MK forum

I have been away, and am scrambling to catch up here on FE.

I missed a LOT of activity! The flying eagle on our page must be exhausted from carrying so many messages back and forth all over the world!

So let's see if I have this right in my head:

Gary Earl is not dismissed (or terminated). He is retiring. There will be no party. But he is retiring.

If he is retiring, why is his name and picture gone from the NTM Membership list on the website? The other retirees are on there. Wonderful people like my own parents. Even another person who was required to retire because an independent investigation found that she too had inflicted physical abuse on MKs is still on there, photo and all. Yes, some of you know her. She has been mentioned here before.

I am scratching my head and trying to get this all straight.

NTM, don't duck and hide. You know this man should be terminated. If you're not terminating him, then hold your head high and put him back on your list with everyone else. If you consider his missionary career to be impressive enough that he can connect himself with the name of your mission for the rest of his life, them claim him proudly. Don't hide him from public view like you're ashamed of him, if you're really not.

And for Pete's sake, get the guy OUT OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA, pronto! He's had more than enough time to "pack up"!

Disgusting.

Oh he's probably waiting for the dust to settle and a diversion to be created before slipping quietly out of PNG. I'm with Aussie, just a toothbrush and a clean pair of underwear and on that plane ASAP.

Yes Gary Earl has dragged good people like your folks who retired with dignity into his messy little world. He should have done the honourable thing and turned himself in. Instead he lied and said he was retiring, even blamed his wife's health problems and he would have got away with it, but he got exposed and now NTM is caught with its pants around its ankles and a lot of people are looking.

Not a pretty site is it?

GARY EARL:

I expect you are reading the things posted here these days.

If you haven't been, then one of your dwindling number of friends should recommend you do so.

Here is my message to you, Gary Earl:

If the Executive Board in Sanford doesn't have the courage to dismiss or terminate you, then I appeal to you to at least have the decency to resign, yourself.

I am no longer a member of NTM, but I was a part of the mission from babyhood to the age of 50. I have many friends and loved ones in the mission. Some of them are retired (with HONOR, including parties, receptions, gifts, plaques, etc.). Do not besmirch what is left of the reputation of this mission by clinging to your association with it. Do the right thing. Resign, if they won't fire you.

If you don't, this pressure will continue. We do not give up easily. The same integrity and tenacity that kept a 10-year-old girl holding firm to the truth while you beat her till she was bruised and bleeding and couldn't stand up by herself, that same indomitable spirit lives in some of the rest of us as well.

We are not shutting up. And we are not going away.

P.s. Raz forgot to mention that some of us MKs were treated badly because we didn't come from your country Mr Earl. But you see this now gives us an advantage, because we have one thing that you never had, GUTS!!!!!!!
We aren't scared of what our families or Crossview or NTM USA will say or do. Or what NTM will do to our families, because they threw us out years ago. You probably got to sell your house and possessions, we didn't!!!!!!! People like you stole from us, after we were kicked out of PNG.
And now Mr Earl, it is time for NTM to settle the debt. They cannot run, they cannot hide, they can only wait for the inevitable end to come.
Some of us remember you Mr Earl and your posse of thugs who ruled Numonohi. We remember what that posse did to children and the locals and we have never forgotten who you are!!!!!!!!!

God is a powerful God, who will avenge the murder of the souls of the innocent. Prepare for the millstone Mr Earl and others.

Oh yes the Numonohi Posse. If they had dressed themselves in white sheets, no one would have been that surprised.
They lied, cheated, stole, abused the locals and strutted around as if they owned the place. You knew that you had to keep silent about what they did, because they would bully you if you didn't.
My father was one of the brave few who stood up to them. And although my father is no saint, on this one he was a very brave man and paid dearly for being so.

News from Numonohi today: The Earls are still in Papua New Guinea, and still on the Numonohi base. They're staying in their daughter's dorm, BUT the dorm children (high schoolers) have all been moved out.

No news on when the Earls are leaving Papua New Guinea, and the missionaries in PNG haven't been told yet. I've been told the Earls' granddaughter graduates on May 28th.

One more thing: I was also told the Earl's daughter is receiving "hate" mail. That's not helpful to anyone. She will always be a dear dorm sister to me, even if we no longer communicate, so I'd personally appreciate no hate mail - or dislike mail - be sent to innocent family members of Gary. Or for that matter, the family of anyone else involved. Thank you for that!

Yes, thank you, dreamwords, for mentioning the Earls' daughter. There is also a son I think. Perhaps others.

It is always on my mind that the people who abused innocent children, in most cases also had children of their own.

Some of us know some of those children, and grandchildren. Innocent family members have been mentioned here before, with respect and with concern.

There is no call for hate.

Let's focus our pressure on the ones who deserve it: the abusers who refuse to show true repentance by confessing all their crimes and accepting all appropriate consequences (including legal ones). And the people now representing NTM and its choices. Even if they weren't in leadership when abuse took place, there are still appropriate and healing ways they could currently respond to learning about (or being reminded of) that abuse. They are not choosing those appropriate ways. They also need to clear the way for appropriate consequences to leaders from the past who contributed to the pain suffered by victims and families because of their appallingly poor response to abuse. It is time to stop protecting the good old boys network. Time to stop protecting the mission. Time to stop hiding the truth.

But for the children and grandchildren and great grandchildren of missionary child abusers, I have deep concern and care. They do not deserve the pain they suffer when these sins are exposed and discussed.

This is one more heartbreaking consequence of sin.

"As troubling as this is for the entire NTM family, it doesn’t compare to the anguish felt by those MKs who suffered at the hands of those they trusted to care for them. Please continue to remember them in prayer."

- Excerpt from an email to the "NTM USA family," signed by Brian Coombs, NTM USA Director of Personnel and Brian Shortmeier, NTM USA Executive Board.

Brian Shortmeier is also the Director of the Department of Child Protection and has been the only one in this position since it was created in 2012. I am not sure why he left this important position off his signature. Maybe it just slipped through the cracks. A lot has over the years.

I know it is a little silly on my part to even attempt to discern real meaning in communications from NTM, but I foolishly, optimistically persist in it. Old habits die hard. Anyway, I have been trying to cipher out what "this" is that is troubling for the entire NTM family.

In the context, it could easily refer to the previous paragraph: "In this case, after the investigative team finished its report, an independent panel was utilized to help determine disciplinary actions. All involved agreed that G*** E*** could no longer actively serve with NTM, and should be removed from the possibility of working with children, but that the findings did not require dismissal."

That does seem to make sense. I can see why such a decision would trouble the entire NTM family. Most decent people really would be troubled that the findings did not require dismissal. Are the Brian Boys also troubled by this?

Perhaps they are, and perhaps that is the reason they accidentally wrote that the MKs trusted these monsters to take care of them. The MKs did not have a voice in who was going to take care of them (or beat the living daylights out of them, as the case may be). This was a decision made by parents who had been told by their "spiritual leaders" that the MK schools were the very best place for their children. The parents were brow beat and coerced into "trusting" these other NTM employees to care for their children.

"Please continue to remember them in prayer"... because we are not going to respond to demands!