TORONTO
Missionary Kids Safety Net (MK Safety Net) has launched in Canada. MK Safety Net Canada is a resource and advocacy organization for former missionary children and third-culture children who have been hurt or wounded by their experiences within the missionary movement.
Along with the launch comes a new and expanded international website at www.mksafetynet.net.
The purpose statement of MK Safety Net Canada is: “To advance education and promote health by providing educational programs and mutual support groups for people who have experienced trauma.”
MK Safety Net Canada is a group of individuals who wish to reach out to survivors of abuse in various missionary environments. “We are interested in helping victims, their parents and families break the silence, and would like to create a community of support, healing and hope,” explains Beverly Shellrude Thompson, president emeritus of MK Safety Net Canada.
Part of the mandate of MK Safety Net Canada is also to call mission organizations and their supporting churches to establish justice and healing, especially in those cases where the church has wounded its own children.
“Most North American evangelical mission agencies and denominations are now incorporated in Canada as well as in the U.S.” says Thompson. “MK Safety Net welcomes this change because Canadian victims of both historical and current abuse in mission settings will now report to the Canadian head office of their mission rather than to the U.S. headquarters. Canadian laws differ from American law and this will assist in streamlining the reporting and investigatory process.”
MK Safety Net Canada anticipates facilitating community-building amongst former MK’s and their families living in Canada. “We are also eager to work in co-operation with mission agencies, denominations and schools with strong connections to missions to help establish protocols for reporting and investigating abuse,” says Thompson.
—Canadian Christian News Service release
