MK forum

Behold tis New Years Eve
And soon the year will be gone
Another will be started
And we will journey on an on

2013 was a good year
The hound still thinks I'm boss
Mrs Bemused still loves me
So in loneliness I do not toss

The elephant has checked out
Trumpets from afar
And rumours on the grapevine say
Others are wearing feather and matching tar

So to 2014
May it be as good or better
See you next year
Here, on line or letter

Happy New Year, Bemused!
And to All: Wishing you a 2014
Full of blessings
And some surprises……
Good Ones!

So cool ... some of you are already in the New Year.

As always, we in America are a little slow ...

But 2014 will come. Let's face it with courage. And the Serenity Prayer.

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

Happy New Year, and may God bless us all.

I can't believe it. I have been trying to post for months and it would say I have exceeded my login attempts. I decided not to reregister thinking maybe this was from The Lord and I shouldn't for some reason post anything but I decided to try one more time and I was successful. I can't possibly catch up on what I have missed but at least I can stay tuned. I have kept up on the blog and that has helped. Anyway just thought I would share this. Full stop.

WELCOME! WELCOME! WELCOME!
I was just thinking of you the other day.
Be sure you are welcomed back here!

It is so good to "see" you back, Pamela! I too have thought about you, and you have even been mentioned a few times here. We wondered where you went!

I can't fathom what exceeding your login attempts would have been about. You CERTAINLY couldn't have logged in more times than Bemused and myself!

There have been many, many posts while you've been away. But the tragic thing is, I don't think there's been much progress, in our struggle to get NTM to care about the pain caused to the children of their missionaries.

So now, it's 2014. And we are still here.

Still waiting.

Thanks, JerryB. Good idea!

I too, have pretty much given up on NTM.

This is what I think happened: when a small group of courageous and persistent MKs from one of NTM's schools (Fanda, Senegal) prevailed on NTM to take a long, hard look at child abuse that occurred there during one particular era, NTM (and portions of the Western Christian world) responded with shock, and a certain amount of contrition and compassion.

Subsequently, as the spotlight widened, it became apparent that the abuse of children of NTM missionaries was in fact a systemic problem which had occurred over and over, through multiple decades, in a number of locations, with hundreds, if not thousands of children enduring brutal and horrific abuse in schools, boarding homes and families. Harsh physical, emotional and spiritual abuse was not only condoned, it was taught: to compliant mission members who sacrificed their own children to impress their leaders and solidify their position in a very closed and secretive religious organization. Sexual abuse which was known about was minimized and hidden under wraps. The pain of child victims was not viewed as being as significant as the survival of the mission and its goal of world evangelization.

From what I can see, during the time since GRACE produced their scathing report on abuse at Fanda, NTM has lawyered up and the wagons have been circled. Communication has dried up. Mission members who are not directly involved naively believe the reassurance coming from Sanford that everything is being handled in the right way .... move along folks, get back to work. Nothing to see here.

Yes, I have given up on NTM too. All through 2013 I kept looking for a sliver of hope. With the dawn of a new year, I don't think there's much point in even looking for that sliver anymore.

For those of you who wonder why you haven't received any investigation updates from NTM for months, maybe you hadn't noticed this subtle change on the NTM website:

http://usa.ntm.org/historical-reviews

"Former NTM MKs and their parents who would like to be kept informed of investigations relating to their former locations are invited to send their email addresses to Brian.Coombs@ntm.org or Tibby.Westcott@ntm.org to receive updates as they become available."

"Former NTM MKs and their parents who would like to be kept informed of investigations relating to their former locations ..."

Yep. That's what it says. No more offers of general information to the generally curious. The only information that now may or may not be made available to you is going to be restricted to information about investigations relating to your former location.

That's what I call true transparency.