CCC Update Since Sankey Review

In September of 2018, Christ Community Chapel’s Leadership Team and Board of Elders initiated a review into the 2013 allegations of abuse at Sankey Samaritan Orphanage (SSO) in the Philippines. The review was completed on July 26, 2019, and released publicly within days. The review found that abuse occurred at the orphanage and that Tom Randall’s allegiance and trust in the Filipino worker managing the orphanage resulted in Tom not believing the young adults who were abused. CCC relied on Tom’s judgment, a decision that the review confirmed was a mistake. This is a mistake that the Elders and Leadership Team have acknowledged and asked for forgiveness. On August 29, 2019, CCC Leadership submitted the review by Suzanne Lewis-Johnson to the FBI and met with the FBI out of that submission. To our knowledge, there has been no further action taken by the FBI.

In order to have a full understanding of the situation, it is helpful to summarize the relationship between SSO, World Harvest Ministry, Tom Randall, and Christ Community Chapel.

  • Tom Randall founded and was the Director of World Harvest Ministry beginning in 1990. World Harvest Ministry had a board who governed and supported the work that Tom and Karen Randall were a part of in the Philippines and around the world.
  • The SSO opened in 2000 under the World Harvest Ministry umbrella. The orphanage had staff who were supported by World Harvest funds but governed by its own board.
  • In September 2013 Tom Randall joined the staff at CCC.
  • In mid-2014, Tom Randall and the World Harvest Board dissolved World Harvest Ministry and, as in any 501(c)(3) dissolution, the assets were turned over to a like-minded ministry. In this case, Christ Community Chapel was asked to absorb the assets and use them for ministry purposes at their discretion.
  • Prior to these events, CCC’s connection to the SSO was limited to a small number of mission trips in the early 2000s and CCC’s relationship with Tom Randall as a friend of the ministry.

In August 2019, in response to the review, CCC Leadership communicated four areas in which we would adjust the course, pursue healing, and rectify areas of brokenness. The four areas were:

  • Provide care and support for the young adults in the Philippines.
  • Audit the World Harvest Funds that were granted to CCC in 2014.
  • Reconcile with the advocates that pursued truth and justice for the SSO young adults.
  • Examine and update CCC Protocols regarding the safety of minors, abuse prevention, vetting ministry partners and care for those abused.

The following is an update on progress in each of those areas.

Provide care and support for the young adults in the Philippines:

Before we could provide care and support to the young adults, we needed to understand how we could best fulfill the commitments Tom Randall made. The Elders and Leadership Team connected with multiple people and built relationships with individuals who were directly connected to the young adults. Through conversation, research and time, we discovered financial support that we could offer for the following areas:

  • Continued care for young adults who had disabilities or were still receiving support from a missionary who has been involved since 2014. $25,000 was sent for this purpose during the first quarter of 2020 and is being dispersed as needs arise.
  • Education expenses that Tom Randall committed to pay for the SSO young adults. We calculated those expenses over the coming years and sent $45,000 to a ministry that is dispersing those funds as bills come due.
  • Housing expenses that Tom Randall had committed to cover for a former worker at SSO. We received documentation to support those costs and sent $60,000 to fulfill this commitment.

We offered counseling services and other ways to care for the impact of abuse and trauma to the young adults. That offer continues to be extended and will be acted upon should we learn of additional needs that we can help meet.

Plans were made for a team from CCC to travel to the Philippines in March/April of 2020 along with the third-party contact that has assisted CCC’s efforts. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the trip did not take place. Based on what we have learned in this past year it does not appear that a trip would be beneficial to the victims impacted.

Many of the 32 young adults who lived at Sankey through 2013 are living all over the Philippines, many with families and careers. We are grateful to those who have cared for the SSO orphans since the orphanage was shut down and have learned that so many were well cared for and supported through these past years.

Audit of the World Harvest Funds that were granted to CCC in 2014:

The audit of the World Harvest funds was completed in November of 2019 and an independent auditor found that we properly accounted for the funds that were donated to CCC in late 2014. CCC was never a fiscal agent for the World Harvest funds. The World Harvest funds were given to CCC as an unrestricted gift by the World Harvest Board, which allowed CCC to use this gift as needed to serve God’s kingdom. Since the funds came from World Harvest donors, we continued to let Tom Randall use funds for the ministries he supported until his employment was terminated in June of 2019. Below is an accounting of those funds:

  • Initial World Harvest (WH) gift: $2,994,793
  • Additional WH gifts/dba CCChapel (2014-2019): $764,027
  • Total WH gifts: $3,758,820
  • WH gifts deployed (2014-2019): $2,640,518*
  • 2019 / 2020 Planned expenses for WH gifts: $329,020
  • Reserve Held for continued unknown needs related to WH: $250,000
  • Total WH gifts used or committed: $3,219,538
  • Balance of WH gifts remaining prior to December 2019: $539,282

*World Harvest funds deployed include all giving sent to the Philippines, projects initiated by Tom Randall in the USA and abroad, Aurora campus renovation ($918,667), The Block student ministry building renovation ($400,000), salaries, and other expenses to support these ministries.

In the December 2019 Elder Meeting, it was decided that the remaining World Harvest gift balance of $539,282 would be split between two ministries: Restore Addiction Recovery and RAHAB Ministries. Restore Addiction Recovery has used the funds to complete construction on their Christ-centered drug treatment facility. RAHAB Ministries will be using the funds to expand care opportunities in Rebecca’s Place, which supports girls between 12-17 years old who have been abused in the sex trafficking industry.

Reconcile with the Advocates that pursued truth and justice for the SSO young adults:

CCC Leadership desired to reconcile and have a restored relationship with the advocates who had been pursuing truth for the SSO orphans. Joe Coffey reached out to Joe Mauk (missionary in the Philippines and advocate) and asked for forgiveness, which Joe Mauk graciously granted. Since that time, we recognize that Joe Mauk is not satisfied with the efforts of CCC.

Upon completion of the review, Stacey DiNardo reached out to a particular advocate asking to meet in order to pursue a restored relationship and in gratitude for the advocate’s efforts to pursue justice. The meeting was set but canceled by the advocate prior to the meeting.

Three Elders (including Joe Coffey), and Stacey DiNardo met with another advocate (who brought two other individuals with her) with the hope of working towards reconciliation. Unfortunately, the meeting did not produce a healthy outcome and only affirmed the need for us to engage a third-party conciliator to aid us in the process of restored relationships.

The Elders engaged a third-party conciliator to aid us in the process of reconciliation. The conciliator (not CCC) required anyone engaging in the process of reconciliation to sign a nondisclosure agreement in an effort of creating an atmosphere of transparency and vulnerability. While the Leadership at CCC was willing to sign the NDA, the advocates were not interested in engaging in the process with the conciliator.

CCC Leadership desires healed relationships with all involved in this matter. As Romans 12:18 states, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” We desire to live peaceably and furthermore pray that God continues to move in this situation to bring us to that place.

Examine and update CCC Protocols regarding the safety of minors, abuse prevention, vetting ministry partners and care for those abused:

We have made multiple advances in training and safety within CCC as well as processes with ministries that we partner with. Some examples:

  • All ministry partners must provide us with their Child Protection Policy (CPP) which is then reviewed and approved by our Global Ministry Department. This has resulted in CCC ceasing support for ministries that did not have a CPP. Our global staff does an annual review for each global ministry partner to ensure that the ministry remains committed to its mission.
  • Members of CCC’s Leadership Team and Care Team attended the Caring Well Conference in October of 2019 to receive education on the topic of abuse. The conference gave us a greater understanding of how CCC can care for those that have experienced abuse and work proactively to prevent it.
  • All volunteers that work with children or students are required to complete a Ministry Safe Certification which educates them on ways to flag and prevent abuse. All staff at CCC have also completed this training. Further, staff that work with children or students take a more significant training course that aids them in screening candidates that will be volunteering with children or students.
  • All CCC classrooms have security cameras that are monitoring activity in the room.
  • CCC is continually revising and updating its Child Protection Policy to have the highest standards of safety and care for children and students.
  • In Spring of 2020, an abuse support group was launched utilizing third-party clinical counselors with experience in abuse and trauma. The group goes through curriculum and we have now hosted multiple sessions. We are sincerely grateful for the bravery of those that have participated in the groups and pray that they have experienced some next steps in healing.

We serve and exist to bring glory to the God of all justice and truth. We are grateful to God for how He has taught us in His Word to care for orphans and widows, to extend care and have compassion, and to empathize with the broken and abused. Our hearts have softened through this process and we pray that God can continue to take any brokenness from this situation and make something beautiful out of it. We believe that we have done all that we reasonably can to acknowledge any wrongdoing, seek forgiveness, pursue healing, make corrections as necessary and through this grow to be more effective servants of Christ for His kingdom.

For questions, please contact [email protected].