MK forum

When we were naive students at NTBI we met RH. He was on his way to Bolivia (1980) and he was fondly reminiscing about his years in Paraguay with the Les Pedersons. We don't know what Les knew about RH's stint in Paraguay. (They were going for field conference every year at that point and were well-connected.)

RH eventually was the Principal at Tambo and the SINGLE dorm parent for the 10-14 yr old boys. Several parents complained more than once about not having a couple as dorm parents and they were ignored.

The Tambo Committee when RH was dismissed was Al Lotz, Walt Durfey, RH himself and we don't remember who else.

There was talk of sexual molestation of boys in the Bob Fisher case. We cannot substantiate this.

Mark Ertl was at Tambo for 1 or 2 years as an associate starting in 1990. He lived in the HS Boys Dorm, at least the 1st year. He took one of the Korean HS boys home with him to the States one summer. Later he came back for a semester. There were accusations of sexual molestation against him. He lived somewhat near NTBI Waukesha. We heard of a meeting between Mark and the Director of NTBI where these accusations were brought up. Mark did not admit to anything as far as we know.

NTBI staff who had been staff at Tambo when Mark was there invited him to a Bolivia reunion at NTBI. They said they had not been told anything about the accusations and did not know any reason to be skeptical about Mark being around the students.

This all needs to be checked out with people who were in leadership at the time. Or people who were at Tambo/NTBI at the time. Will they be willing to be of help?

I would be careful about dropping names with unsubstantiated rumors/accusations. That can tear apart good people, or leave yourself open to liable/slander. Just a cautionary thought.

Mark Ertl was a great guy. I lived in the dorm when he was on staff and he was very careful about boundaries. I've never had any thought of him being inappropriate in any way. He didn't even use the bathroom/shower room that we used; there was a guest one that only he used so there was never a time where he was around us in inappropriate moments. The Korean student who did some traveling with him was a good friend of mine and that was after he had graduated from high school. I hadn't heard anything about any accusations regarding Mark or any of his activities.

I don't want to muddy the waters too much, but in regard to full exposure of child molestation I think I do need to mention that there is also the privacy of the young, innocent victim that needs to be considered. Many victims feel intense shame that will take years of maturity and therapy to resolve. I am not suggesting that in any of the hush-hush cases we are now discussing, that privacy of the victim is the primary reason things were kept quiet. But it truly is a part of the complete picture. Can you imagine how a little boy or little girl on a school base would feel if "their secret" was made public in that close-knit environment? And even if they were nameless at the time of the exposure, I have no doubt that eventually the mission grapevine would expose them.
I'm not saying this to defend how things were handled, but I do feel that as a mother of one survivor who goes to extreme lengths to protect her privacy to this day, I just need to mention this additional, complicating factor.
This is a very good discussion though!

Tambo MK said:

"I would be careful about dropping names with unsubstantiated rumors/accusations. That can tear apart good people, or leave yourself open to liable/slander. Just a cautionary thought."

Thanks, Tambo MK for the warning. We still stand by the fact that this info should be looked into. Does anyone think we should ask Kari to pull this post? Or part of it? We are still learning. Maybe we should have just written to GRACE?

One thing of value to us in reading these forums is the good communication that is happening. Very open and receptive, compassionate and helpful to others. Not afraid to be corrected.

When someone TELLS us they are like that, but in reality they are just the opposite, THAT is abuse.

Terrible, terrible, And sadly ... typical as well.

Tambo MK...thanks so much for this information. The picture is coming together a bit more. YET ANOTHER huge failure on the part of the leadership!