The Global Conversation

It's so important for this issue to remain in the collective conversation. The Mamou Alliance Academy was not the only boarding school where abuse happened, but it was the first to have the results of its investigation to go public. To watch excerpts and to learn more about the documentary "All God's Children" please visit: http://www.allgodschildrenthefilm.com "All God's Children" tells the story of the children of Mamou - what they experienced at the school and in the aftermath as they tried to find support, help each other and prevent this from happening to others. - Scott Solary (producer, co-director "All God's Children")

Clough Memorial John,It is amazing how God uses the various childhood experiences of different people to get into His ministry to glorify Him and to be a blessing to others in need of which your' is an example.So is mine.I am an orphan,don't know my parent,brought up by missionaries who made my life comfortable though was in boarding home.I praise God for all those missionaries who were instruments in my life.This helped me to go into children ministry to care for the needy kids in a way our Lord wants us to bring them up.I glorify our Lord for our experiences.My last name indicates how I am named in memory of the hospital where I was brought up.

My heart was broken as I read this article. I am a retired missionary who worked in a European country doing church planting. My original call was to teach missionaries' children and I even had worked out a plan so that the children could get an education and still stay with their parents!!! God seemed to have had another plan, but how I wish I could've been there for that little boy!!! In my childhood I also suffered from abuse. I call my school the ____ Concentration Camp for Children. Those teachers were not missionaries, but how can people who say they love and serve God, stoop to such cruelty to small and helpless children! They remind me of the Nazi death camps of WWll. God does change the suffering into good through the work of Compassion.

Hello Mr.Stafford. I did not know you went through so much. This is so sad for you and the other children. What happened to your Mom? Did she ever recover?

I could not stop reading. It touched my heart. I'm so amazed how God works in a little boys life and ending up using this same little boy later on in his life for other little children. Beautiful and moving story. I really don't know how I got here but I'm glad I did.

The first time I heard this story, was on Focus on the Family when Dr.Stafford was a guest there. As a victor of abuse, for a long time I didn't know what the purpose was to the pain I endured for years. I use to volunteer at a sexual assualt centre, but quickly found out that it wasn't my ministry. When I heard Dr. Stafford, I knew the voice of God was speaking to me through this man's story. I prayed for months and finally heard HIS voice calling me to HIS ministry of serving children whom the Enemy has stolen the hope from. May God bless every man, woman and child who speak out against all forms of abuse inflicted on any child. Thank you FATHER, for the courage you give people to come out of the darkness and share their story to give other hope of freedom in YOU...

Seems these "missionaries" needed to read what Jesus said about those who would harm the children should have a millstone around their necks. When I was in college I knew a number of missionary kids. My denomination insisted missionary children be taught at home until their teens or almost teens, even though it would limit the ministry of at least one parent. Then they would go on to a boarding school. I always saw it as recognizing children's emotional needs for their parents, but now I see it was also for the children's protection. When these people got kids at 6, they could bully and abuse them. Teenagers who have been with loving parents are not going to meekly put up with it, they will resist and/or tell. I noticed it was not until this boy had been away from this for a year with his parents on furlough that he told his mother.

Your life story was heart-wrenching. I'm always perplexed and appalled when adults treat children with less worth than they regard their selves. They were all children at one time, and they should know how it feels to be so intimidated by cruel hateful punishment. Where is the love of God in that. The children will then always remember the hurt but forget what it was suppose to teach. I believe they take out their own sadness and frustration on the helpless, who can't fight back. The other side of that is the rewards for those who love and promote good in the little ones. The blessings are continual, and new, and forever will amaze. God's rewards are eternal.

What a moving article! I am a POM and I pray for MK's and their parents. My daughter and son-in-law believe dorm parents should be called of God because it is a very important job. Their mission encourages parents who don't want their high school kids in the dorm, to come out of the tribe temporialy and serve in another capacity during this time. Tribal MK's need to be in a group high school setting to prepare (acclimate) them for college in their passport country. Parenting comes before "the Lord's work" and every parent needs to constantly be told that or don't be a missionary until your kids are grown or don't have kids at all. Background checks may not be reliable but teaching kids to tell the truth and that whatever they tell their parents will be believed is the foundation to protecting our kids.

Wess Stafford is an amazing person and I have stood alongside him at Compassion events in Uganda and I know he has a big heart and a passion for children. One side of his story is the abuse but please focus on how God has redeemed it for His purpose.

Helps me to understand why some of the MKs at the Bible College I attended 35 years ago seemed so wounded.

Some are affected negatively and become themselves an abuser and some are affected positively and use that experience to save others. Thank God, He used our president to save many children that went and that are going through by telling his own wounds boldly and graciously for His glory. I believe this story not only need to be told at Mission camps or Christian schools but at churches and everywhere the defenseless live. It has happened, it is happening & it will happen if we do not design a system that can sift the evil out of our society, out of our church and nation. God bless our president,Dr. Wess Stafford

Vivian, you hit the nail on the head. Christians come up with cliches based on inaccurate reading and misinterpretation of Scripture. God cannot use sin or magically make abuse "good". It is evil, period. Exactly as you said, God is not involved in rape, molestation, assaults, etc., or else he would not be God. As for the suggestion that this story paints all teachers/leaders of MK schools as bad, Bart certainly does not think so. Should we remain silent about abuse? On the contrary, those who are acting appropriately and living right will want these atrocities exposed so they are not grouped together. Silence is never appropriate in the kingdom.

Perhaps the time has come for either: A) Missionaries to keep their children with them instead of placing them in boarding schools, or, B) Missionaries wait until their children are grown before they go, or, C) Missionaries forgo having children at all.

This was so powerful. Thank you so much Mr Stafford for coming out with your story. May God bless the work of Compassion International.

One of the best articles I've ever read in CT. What Satan meant for evil....God turned into good....

it is good to have publicatins pick up on this. Many Churches think it si only catholics that abouse children. I went to that school at the end of its life. the mission we were with has changed its name rather than admit it ignored the truth of its children. The circle if abuse also includes the churches who sent the missionaries and refused to listen to their pleas. Let us make all parties responsible if we take one, from pastors and chruch leaders to adminsitrators and teachers.

This article by Wess rings so true in my own life. My Lord has taken something out of my life that I could not shake off for over 50 years. Thank God in 1962 I asked Jesus into my heart. No, the troubles of my mind did not stop there but great weights were lifted off my shoulders and the work of the Holy Spirit begun. I have reached out to Compassion children because I want them taken out of poverty and to know that Jesus died for them, He loves them and He cares. I hope many will read Wess' article and reach out to help the little children who cannot help themselves. YES, MY GOD IS RESTORING WHAT THE LOCUST HAS EATEN. I have two sons who are serving the Lord; one is an evangelist and one is a missionary. God bless you Wess

Wess: Amen, brother.

Blessings, healing and honor to Wess and all who know his pain! As a current foreign worker, I am grateful for the courage and faith of his generation to challenge the foul notion that, "the abuse/sacrifice of one soul is worth the saving of another"! What an unbiblical, unfaithful attitude! May our Great Jehovah Jireh redeem all that locust intended to destroy!

It takes a lot of courage to share the story of your abuse. I cried when I first read Wes's story in 2007 and cried again when I read it this morning. There is a lot of abuse that takes place in "Christian" settings. I'm glad that a lot of churches do background checks now on people they allow to be child workers. Its not going to stop all of it but its a place to start. Telling your story, Wes, gives other people courage to tell their story and that is how things get changed. I didn't have the courage to tell when I was younger, and more kids in church were abused because I didn't tell. What comes to mind is when Jesus said "by their fruits, you shall know them". These abusers are not Christian in any sense of the word. It is beautiful how the Lord used something so horrendous to bring about a great deal of good from it. You didn't let Satan win. You didn't let the abusers win. You have my great respect.

Thank you to Christianity Today and to Wess Stafford for again shedding light on the abuse and recovery from abuse within the missionary community and at the Mamou Alliance Academy in particular. It is horrible to know about the suffering of children. But there is power in knowing, which can lead to healing and prevention. To watch excerpts and to learn more about the documentary "All God's Children" please visit: http://www.allgodschildrenthefilm.com "All God's Children" tells the story of the children of Mamou - what they experienced at the school and in the aftermath as they tried to find support, help each other and prevent this from happening to others. - Luci Westphal (producer, co-director "All God's Children")

I meant to click 5 full stars; thanks be to God that Dr Wess shares now his story which ministers to whoever has gone through similar tribulations. Thank you Dr Wess as you obeyed His leading to do so after 35 years. Even after retiring from a secular workplace milieu of a public school for 34 years when i felt God using me to declare and mirror his healing, redeeming love, i used to wonder why the tears still come so easily, if i was still holding on to self-pity or unforgiveness: the devil be damned for such doubts. After reading Dr Wess' testimony, i want to believe that the shedding of tears is part of shedding the pain which then allows Christ's power and strength, healing and redeeming grace to continue to work and flow in and through us...so shall it be, unto God to whom is all the wisdom, might and glory. To the one who q the financial part, please just know that all the gold in the world won't heal - go back to Christ first if you want to discern what's this all about.

The best of articles. Having counseled and studied the issue of sexual abuse in particular, I can say the writer's response to his situation as a child is the most moving I think I have ever read. Usually, children crumple under such terrible abuses; such evils wreck their development and derail their performance as adults. And yet God is involved. He marks the suffering; He knows the grief of the littlest and most miserable and helpless of the abused. Resistance can be redemptive and healing; a revolution against tyranny can be truly liberating, depending on what it is that moves the rebel in such circumstances. If it is vengeance, the end is forecast. If justice, great benefits will be realized. Justice and redemption belong together. One of the greatest things in recent world history was the Reconciliation Commission of Sout Africa. It was not that much was accomplished; it was the fact that they tried. they left a legacy of witness to the reality of biblical faith.

Thank you, Wess. This story was beautiful. As a child abuse survivor, I want to say that I know how difficult it is for most people to get even the slightest sense of what it is like to live under these types of horrific circumstances. We need to have the church become sensitive to the mission field right in out own back yards, the children all around us who may be suffering unfathomable trauma. (Wess, I know all about the 'floating', It was the only way I survived. God's survival mechanism.)

Thank you for sharing the story of your painful childhood. So many of us have remained silent about the things that happened to us as little ones, with no hope of redemption. By joining Compassion International and sponsoring a child in Tanzania, I am able to do one small thing to pray for and help a small hurting child. Thank you for making all of this possible, because we can heal ourselves by helping and healing others. Thank you so much for your beautiful heart!

WOW is all i can say Your story wess is increbile Good for you God can use your story for good i think every person in the world should hear it. It amazing what a awesome God can do

What a powerful story. Everyone needs to read this.

I am lost for words...Thank you for sharing your story and thank you for allowing God to use you in the work that you do. Amazing Grace sums it all up! Blessings in everything you do and have!

I have worked at Compassion along side Wess for over 20 years. It is a blessing, joy and priveledge to work with him for the children. I am inspired every time I hear him speak. His parents were gentle amazing people as well. I know this abuse broke their hearts. It is amazing how Satan meant this for evil, but God used it for so much good!

Thank you Dr. Stafford. My mom, a missionary kid herself, wrote a book on this topic (The Missionary Myth, Vivian Harvey), and remains an advocate for missionary kids, young and old. Of all people, Christians should be the FIRST to protect the small ones. God takes this so seriously, and I wouldn't want to be the person who would be better off if they thrown into the sea with a millstone around their neck.

Wow! I find myself deeply moved and inspired by this incredible story of God giving a child unimaginable courage. I would love to know you Wesley Stafford! I work with pastors and missionaries in personal crises and too often find myself face to face with ignorant, resistant and abusive churches and mission agencies. The "Christian" Institutional capacity to be graceless, ill informed and abusive is enormous. The Church we long to see fully effective is still far too often unthinkably bumbling, cruel and damaging to its leaders and their families—all in the name of Christ. May God help us to burn our candles brightly promoting honesty, wisdom and unending grace toward the “least” and the leaders in Christ’s Body. It should be good news to be part of Gospel Ministry even when it is discovered we are flawed human beings.

what an amazing testimony. Thank you. Blessings to you, Dr. Stafford, as God continues His good work in you and through you.

I have personally known fewer than half a dozen people who live totally committed lives to their calling, with the passion and compassion of Dr. Wess Stafford. He is as real as they come, and his story helps me to trust that God is not absent and has not gone stone deaf, no matter how things look. He always has a plan, and it is about redemption. What is hard for me is to imagine forgiveness for people like those who so abused the children who were entrusted to their care with such cruelty, such viciousness. I try to get my mind around the fact that God's love would reach out to them as readily as to me...but that's what I believe. Assuming they asked Him.

Thank you, Wess. Your openness, courage and hope are inspirational. Jesus is so proud of the person you are and the compassionate manner in which you live. May we all be encouraged to do the same.