Many thanks for that insight. I wonder if your families decision not to hide what had happened, has prevented a bad situation from getting even worse.
I'm not sure why families I know do not speak amongst themselves about abuse matters in NTM, I suspect it is a mixture of denial, not wishing to upset supporters and pressure from management. And yet of the small population of ex NTM families that I know down here, about half have broken down, i.e. there is little or no connection between children and parents.
And yet despite this, some of the parents still meet in little prayer groups and no doubt pretend that none of it is their or NTMs fault, it is those old "bitter spirits" or "not walking with the lord" problem.
Take my own bizarre existence for example. I am estranged from my family, they are unsure where I live. My father was asked for 30 years to call a family conference to sort out the NTM related issues, yet he refused. He has been threatened by Dean Van Vliet (former PNG field chairmen then executive committee in Sanford) in the past to get me to stop inquiring about the past and he complied with the threat. I suspect that Crossview is pressuring my father to try and stop the leak of information about their past from continuing (I have in my possession a threatening letter written to myself) and no doubt my father is sycophantically complying to their threats and demands.
I guess like you, I could be labelled an activist against institutional child abuse, with, for obvious reasons a prime interest in the activities of NTM. What I've found I have come up against is an organisation that exudes the appearance of a wholesome, caring and dedicated piousness that has elite members who will sacrifice everything for a noble cause.
The truth is far different, as we have both found out. Broken lives after broken lives and a heavy handed approach to keep much of it from leaking out into the public arena.
And caught up in this mess are thousands of people, when added in are all the supporters, the many Tribers who just upped and left with little explanation and MKs who have disappeared off the radar.
You've done well to hold your family together and this is a credit to your hardwork, honesty and caring. Alas what has happened in my own family is a total lack of honesty, little caring and the only hardwork is keeping a lid on this awful mess.
And so we battle on, exposing this mess, often from our personal files, in an effort to help others feel they are not alone or make informed choices on how to handle what has happened in their own lives.
Thank you again for the insight into what has made you who you are. Yes you might be a little unusual, but with myself for company, you probably appear sanely normal
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