MK forum

Thanks, everyone for the warm welcome! I appreciate your words of encouragement.

@Shary...I have heard about the MK Conference and my husband and I spent a few days thinking about it to see if it would work. Unfortunately, we are expecting a women's short-term team from our home church that same week, which complicated my desire to go to the conference...since I am part of hosting the team, I really need to be here for that, but I was very torn between the two. I am very disappointed to miss out on this great opportunity for MKs to get together face to face!

My Dear Another MK,

Your story interests me. While most people in NTM have a monocultural relationship, you and I don't and your mention of this as being a source for not being accepted has me thinking again about this issue. I'm not sure if you've figured out, but I'm from South (no not Texas), the really long way South, Downunder.
We were let know in no uncertain terms that we were second class missionaries and MKs, and there to do what we were told. There was no Abraham Lincoln to deliver us, so we were well and truly stuffed. To complicate matters, not all from New Zealand are white, hell no, some of us are a lovely shade of dark brown and at least five kiwi missionaries who were with NTM were so (given the small number of missionaries eminating from our fair shores, that is a high percentage). And shock horror, we intermarry a lot (my wife for instance has part Chinese heritage).
So I'd be interesting knowing what your experience was in NTM because of this.

Kind regards to yourself and your good man.

Bemused of the deep deep South (one stop up from Penguinville)

Ah Kiwis, a strange and cheeky breed of people.

Must be the only country who before a sporting contest does a war dance culminating with rolling their eyes and sticking their tongues out (google haka, to see), tends to leave the opposition confused and intimidated.
Wonder how that will go down at the conference in Chicago .

You don't have meat pies in the U.S.? They're eaten regularly now, although we've recently branched out into such flavours as "Butter Chicken" and "Thai Green Curry" (that will make Raz smile), but no horsemeat like the British. The Australians also eat a lot of pies, our cultures being pretty similar (like Canadians and their friends to the South).

Oh the Lord of the Ring films and the Hobbit, we like to think we are on the cutting edge of movie making with our contributions. Well compared to the Australians we are, as they're claim to fame is "Prissilia Queen of the Desert", about a bus called Prissila who is driven round the desert by dancing transvestites .

By all means create a new thread, it is good to widen our horizons. Don't worry most Kiwis are quite sane, the jury is still out in my case though.

Gotta go, need to spring clean the house before the Hobbits arrive home.

My boys were absolutely fascinated by haka and Maori weapons! Of course, they think the tongue protrusion is hilarious, but I kept reminding them that it's really not in the context of haka. I can't imagine being faced with a group of Maori warriors in full battle mode!

We do have meat pies in the U.S. but are not that common, perhaps, at least not where I'm from. The closest would be something like an Italian Calzone or the chicken potpie?

Did you kiwis see that my late brother-in-law (possom Bourne)was the second person entered into the Australian rally Hall of Fame!

I met possum a couple of times and was a fan of his. The whole country was in shock when he died.

Hello, fellow Mks. Reading the testimonies cuts me deep, knowing such horror happened. And by people who appeared so spiritual. And I find it remarkable that each of you have been so brave and courageous to speak out and share these sensitive memories. I can see that human depravity is so great that there is always a potential for any person to act repugnantly despite apparent spirituality. Each one of your stories is a reminder that we must value accountability, esp. in leadership and on every level of society.

As my username indicates, I am an NTM MK from Guinea, West Africa. I'm a bit younger than most of you and grew up on the field more recently so the NTM culture there may prove to have been a bit different (even aside from the fact that it was a different "field"). My story is a happier story, too. At first I wondered why I would post if I didn't have a testimony of abuse. But I now I think this may offer a little balance to the representation NTM is getting on these forums and I also saw the invitation for all fields to be represented. I realize these forums are for the purpose of bringing the abuse that happened within NTM by NTMers to light, and so the overwhelming emphasis on this negative aspect makes sense. Bring it! But for the few who wonder which NTM fields did not have these Mission School failures, may this post offer a partial response.

The NTM Guinea field hosted and ran an MK boarding school twice during its existence. At first in the early 90s (it closed because of a lack of personnel mid 90s) and later between 2005-2012 (again closing for lack of personnel). Never have I heard of anything below repute being done by anyone involved either time (my older siblings attended the school in the 90s). And my time at the school from 2008-2010 was wonderful. I always felt like we were well taken care of.

The truth is, NTM is learning. During my time at the boarding school I recognized steps the leadership was taking to protect the children, add layers of accountability and see that the children feel freedom to get help if they ever feel mistreated. NTM is learning and all because of you who've been brave enough to speak up loudly and persistently until heard. Thank you. I pray you all will find healing at our Savior's hand and forgiveness for those who've done you terrible wrong. And I pray for the present NTM leadership on every level, as they are now humbling bearing the heat and taking responsibility for what was done in the past as well as making steps to reduce the opportunities for history to be repeated.

Thank you again.
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