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For days we have desired to write something on this blog. One of our thoughts has been about the founding of New Tribes Mission and Fout Springs Boot Camp. Since we were there we would like to tell you how it was from July 1950 to July 1951. The more we heard about it being like the Military the more we wanted to write something about it. Roger was in the Military for nearly three years in WWII. He served in Europe from D Day18 until the end of the war, He never felt Boot Camp was as strenuous nor had strong Military discipline as folks have seen in more recent years.
Boot Camp was set up to prepare folks to work on the foreign field in out of the way places. 1950 was five years after the end of WWII. When we went to Boot Camp we traveled from Maine to California on Route 30 going 40 miles an hour. There were no super highways except the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It took us two weeks to make the trip with a couple of small delays in a 1937 Pontiac Club Coupe. It was just 10 years before that when nylon appeared for the first time, as well as the first pressure cookers. If the United States was like that you can imagine what a foreign field was like especially in the interior.
Fout Springs was 3,000 ft in the Mendocino National Forest in California and had been an old CCC Camp. Each family had their own cabin with a wood stove. There were latrines for the men and women a short distance from our cabins as well as a water faucet that several families shared. There was a laundry house where we all washed our clothes by hand. Before the end of the year we had a James Washer that made washing clothes a bit easier. We had no electricity so we used Aladdin lamps and pressure lanterns that used kerosene. We had no sinks to wash our dishes in. All the water had to be carried outside and dumped in a rock filled pit. We had a two burner kerosene camping stove and a portable oven that sat on top of it. There were no refrigerators.
We were glad for the training we had. We arrived in Brazil on February 28, 1952 and lived for many years in Northern Brazil in the interior. One state where we lived in the1960’s was still considered to be in the 16th century at the time. We were 80 kilometros from the nearest large city. The roads were all dirt. During the dry season it took us 6 hours to go the 80 kms. (50 miles) in a jeep. During the rainy season, the only way we could get to the city was by horseback for 50 kms and then hail down a truck for the rest of the trip. There were no busses yet as the Belem-Brasilia Highway had just been built. When we did have a jeep it took 19 hours one time to make the trip and another time five days. We had running water when our boys ran down to the stream to get it. We had an outhouse. We washed our clothes in the stream with the James washer as well as taking our baths there too. We didn’t have electricity so used the same types of lamps that we had used in Boot Camp as well as lamparinas. We had no sink in the house. At first we used two kerosene one burner pressure stoves to cook all our meals for seven people besides boiling all our water to drink. Four burner gas stoves appeared in Belem do Pará for the first time in 1957. We were about 25 years without a refrigerator in the interior.
While at Boot Camp we learned about New Testament Church. There was the challenge to go into all the world and preach the gospel. We were taught to live by faith. Sin was dealt with. Another important reason for Boot Camp was learning to live together in an isolated place. Years ago we received a letter from a former roommate of mine from our Bible School in New England. She went to Africa with another mission. She said one of the hardest things for missionaries on the field was to get along with fellow missionaries. We were taught to have a personal ministry in the lives of others. Attitudes were dealt with.
At that time we didn’t feel anyone was abused. Those who left Boot Camp, left because they couldn’t take living isolated like that or they didn’t like New Testament teaching. It was different from the traditional church they came from. It may have been because of the teaching of living by faith.
In writing all of this we also want to say we understand that the mission has changed very much. It is heartbreaking. By living in Brazil for many years interior we didn’t realize many times what was happening within the mission The President of our Bible School said years ago that an organization after fifty years goes down hill. We saw it with the Bible School we attended and now with New Tribes Mission.
We realize that the world has changed. Each generation has followed suit. The first came when the founders passed away and a new generation took over. That seems to be when things started to go down hill.
At that time we were not taught that God leads only through leadership. The authoritarian rule no doubt started as a result of wrong beliefs of the duties of the elders in a local assembly. The personal ministry was taken wrong eventually and was made, as we understand, an obligation for the Bible school students putting a burden on them. They would have to find someone to minister to instead of letting them be led by the Holy Spirit. Each local group was a separate church assembly. At Boot Camp students were chosen as elders. Never in Boot Camp was it said the mission was a church.
As was said above, sin was dealt with in Boot Camp and on the few foreign fields the mission worked on at that time. We know that because Roger was one of the student elders along with the leaders then. Sin was dealt with in the beginning but it is sad to see how it is being swept under the rug today. We know our sins have been forgiven when we accept Christ as our savior but we have seen in recent years that the mission has taken the teaching of Grace to another extreme. They feel our sins have been forgiven when we accept Christ as our Savior. But if we sin all we have to do is confess it and ask for forgiveness and everything is all right. No doubt that is why there has been no punishment for sin such as is being discussed on this blog. God does forgive us when we repent and confess our sins but sin has consequences.
There aren’t very many New Tribers who are alive today that went to Fout Springs Boot Camp. The things that we learned there were the fundamentals that carried us through 58 years of serving the Lord in Brasil. We taught those same principles to our children. When some of our children stood up for those principles in the work as missionaries with NTM they were not listened to. Actually they were spiritually abused by leadership where they served and eventually felt they had to leave the mission.
There are always two sides to a coin. We talk about being legalistic and certainly we can go to an extreme. Then we can talk about having liberty in the Lord but that can go to an extreme also. In the 40’s and 50’s there was much enthusiasm by young people to serve the Lord. There were many youth rallies at that time and as a result many went to foreign countries to serve the Lord. There was a very definite separation from the world by the young people. Through the years that enthusiasm began to wane until today there are very few that are willing to give their lives to reach the unreached for the Lord.
Our desire has been to give honor where honor is due. We have been horrified as we’ve read all the stories that have been put on the blog. We are praying that each one of you will find justice and be able to find victory in the Lord as you walk on. Our prayers are also with the leaders at Sanford that they will do what is right no matter what the consequences are. We trust that the EB will continue to take the right steps toward seeing justice take place.
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