) and your work reaching those who are lost IF you will humble yourselves before Him and repent and turn from the wicked ways we have read about here.

Here is what was sent to churches that support NTM missionaries in the USA

first letter:

Dear Pastor and Church Leaders,

It is with a broken heart, that I report to you that in recent months, a number of missionary children, now adults, have come forward to express hurt, frustration and anger, as a result of abuse which happened to them on the NTM Senegal field during the 1980's and 1990's. Though NTM has taken some steps in the past to address those complaints, the responses were too little, too late.

We, the leadership of NTM acknowledge our failure to properly respond over the years to the disclosures of this inexcusable abuse. The current Board of Directors of NTM USA has unanimously determined that this issue will be addressed in a comprehensive manner for the following reasons:

1. We stand accountable before God to our members - including their children, to our ministry partners, and to the laws of the countries we minister in.

2. We desire that the whole story be revealed so that we can respond appropriately.

3. We desire to demonstrate our full repentance to the sins committed to these dear folks and their families.

4. We desire to expose any weaknesses in our current policies and practices to protect the future of NTM children.

NTM has sought the guidance of GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) to ensure that it painstakingly researches and investigates this matter with truth, compassion, and completeness as an independent unbiased third party. GRACE is an organization whose sole purpose is to train and equip the Christian community in how to respond to disclosures of child sexual abuse in a manner which serves and honors those who have been abused. The GRACE Board of Directors has over 100 years of combined experience advocating for the protection of children.

Based upon its findings, GRACE will make substantive recommendations to NTM which will include specific measures we must take to demonstrate full repentance to the many precious individuals who have been wronged and hurt by our sin. Please pray that God will grant us wisdom, courage and compassion as we are committed to responding in a God-honoring way to this issue.

If you have further questions, please contact Joseph Goodman, our Director of Personnel, at: 407-547-2328

Sincerely,
Larry Brown
Chairman/CEO
New Tribes Mission USA

second letter:

Dear Pastor and Church Leaders,

Last November I wrote to share sad news concerning some missionary children, now adults, who experienced abuse at NTM\'s Fanda school in Senegal in the 1980s and 1990s. I conveyed to you that we had commissioned an independent organization to do a comprehensive investigation of this abuse and recommend steps NTM should take. I also asked for your prayers that God would grant us wisdom and courage to respond in a God-honoring way.

GRACE, the independent organization, sent us their report on Aug. 23 and met with us on Aug. 28 to give us further insight and counsel. We knew that there had been incidents of sexual and physical abuse at the school. The report confirmed this as well as failures in NTM\'s response to it. We were again grieved by the abuse and NTM\'s failures.

The report gave us a number of recommendations which we have already begun to implement. By the time you receive this we expect to have completed actions in regard to the 20 personnel named in the report. Within 6 months NTM will sponsor a retreat between the NTM USA Executive Board and all former students from the school who wish to attend. A fund will be set up to help those who experienced abuse with expenses such as counseling.

NTM formalized and implemented many new child protection policies in 1997. Since then we have worked together with a group of more than 30 mission and church-affiliated agencies to establish standards for child safety policies and procedures for prevention and response. Like NTM, the agencies are committed to actively pursue allegations of abuse. We are beginning an evaluation of how effectively these policies and best practices have been implemented at each NTM boarding school.

These efforts are proving effective. And while we are greatly encouraged with our progress, we have asked GRACE to evaluate our current policies and practices to determine if there are ways to strengthen protection for our students.

For those who would like additional information, we have pages on our NTM website on this topic which we update on a regular basis. You can find a link to the Fanda Update pages at NTM.org. If you have further questions, please contact Joseph Goodman, our Director of Personnel, at: 407-547-2328 or joe_goodman@ntm.org

Coveting your prayers as we continue to press on,
Larry Brown, chairman
for the NTM USA Executive Board

Thank you for posting those.

@Gene Long
I really think you missed your calling. I think you should have gone into Public Relations.

CRITICAL DECISION REGARDING FUTURE INVESTIGATIONS

October 12, 2010

by Larry Brown, NTM USA chairman, for the Executive Board

This week, October 12-14, the Executive Board has its normally scheduled Board meetings. We will seek to make some critical decisions and we covet your prayers.

One of those critical decisions is how to handle future abuse investigations. In our last NTM eNews we made a general statement about this to let you know that we are talking about what NTM USA policies will be. Unfortunately, this stirred up a lot of dialogue which led to many false assumptions about NTM doing in-house investigations, controlling the process etc.

We want you to know that we have not concluded on a specific approach yet. We have no desire to do in-house investigations, nor do we plan to control them. Thirteen months ago, we contracted GRACE to investigate the Fanda abuse. Now we are evaluating where to go from here. The Executive Board will be processing this decision and others during this week's board meetings.

The Executive Board wishes to express again that we are committed to address any abuse allegation that is brought to our attention. All will be investigated and the appropriate action will be taken. It's painful to see this ugliness come out, seemingly all at once, but it's a journey that we are committed to walk through with integrity.

Many of you remember the mid 90s when missionaries began expressing how the paternalistic, at times autocratic, legalistic style of leadership within NTM affected them as students and as new missionaries in their ministries. Through that feedback many changes were made; the EC sent out a letter of apology for the culture that this leadership fostered, and many transitions began to take place.

Today we are hearing from those who experienced autocratic, legalistic leadership as children. They are letting us know what it felt like and how it affected them. Tragically, some were abused and had no clear way to defend themselves. Some children felt that they were less valued than the ministry. Others felt that whoever couldn't fit into a tribal work was relegated to a ministry at a school. Some feared that they would be responsible for souls lost if they revealed abuse and thus hindered ministry. These are griefs children should not have to bear and they leave lasting effects.

In some ways, this is a continuation of the feedback from the mid 90s that precipitated the change in NTM that began in 1996. Many of these children, now adults, fear that the NTM of their childhood is the NTM of today. It is not. Many of us have been working hard over the past 15 years to make sure that the changes initiated in 1996 would be on-going and far-reaching.

The crucial question we need to ask ourselves is "How are we doing with those things that God showed us back then?"


* How much are we aligned to functioning in grace as we interact? Have we reached a plateau or are we still receptive to allowing God to grow us deeper in understanding a walk of grace?

* What about child protection? A growing momentum in this area started back in 1996 when policies were established that have helped safeguard our children. Is there more we should be doing?

* What about leadership? Are we leading in grace with respect and appreciation of each team member?


Many of you have expressed that reading about the abuse that took place in NTM is heartbreaking and you feel ashamed. There are more allegations coming out. When are we going to get to the bottom of it?

I encourage you to study the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5. Naaman had leprosy which is sometimes used in Scripture as a picture of sin. Naaman went to Elisha expecting that during the healing of his leprosy he would be treated with the honor befitting a man of his importance.

He was offended and angry that Elisha didn't even come out to see him but rather sent his servant with instructions for Namaan to wash in the dirty Jordan River seven times. Naaman's angry reaction exposed the pride of his heart. Eventually he went to the river to wash.

Here's the point. In order to wash in the river, there was a need for Naaman to take off his clothes, exposing his leprosy just as sin needs to be exposed so that it can be cleansed. Naaman preferred that Elisha just wave over the place where the leprosy was and have it be healed.

I've asked myself, if God wanted to expose sin in NTM, how would we expect Him to do that? Would He do that in a manner that would make us feel warm and fuzzy? Would He do that in private, concealed from those we're accountable to? Dealing with sin is a heart wrenching, vulnerable and painful experience that demands humility on our part. We certainly feel that today. We're feeling the results of sin that has had such an impact on these former students, on their families and on us.

Here's the encouragement: after Naaman submitted himself to the process of exposure and cleansing. God healed him.

My challenge to you is this: let's keep ourselves in a position where God can complete His work. It's going to take courage, understanding and a commitment to stay the course. God will discipline and teach us in love. Let's not miss those imperative lessons.

This latest response from Larry demonstrates a good beginning. Let's see what the trickle-down effect is and how far such public letters reach practical solutions . . . .

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In general, I have been 'hit' by statements like the one bolded above, where NTM states that "we" have not concluded, the EC will be meeting and making decisions, etc.

Is anyone else getting that tone? Does it still sound like NTM *is* still making all the decisions? Or is it just the way I read it?[/quote]
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It is their decision to make. However, the degree to which they get input from others in the decision making process will determine the degree of acceptance/resolution the results have with those who have been hurt.

This forum only represents a small percentage of MK's who are out there and so there really is no clear way of getting that input that will be satisfactory to "all NTM MK's and their families". The best thing NTM can do at this point is to be transparent about the decisions they are making and the reasons for those decisions.

I think this communication is a good start.