This past summer, KCM learned of an incident regarding the moral failure of the leader of the Cambodia Short-Term Summer Mission (STSM) team. Our director, Pastor Richard Kim, has already written a personal reflection on the events that have occurred and KCM as an organization has taken the past couple of months to re-evaluate the STSM program and the functions of our ministry as a whole.
Upon reflection, KCM continues to believe that God wants to use the STSM program as a means of mobilizing and discipling collegians to obey the Great Commission and we plan to continue to send out teams all over the world to preach the Gospel. With that being said, we also want to make it clear that we are doing everything in our power to ensure the safety and well-being of all those who are involved so that something like this never happens again. An STSM committee was created after this summer and has had a monthly meeting since then to evaluate the program, improve upon the existing program and to create a response to all that has happened. The response that KCM has created involves three different phases: Prevention, Education, and Evaluation. For the sake of transparency, we have outlined the details of these phases below.
1. Prevention:
- Leader Screening
- Fingerprint scan/Background check for all leaders
- All leaders must have referrals from their accountability partners
- All leaders must have a referral from their pastor
- All leaders will go through leadership training that will go over sexual harassment, character, emotional and relational health.
- All leaders will go through an evaluation by a counselor to see if they are emotionally and relationally fit to lead
- Every STSM team will have at least 2 leaders (preferably one male and one female)
- We will establish clear rules for conduct overseas for all leaders that all STSM students will have access to
2. Education:
- All students will be given a seminar on sexual harassment
- All students will be given a seminar on trust
- All students will be given clear reporting guidelines for violations or improper conduct before they go out onto the mission field
- We will hold a parent orientation for all the parents of the STSM trainees in the beginning of the STSM process
3. Evaluation:
- All STSM leaders will be evaluated by the team at debriefing
- All STSM leaders will be subject to evaluation throughout the whole duration of the STSM process (beginning to end)
KCM is committed to protecting all those who are involved in the Short-Term Summer Mission program. We wholly trust in God’s sovereignty and grace as we move forward with STSM and fully believe that He wants us to go out this summer. We hope that you can partner with us by praying for wisdom and diligence as we continue to plan for the future and we also hope that you can support the program by praying for the students who will take part in this Great Commission.
