A few weeks ago I asked people to send in stories about their experiences with the health & safety conditions at Teen Mania. I haven’t posted many yet because I literally have SO much to post about that they’ve kind of been put at the bottom of the pile. One of my readers, Liz (also “Caleb’s” sister) responded by posting the following stories to her blog (the post has since disappeared):
Last week I wrote a post about Teen Mania, and today I would like to elaborate on a few of the stories from my time with them. Recovering Alumni is looking for stories about health and safety concerns, and I have a couple to write about. Neither of these stories are particularly traumatic or devastating; however, they do show a certain disregard for safety that seemed pretty common at Teen Mania when I was traveling with them, which was from 1997-1999.
Story #1: A Hurt Toe
I was never an intern, but I did go on three Teen Mania summer trips. All combined, my brother and sister and I went on thirteen summer missions in the late 90’s, and my brother was an intern in1999. My parents were involved as volunteers and major fund raisers for the organization.
My last trip was in 1999. Although I wasn’t an MA (small group leader), I attended MA camp with most of my team. (About half of us were told to come early, while the other half was not. It was awkward.) During one of the first nights, I tripped and fell over a hose on a sidewalk. Ouch. The callous on my big toe was mostly ripped off, and wow, did it hurt. Unfortunately, when I went up to the infirmary that evening, no one was there. My brother Phil, an intern at the time, found someone who unlocked the infirmary for us, and we tried to clean up the injury as best we could. I figured that maybe someone would be on duty later that night, and I would be able to get some additional attention.
To my surprise, I wasn’t able to find someone on duty at the infirmary for the next several days. I hobbled around without any fresh band-aids or antibiotic ointment, doing my best to keep the injury clean. I wore my hiking boots instead of my sandals in hopes of keeping the dirt out of the wound, but nothing really worked. My toe got infected, and I could hardly walk.
I checked the infirmary constantly to try to get help. My leaders would send me there periodically throughout the day, even though the hike from wherever we were (dining tent, quonset hut, back forty, etc) to the infirmary was a terribly painful trek each time. I was always greeted by a locked door. No schedule was posted, no information on how to get in touch with a nurse. I went there during all hours of the day with the hope that I might find someone, but I never had any luck.
Finally, on the third or fourth day of MA training, I became dehydrated and exhausted. This was from a combination of factors, from my own failure to drink enough water to the constant pain from hobbling around in the Texas heat, but it led to me passing out at dinner. Several of the guys from my team (and my brother, who happened to be nearby) carried me to the infirmary, and to my surprise, there was a nurse there! She and my PD doctored my foot and helped me get hydrated. They had to remove the callous again, even though it had begun to heal, because so much dirt and gravel was caked in between the callous and the wound. Really gross. My toe healed up over the next couple of days, and of course I was fine.
This wasn’t some traumatic, terrible even that ruined my summer or my then-strong love for Teen Mania. It did, however, make me wonder what would have happened if I’d hurt myself any worse, or if I hadn’t kept seeking out medical help. Much later, I came to understand my mom’s anger over the situation – why she was furious that I hadn’t been able to find someone to help me. Was I permanently damaged? Of course not. But with thousands of kids on campus doing things that could definitely lead to minor and serious injuries, shouldn’t someone have been on duty to take care whatever might have gone wrong?
Story #2: A Chicken Coop
The summer I hurt my toe was the summer I spent two months in a small village in Asia. Our team lived in a house that we rented from a local politician, who had previously used the building as a barn for his livestock. We thought it was hilarious – “What are the Americans doing living in the president’s old chicken barn!?” we imagined the locals saying as we moved in. It had recently been cleaned out for us, and we thought the whole place seemed pretty decent. Dirt walls and dirt floors, but still, we were happy to be roughing it for Jesus!
We thought the joke was funny enough that I repeated it to my family in an e-mail. That did NOT go over well. My parents flipped out and immediately called Teen Mania, demanding to speak to someone about our living conditions. They were especially worried about diseases that can arise from chicken feces, like histoplasmosis. Because my parents were pretty well known in the Teen Mania world, someone was sent out to the village to check on our living conditions. An all-clear was given. The leadership was satisfied that we were not at any risk of illness from where we were staying. We probably weren’t.
However, I was mortified by the whole experience, especially when I overheard my team leaders talking with the Teen Mania rep who had been sent to verify that we were in a safe place. I had stayed at the house that morning, sick, and I overheard them laughing and poking fun at my parents for being overprotective. (They didn’t realize that Mom was letting us continue on our Teen Mania trips, even though my brother could have died from a MRSA infection acquired in 1997 during an appendectomy in India, which would mean she could hardly be called over-protective.)
The other major conflict of the summer came from our diet. We had hiked in most of our own food that Teen Mania had decided was appropriate. For the several weeks that we were in the village (six or so?), we ate mostly rice and canned green beans. Occasionally we bought eggs from the village shop or had something else to eat, but we had very little protein or diversity in our diet. We thought we were suffering for the Lord, and that it was all for the best. In the months that followed the trip, half my hair fell out from the dietary deficiency, and what a traumatic experience that was for sixteen-year-old me! It was even more upsetting when, the next year, I visited the village again with my family (apart from Teen Mania) and found out from our former contacts and translators that the village had been fully prepared to sell us a wide assortment of food that would have not only kept us healthier, but provided them with additional income.
I was shocked to learn that the talk of the people in the village was that we were underfed and poorly treated, and that we should have let them help.
17 comments:
Diane said…
When I was at TM for the first time in ’99, I spent several days before my mission trip volunteering, then several days volunteering after my trip until I started the HA in August (because you couldn’t just stay on campus – you had to work for your lodging).
Anyway, during that second bout of volunteering, on the way to the showers one morning, I started feeling really light-headed and started seeing stars – so I sat down. Someone came to me and asked if I was OK – and thankfully I wasn’t an intern yet, because I admitted I wasn’t (while I was an intern, I wouldn’t have admitted that!).
They went and found someone who had a truck, and I was driven over to the infirmary – where the nurse promptly diagnosed me with exhaustion (really? Not heat stroke? After sleeping in those Quonset huts in 120 degree weather?).
Anyway, that got me a ticket to being allowed to sleep in the back room in the infirmary – which was air conditioned.
I SLEPT FOR 24 HOURS STRAIGHT. Then I woke up, had something to drink – AND WENT BACK TO SLEEP FOR ANOTHER SIXTEEN HOURS.
After I eventually got up, I had zero appetite for several days.
March 1, 2010 8:25 AM
Diane said…
I should add: I just thought it was a spiritual attack because I was doing the Lord’s work.
I would also often become exhausted on my mission trips – during one C-trip (2 month trip) to Thailand in 2000, I spent the majority of our 10-day “C Gap” sleeping in my hotel room for 18-20 hours at a time…
I was a TL. My team members teased me about it, and whenever someone spent a day just sleeping, they called it “pulling a Diane.”
No one thought something might be wrong… I still don’t know what caused it, and I still struggle with extreme fatigue every once in a while, since then.
March 1, 2010 8:29 AM
Diane said…
*2001 – sorry. I’ll stop commenting now 😛
March 1, 2010 8:34 AM
Recovering Alumni said…
Wow, Diane, that is crazy. But as Dave taught us, “You can sleep when you die.”
Wonder how medical professionals would feel about that statement?
March 1, 2010 7:51 PM
w said…
quoting Diane:
“I was a TL. My team members teased me about it, and whenever someone spent a day just sleeping, they called it “pulling a Diane.”
wow…way to be loving fellow believers….sadly, I’m not surprised since it’s TM culture to judge like that…
medically, to sleep for that many hours…that SHOULD have raised concern…could have been encephalitis due to a bug bite…could have been/be a serious thyroid disorder…depression…chronic fatigue syndrome…time change issues…blood sugar issues…heat exhaustion…Diane–I hope you did see a doc when you returned to the States…
But, again, it makes me mad that TM can only poke fun of or blow off perceived ‘weakness’ in others…instead of caring…
March 1, 2010 9:43 PM
w said…
…oops…forgot to list mono too….
March 1, 2010 9:51 PM
katydid said…
…to add to w’s comments…
let’s not miss the infected toe issue–that was the grace of God..and you must have had a good immune system..because that infected toe could have gotten real ugly..really fast…I know of SEVERAL kids that got MRSA from the soil during a certain event in the fall of 2007….
Yes, I believe that an infirmary nurse or physician assistant was promised in the brochure…or propaganda literature to the HA…that SHOULD be staffed on a regular basis–even/especially in the summer with the hot weather and all the GE missionaries…
March 1, 2010 10:00 PM
Anonymous said…
I hope this forum brings you and others healing. I was an intern in the very early days of TM. I know Dave and Ron as friends and not so much as leaders and I would believe that they must be wanting to see wholeness restored, change, and forgiveness.
I’ve seen over the years that being consumed by anything other than Jesus and Him alone…not a call, not a vision, not a vow…is a recipe for disaster. If we lose the joy of our salvation, the effectiveness of our witness is diminished. We can talk about leadership, our vision, integrity, etc…but unless the world sees that as a reality in our life, our testimony loses credibility, and our words become empty rhetoric. I pray that God restores (like David cried out) that joy for you.
March 2, 2010 1:44 AM
Recovering Alumni said…
Dave and Ron can say they want reconciliation all day long, but they have yet to address any of these issues or admit any wrongdoing.
Actions speak louder than words.
March 2, 2010 4:28 PM
Carol said…
I am the “overprotective” mom who allowed her kids to do 13 trips with TM. I have to say that we, as parents of kids involved with TM in general, and myself in particular, acted in a HUGELY naive ways when we allowed our kids to go overseas with no more information than we were given.
Often my kids were sick (like when “Caleb” i.e. Phil) had an appendectomy in India, then had complications. He was BLAMED for these complications, and I was not informed of the seriousness of these problems. (After the surgery he had intestinal problems and lost at least 30 lbs. in 2 weeks). TM didn’t get him adequate treatment and didn’t make arrangements for him to travel back to the USA IMMEDIATELY. His leaders didn’t think it necessary to follow up, and I do thank God that he had a volunteering mom (thank you, Kimberly) who took care of him the best she could. I remind you, he was BLAMED for his own medical condition.
When Liz hurt her foot, she didn’t want me to make a fuss, while back in Indiana I was trying to get hold of ANYONE in charge. They just didn’t answer the phones back then, it seemed. The same thing had happened when “Caleb”/Phil was sick. I tried to get information, and no answers to phone calls. Terrible communication in emergencies!
Maybe this has changed.
I repeat, part of this was my own fault as a parent/trusting/naive Christian. I wanted my kids to follow Christ, perform the desired service that they yearned for, and it seemed like an act of faith to let them be with TM. Now I see that SO MANY others of us let things go on that were covered, undisclosed, kept quiet, etc. Negative things and occurences were STUPID to allow, and the consequences remain.
And for those who say to “let it go,” etc., etc., I say that there should be apologies. I don’t believe that all the efforts of TM (i.e. Dave H. and Ron L.) are wrong. I just believe that many of the means to accomplish these things are misguided. Too many kids, too little trained leaders, and too little competent supervision/accountability and GRACE.
March 3, 2010 9:35 AM
Recovering Alumni said…
Carol, thanks so much for commenting from a parent’s perspective. I think your perception of parents as trusting and naive of TM’s actual ways is spot-on. I’m sorry to hear about Phil’s medical issues…I can’t believe they had the gall to blame him! There are no words for the stupidity of that.
March 3, 2010 10:38 AM
Jon the Canadian said…
Great Post Liz.
I remember the Allen’s Italian Cut Green Beans from Kentucky on that trip quite well, and the mud house (formerly chicken coop) quite well.
I was in touch with contacts from that trip for some time, who afterward expressed their frustration about the food – we hiked for miles around mountains carrying in unbalanced food shipped from America when we could have had healthier food there. Until your post, I hadn’t thought about how buying food locally could have dramatically helped the economy and livelihood of those in/around the village.
I think the mistakes weren’t necessarily evil, but just stupid. Where it gets worse was when I tried to talk to form TL’s who had been in TM for years and I thought I could talk to, to seek their opinion of this particular trip. The response was to blame to questioner, like the commenter above hiding behind anonymity. The twisted logic seems to go like this:
• TM is amazing (and I’ve sworn to never say anything negative about it or it’s people)
• You’re asking questions about if TM could be better, or if mistakes were made.
• Therefore, you’re a rebellious believer at best, or you’re damned (not a believer).
I personally couldn’t believe it when I asked questions about our trip to a former team leader with whom I’d been in steady contact, and I was told that I obviously had a personal problem of bitterness, and that I was not welcome to talk to this TL again until I’d gotten over this personal sin (asking questions about whether TM could be better).
It’s the same attitude that resulted in an intern telling me (as a freshman at Bible college volunteering at ATF) that it was Satan telling me to go to Bible college, because God wants everyone in the internship program.
March 6, 2010 9:24 AM
Recovering Alumni said…
Jon – wow! No matter how many times I hear of that kind of behavior, it is still suprising. Unfortunately, it seems that questioning another’s salvation or ability to hear from God is standard procedure if you ever disagree with the party line….
March 6, 2010 5:10 PM
Janel said…
I’m another former chicken-coop resident. I have to say that particular summer (of the five TM trips I went on) required a considerable amount of physical and emotional healing after returning home. I’ll just touch on the physical part here because that was the purpose of Liz’s post.
A couple of points, like the rats living near our food storage (one reason to be thankful for canned green beans I guess), and the fact that we were instructed not to tell our families about our living situation for fear of upsetting them after Liz’s experience, hasn’t been mentioned yet. Hmmm. As a parent now, this doesn’t thrill me.
The most frustrating aspect of the trip for me was the intent to work us to the bone for no particular purpose. We worked hard from sun-up until dinner… hiking, physical labor, teaching, etc. In the evenings we did the necessities… dinner, water filtering, laundry, dishes, and a shower every so often, and then afterward we were gathered to a bible study of some kind. This routine went on for weeks without a pause… no rest for the sick and rarely a moment claim as your own. When the TLs finally announced a free day, they changed it to a half day. This definitely falls under the “unnecessary deprivation” category, especially when combined with the horrendous food situation. At the conclusion of the trip, I gave up my aspiration to be a full-time missionary because I had no desire to “live like this” for even a day more. In retrospect, I realize full-time mission work is nothing like what we experienced, but the desire has never returned. Also, I realize this aspect was especially keen for those in my ministry group who worked a 45 min hike away from the main town with fewer food rations, but even if the others had an hour a day to relax, I think we were all pushed to an extreme.
I also realize that our experience is nowhere near typical of a TM trip. However, I would like to bring up one topic relating to the safety of “typical” trips. It was written in every TM trip brochure that a TL must be of at least 21 years of age, but I regularly saw this rule bent to include anyone who had attended the internship. I have had at least two TLs that were only 19, but internship alumni. If you ask me, putting 19 year olds in charge of 13-18 year olds in a foreign country is lunacy. I doubt parents sending their kids to Africa for the summer would be happy to learn the person primarily responsible for their safety just barely graduated high school.
All this is not to say I don’t have wonderful memories, great friends and a couple of fabulously-packed passports to show for my TM trips, but yes, there were definitely things they could have done better. The chicke-coop trip in particular was handled very stupidly, as Jon put it.
I also want to add that I went on one more TM trip after this one, in 2001, and was pleasantly surprised with some changes that had come about, such as an actual nurse on duty, separating teen and adult shower times in GV, and the general organization of that particular trip.
March 8, 2010 8:08 PM
Recovering Alumni said…
Hi Janel,
Thanks for sharing your experience. After that, I’m suprised you went on another trip!
If you are up for it, I think there are alot of us who would like to hear how the trip affected you emotionally and spiritually as well. If its too long for a comment, feel free to email it to me and I’ll post it.
March 8, 2010 9:23 PM
Elizabeth said…
I agree with Carol’s post “I have to say that we, as parents of kids involved with TM in general, and myself in particular, acted in a HUGELY naive ways when we allowed our kids to go overseas with no more information than we were given.”
In light of my experiences and the stories I have heard from past missionaries I am amazed that TM hasn’t been sued by parents of return missionaries for some of the dangerous/unhealthy/heinous experiences of their children. I have heard stories of missionaries spending the night in jail cells as that was the supposed “safest” location for them at that village or period of time. Or of teen missionaries having to unexpectedly evacuate an area on foot for fear of attack by locals and then spending the night outside without camping equipment in weather unsuited to what they had. Or the NUMEROUS STORIES I have heard of male missionaries being approached by locals asking or trying to negotiate with them to buy/sell missionary females. Or of Other stories on lack of proper medical care or sanitation for medical injuries. Or of stories on attempted attacks on females by locals. These stories are often shared amongst ourselves as “war” stories or stories that demonstrate our zeal in over coming obstacles/problems to reach the lost. At the same time as I stated above I have marveled at how in all the years of these trips little of this information seems to filter back to parents or raise a desire for TM to implement safer/more stringent practices to even avoid the appearance of negligence or even ignorance in the minors the are taking charge of.
March 14, 2010 5:00 AM
Anonymous said…
I had a situation similar to this in Panama. Due to the the heat and humidity of the Caribbean, being from a cool coastal climate and used to wearing shorts in 50 degree weather, and from poor diet (we ate nothing but rice lentils and Vienna sausages the entire 2 months I was there, except for when we were in Panama City. Poor Diet mixed with the heat (we were forced to wear jeans in 110 degree weather due to “cultural sensitivity” even though most of the Kuna kids ran around naked and everyone else went around without shirts on) led me to passing out in the middle of our VBS during one of our island visits 6 hours from the nearest clinic and nearly getting heat stroke. From what I’ve heard my incident changed the rules for the Panama trips with Teen Mania, but it was something that could have easily been avoided
March 16, 2010 2:07 PM