A Florida Christian organization has been litigated for the history of child sexual abuse allegations, claiming one of its missionaries sexually assaulted a small overseas 15 years ago.
Ethnos360 is a nonprofit organization formerly known as the New Tribal Mission, sending global missionaries and their families. In 2019, several women told NBC News that they had sexually abused decades ago for their "dormitory dads" who were supposed to care for children in missionary boarding schools while their parents served abroad.
The team settled several lawsuits related to the allegations and apologized to survivors of abuse after NBC News reported in 2019. It also said that in the abusive allegations, the New Tribe Mission commission shared a recommendation that it had “incorporated significant child safety training”.
But Wednesday’s lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court in Seminole County, Florida, where he said the group “failed to provide any care or professional assistance to a family of American children” who reported inappropriate sexual conduct in 2012 two years after the release of the recommendations.
The girl, Kayla McClain, is now 24 years old and lives in Michigan and recently graduated from nursing school. NBC News usually does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault, but McLean chose to identify in her full name in legal documents.
"I'm tired of quiet and tired of invisibility," McLean said in her first public remarks. "I just want people to know what the hell is going on and actually have a face and a name."
David Doyle, an attorney for Ethnos360, said the group “takes such an allegation very seriously” and “absolutely denies any merits on the allegations against the allegations.”
McClain was about five years old when she met her so-called abuser, Nate Horling, in 2005. Like McClain and her family, Horling lived with his wife and children in Indonesian housing provided by the then-new tribal mission. The legal complaint says he gave birth to a child about the age when McClain played with McClain, adding that the alleged abuse of Horling began with inappropriate touches while McClain played with his kids. Afterward, Holynn allegedly told McLean: “He was sorry and instructed her not to tell anyone and accuse her of what happened,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleged that the abuse escalated after two families moved to another part of Indonesia in 2009, and Holin later allegedly sexually assaulted McLean in a closet.
Horling, who was not named as the defendant, told NBC News in an email that he "absolutely" denies all charges.
The lawsuit comes less than a year after another legal application for Ethnos360, which claims the group failed to protect girls’ repeated sexual misconduct at their Mission and Training Center in 2016 and failed to adequately investigate allegations of abuse.
The lawsuit is underway, although Ethnos360 has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit and argued in court documents that the group does not have “the right and/or responsibility to control, occupy or supervise families and activities among residents” as the alleged abuse occurs in a private residence of the Ethnos360 property, rather than in the case where children are supervised by Ethnos360 employees.
Last year's lawsuit and Wednesday's lawyer Boz Tchividjian said Ethnos360 needs to check why it faces so many allegations of misconduct.
"It's not in a vacuum. It's over, over and over," Tchividjian said. He is no longer a part of grace.
The lawsuit on Wednesday said Grace's report outlined multiple sexual abuse cases within Ethnos360 and accused the organization's leaders of failing to properly respond to allegations of child sexual abuse. Ethnos360 acknowledged past mistakes on its website and has a section dedicated to child safety, which says it has safeguards to protect children, including background checks for anyone applying for Ethnos360 membership and professional training for all new members.
However, the lawsuit claims that McLean's family was limited in response when they contacted Ethnos360's child safety leadership team.
McLean said her father contacted the Child Safety Team in 2012 after revealing to his parents that she was having sex with other children, which could indicate that a child was abused by an adult. In the following months, several members spoke to her parents but did not investigate the sexual behavior, the lawsuit said. It also said that Ethnos360 did not provide any care or assistance to McLean or other minors, just as behavior “is a typical sexual exploration between children.”
It was not until a few years later that her parents discovered she was sexually abused by adults, McLean said. Her lawyer said at the time, her emotional state was too fragile to consider filing charges.
"The Child Safety Team has never spoken to me. I really need someone who is trained and knows how to talk to my kids in this situation because I don't know how to share what's going on," McLean said.
McClain returned to the U.S. from Indonesia in 2018, and from Indonesia, adding that she had allegedly abused herself and tried to flash back her life in 2019. In review by Ethnos, she decided to commit abuse through IHART and comply with the Ethnos composs lawsuit, she decided to report her experience to Ethnos360 and under Ethnos composs cossips ofersnos partners ofersnos partners operates oferss 360, the bill was reviewed, which was investigated by Ethnos cossips. The lawsuit alleged that after hours of interviews, Ethnos360 allegedly did not advise McLean and did not report allegations to the child protection agency.
The lawsuit accused Ethnos360 of negligence, unable to protect McClain from abuse and failed to provide its employees with adequate training to identify and report child abuse. It seeks unspecified damages and a jury trial.
McLean said her experience has left her with PTSD and has caused her to question her view of God.
"The abuse that happened was horrible, but what really affected me was the reaction of the National and Child Safety Team and the IHART," she said. "They need to be responsible. I hope the silence stops."
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please call National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline Call 1-800-656-4673. A hotline run by the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (Rainn) can connect you with your local Rape Crisis Center. You can also www.rainn.org/get-help. Confidential chat is available in English and Spanish.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the suicide and crisis lifeline. You can also 800-273-8255text 741741 or visit showeofsuicide.com/resources to obtain other resources.