MK forum

In the spirit of NTM@Work's "Milestones" wrap on the latest issue, I spent my day drawing together as much as I know about another timeline. Thanks to Raz, Lori, Gene, and all those who have contributed to the repository here at Fanda Eagles.
I'm sure I've missed some significant events -- there is so much -- so please use this thread to let me know any I need to add, or to correct me on anything. I've also posted this on Raz's thread, but realized it should have it's own, as (unfortunately) it is a living document.

1942 New Tribes Mission (NTM) founded, sending its first missionaries and their children to Bolivia, South America.
1952 NTM opens its first boarding school at Tambo, Bolivia. Over the years, NTM opens schools in Panama, East Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Senegal, Mexico and other countries.
1952 Earliest date of reported abuse at Tambo MK School, Bolivia (latest was 2000).
1977 Earliest date of reported abuse at Panama MK School (latest was 1994).
1981 Earliest known allegation of abuse by NTM dorm parent Gary Earl (Papua New Guinea MK School). MK Lori McAlister reports her abuse continued until graduation in 1989. This school is currently under investigation by IHART for reports of abuse.
1983 Earliest date of reported abuse at Vianapolis MK School, East Brazil (latest was 1998).
1985 Earliest date of reported abuse at Fanda MK School, Senegal (latest was 1995).
1992 During Senegal Field Leadership Conference, Executive Committee member Les Pederson tells the Field Committee when child abuse occurs there was no need to report to either the local or the US authorities.
1997 NTM conducts an in-house study of child abuse at Fanda MK School in Senegal, using attorney Scott Ross (NTM legal counsel) and NTM employees. GRACE later finds this investigation to be “wholly incomplete and inadequate” and “ the follow-up to this investigation was more inwardly institutional than victim-focused.“
2002 Scott Ross becomes in-house counsel for NTM. GRACE report states Ross “inherited a backlog of some 80 or 90 child abuse allegations worldwide. A breakdown of those allegations are as follows: child abuse in school setting (30 cases); child on child abuse (21 cases); child abuse within family (13 cases); other (19 cases)”.
2006 George Allen Goolde, a foster parent and full-time mission employee of New Tribes Mission, is convicted of molesting four children in his care. At the time of his arrest, officials at the mission said its internal investigations showed ‘no incidents of concern.’
2006 Lori McAlister emails her account of abuse suffered while at the Papua New Guinea MK School to Scott Ross.
2009 Joel Price, an employee of NTM, sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for possession of child pornography. November 2004 issue of NTM’s magazine (NTM@Work) features a picture of Price teaching a kid Bible lessons and told of his plans to start a youth ministry.
2009 Several former students at NTM’s MK school in Fanda, Senegal confront the leaders at NTM-USA’s headquarters in Sanford, Florida about sexual abuse they had endured at Fanda. NTM agrees to use GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) to investigate child abuse at the Fanda School.
2009 Fanda School MKs establish the website “FandaEagles.com”. Initially envisioned as a means of communication among Fanda alumni, it has become a community for MKs who have suffered abuse in NTM and other boarding schools and those who support them.
2010 GRACE report of abuse at Fanda MK School released. GRACE’s report revealed sexual abuse of 22-27 MKs and physical and emotional abuse of 35 MKs. Of ten staff members named in the report as abusers, four of them were sexual abusers. Several mission leaders in Senegal and in the US were named as contributing to the problem because of their poor response. The GRACE report publicly names those found to have committed abuse and clearly states recommendations for NTM's response and future investigations. The Ross “backlog” becomes public knowledge.
2010 An online petition of 528 signatures was submitted to NTM, insisting that the mission use an outside agency for additional investigations of child sexual and physical abuse allegations at NTM facilities. NTM declines to use GRACE or any outside agency, and instead announces that they hired Pat Hendrix as an “independent coordinator” to head a team to investigate and report on allegations of child abuse in NTM. The team would be called IHART: Independent Historical Abuse Review team.
2011 Pat Hendrix names four other schools with reported abuse: Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Mexico, and Venezuela.
2011 First lawsuit filed by individual MK abuse survivor “Jane Doe”, which was succeeded by 2 other individual lawsuits. All three settled for an unknown amount of money.
2011 Vianapolis, East Brazil investigation begins (concluded in 2014). Report is not made public, but survivors share that abuse occurred from 1983-1998, with the identification of four sexual abusers and one physical and emotional abuser. Two mission leaders from East Brazil were name as bearing some responsibility for their “actions and inactions”. No names, consequences, or record of follow-through made public.
2011 Teresa Lynn Sidebotham and L Martin Nussbaum present “Are Protestant Ministries a New Market?” to the American Society of Missiology, which warns of potential increased lawsuits against protestant churches and ministries from abuse victims.
2012 Pat Hendrix retains Pii (Professional Investigators International) to conduct investigations into the reports of abuse at the Panama MK School. Pii is a private investigative company founded by Bob Davis after Scott Ross (NTM) spoke with him about the need for an independent group to conduct investigations for mission organizations.
2012 Bolivia MK School IHART investigation begins
2013 Scott Ross establishes The Ross Group International, a company that consults with NGOs and NPOs for personnel and misconduct investigations.
2013 Pii is appointed to investigate the Papua New Guinea MK School and contacts Lori McAlister in regard to Gary Earl.
2014 Pii New Guinea report sent to the victims only. “Allegations were of physical and sexual abuse against minor children under his care as a dorm parent.” Finding of Pii was “physical misconduct” without any clarification of that term.
2014 Gary Earl forced to resign from NTM.
2014 NTM replaces Pat Hendrix with attorney Theresa Sidebotham, the new coordinator of IHART. Sidebotham terminates Pii’s independent investigation of Panama and requests all materials from them.
2015 The acronym IHART definition is changed from “Independent Historical Abuse Response Team” to “Independent Historical Allegation Response Team” and is now referred to as a “process” which was never meant to be assumed to be “independent” of NTM. In fact, the name IHART is a trademark owned by NTM.
2016 Panama MK School report released. Reports of abuse covered from 1977-1994, with the finding of 63 of the allegations rose to the level of “preponderance of the evidence”. Most of those involved severe physical abuse, but five were sexual abuse. Pii found ten people to be offenders. IHART also found nine mission leaders to be culpable to varying degrees. The names of the abusers were not published, and while the report recommends certain actions, there is no way to verify follow-through by NTM.
2016 Bolivia report published, and found by a “preponderance of the evidence” of 41 reports of physical abuse, 37 of emotional abuse, and 50 of sexual abuse. 31 individuals were found to have committed some level of misconduct, 13 alleged offenders were found to have committed sexual abuse. Five NTM leaders were found culpable of failure to protect the safety of children. The names of the abusers were not published, and while the report recommends certain actions, there is no way to verify follow-through by NTM.
2017 New Tribes Mission / NTM celebrates their 75th year of existence, and renames the organization as “ETHNOS360”.

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"I think—I don't know—but I think I could be brave enough."

Thank you for this excellent timeline, SkyeBlue! You have been paying close attention!

I have one addition, and others may think of further significant developments that should be included.

2013 Warren Scott Kennell, an NTM missionary who as an MK, grew up in Brazil, was arrested in Miami. He was later sentenced to 58 years in prison on child pornography charges. Kennell admitted to producing child pornography with young girls from the Brazilian tribes he worked with, and sharing it on line.

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"I think—I don't know—but I think I could be brave enough."

Some additional information to add to the above, covering recent legal and financial activities regarding NTM/Ethnos360 Inc.
12/2013 Three legal entities were created called Global Assist Campus, Inc., Global Assist Foundation, and Global Connect.
- All three exist for the benefit and support of NTM (now Ethnos360 Inc.)
- If a "triggering event" occurs, each can either support another organization, or become a non-supporting organization (i.e. exist for their own sake as a non-profit).
- Triggering events include dissolution of NTM, bankruptcy of NTM, or a judgement is entered against NTM either (a) permanently halting the operations of NTM, or (b) damages in an amount that would render NTM insolvent or unable to continue activities.
- All listed Scott Ross as registered agent and Dan Kreider as a director at inception (2013)
- As of 2017, address changed to 312 W. First St, and officers now include Dan Kreider, Brian Shortmeyer, Tim Meisel, Larry Brown, and Dean Hess.
Since NTM was not dissolved, but rather changed name to Ethos360 Inc., these three entities continue to exist to support and benefit Ethnos360 Inc.
12/2013 Global Assist Campus becomes property owner of the new NTM/Ethnos360 World Headquarters building based in Sanford Florida at 312 West First Street. Property records show 2017 property retail value at $2,728,595. As of 8/2017 the property in Camdenton MO, the old headquarters building in Sanford, and several other properties in Sanford are still owned by New Tribes Mission, Inc. The old headquarters building is presently in the process of being sold to a developer who plans to open it as a luxury hotel.

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"I think—I don't know—but I think I could be brave enough."

Thank you, SkyeBlue, for this additional information!

I venture to propose that a great majority of current Ethnos 360 members are unaware of these preemptive steps that have been taken by their mission organization to protect, shield, hide, and thereby insure the survival of the machine. Ethnos 360 is now so secretive that no one can keep track. Not only are there the three concealed entities you listed, but I keep hearing of other names for other endeavors set up by missionaries. It seems people, or groups of people, are selecting names for their regions, or their projects, and one wonders why none of these names ever contain the words New Tribes Mission or even Ethnos 360.

Then there is the name Global Partners, which I have heard used to describe the worldwide network of the pieces that fragmented when the mission was "decentralized". Some of these entities still use words like "Novas Tribos" or Ethnos 360, but others do not. I think the network also includes very obscure partners in other far-off places. I can't find anything about this Ethnos-related network through Google, but what I do see very clearly is that the name Global Partners is actually used by the Wesleyan Church for their mission organization. So who or what the other Global Partners is supposed to be remains a mystery to me.

And wow, SkyeBlue, I am impressed with how specific your information is about how the mission will be protected through the three legal entities created in December, 2013.

"12/2013 Three legal entities were created called Global Assist Campus, Inc., Global Assist Foundation, and Global Connect.
- All three exist for the benefit and support of NTM (now Ethnos360 Inc.)
- If a "triggering event" occurs, each can either support another organization, or become a non-supporting organization (i.e. exist for their own sake as a non-profit).
- Triggering events include dissolution of NTM, bankruptcy of NTM, or a judgement is entered against NTM either (a) permanently halting the operations of NTM, or (b) damages in an amount that would render NTM insolvent or unable to continue activities.
- All listed Scott Ross as registered agent and Dan Kreider as a director at inception (2013)"

It looks like the mission had some very savvy legal advisors back in 2013 (Scott Ross and his friends, I would guess). It is interesting to look back through the timeline you posted at the beginning of this thread, SkyeBlue, to see just what was happening during that time period, in regard to the uncovering of extensive MK abuse that had previously been ignored or covered up in various NTM MK schools. I think it was during that time period that we here on Fanda Eagles were having a lot of discussion about the probable sinking of the "Titantic", due to the heavy load of bad news that was coming out about NTM. I am wondering how much influence our posts had in goading Scott Ross to come up with a solution to keep the great ship afloat, or at least to build some sturdy alternative vessels to use in case the transfer of passengers, crew and cargo became necessary.

I was shocked to read this line in your post:

"- As of 2017, address changed to 312 W. First St, and officers now include Dan Kreider, Brian Shortmeyer, Tim Meisel, Larry Brown, and Dean Hess."

Dean Hess?? The husband of Tuti Hess, who during our early days here on Fanda Eagles, wrote quite a few posts expressing support for survivors of abuse in NTM?

Oh, Tuti! We miss you! Not only did you decide to stay on the ship, now you husband is one of the officers.

I am feeling rather sad about this today ....

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"I think—I don't know—but I think I could be brave enough."

_________________
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
"I think—I don't know—but I think I could be brave enough."

_________________
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
"I think—I don't know—but I think I could be brave enough."