Still No Resolution Of Potters Field Scandal
According to an article in The Daily Interlake, interns who were allegedly scammed by Mile and Pam Rozelle of Potters Field Ministries still are on hold for resolution of their labor claims.
In the meantime, the Rozell’s are opening another for profit MudMan burger joint.
They also have updated their website, removing all mention of any scandals and now featuring PDF newsletters of their “ministry” overseas.
How viable is that “ministry”?
Let’s revisit the words of the man who was once in charge of it who wrote an open letter to Rozell;
“This letter, (also an attachment to this letter) which serves as a “reboot” of PFM and intends to quell any fears PFM supporters might have, is so disingenuous! The reality on the ground cannot be more starkly different! I have recently been in Uganda, most of that time at Calvary Chapel Entebbe. In those three weeks, I was largely talking to pastors and staff, teachers and children, and attempting to find a solution for the Calvary Chapel Entebbe kids, school, and child sponsorship programs, which Loren and I started in 2007, but had had been being supported through the Potter’s Field Kids program starting in 2010. The school, Calvary Chapel Christian School, which was subsidized by PFM, is in a funding crisis and may or may not be able to continue. The 60 students that were being sponsored currently have no sponsor. The church is struggling in the aftermath of two years in which the relationship with PFM was fractured, dysfunctional, and lacked trust. The funding was abruptly stopped in October of 2019, when the last of the PFM missionaries left, without so much as notifying the pastor of the church that there would be no more funding! Rumors are rife as to how all this happened, blame settling on the pastor, and many have left the church. The church is also going through a crisis! Let me be clear, I’m not placing the blame entirely on PFM, nor is the church or school PFM’s responsibility. However, PFM’s ill advised and culturally inappropriate actions had a huge negative effect on the church.
For instance, inexperienced and culturally insensitive staff were sent by you to “spy” on the church and pastor, poisoning the local staff against the pastor and creating mistrust between the pastor and PFM. Your threatening and frankly demeaning and racist language and gestures in meetings with the local pastors and staff, myself as witness, was what I witnessed of what must have been your regular behavior towards the interns. These facts aside, my real issue is this. For you and the board of PFM (same thing), a supposed Christian ministry with the heart of “transforming lives forever”, to write a letter like this to all your supporters, on the heels of all that has happened in your ministry in the last year; misrepresenting the facts, embellishing the details, and making dishonest claims, and most importantly, neglecting to publicly and sincerely repent and ask forgiveness of the many you have sinned against, IS WRONG. It is an obvious effort to paint a “rosy” picture to settle the hearts of supporters, maintain their loyalty, and keep the support dollars flowing in! You are blatantly and dishonestly using the church to promote your agenda! This letter honestly makes me sick, and reinforces suspicions and concerns I have had with PFM for many years. Mike, so much of what you do is “show”, meant to sell and impress, and so many of your claims are embellished and not true. This was, and continues to be Mike and Pam Rozell’s MO. To you, money, fame, and influence prove God’s blessing, regardless of how it is achieved, and you fail to see how compromised you have become.
You write in your letter “In the 4th quarter of 2019, the Potter’s Field board brought in an independent CPA firm to audit our finances working in partnership with an outside church ministry (Godspeak Calvary Chapel). We are pleased to report back to you that everything was reported positively, and there have been no improper accounting of assets and liabilities over the past 5 years.” I’m speechless at yet again, your distortion of the facts. Yes, you did have an audit which did include oversight from Godspeak Calvary Chapel. I’m told the audit firm gave you a pass on the account information provided. But did you care to listen to the cautions or see the red flags that were raised? No! I am aware of the amount of money generated through sponsorship from 2014 onwards. On average $120,000/month, sometimes less, sometimes more. I’m aware of the amount of money that ended up in Entebbe, $4,300/month, as well as in the various other programs you helped, generously a total of $30,000/month for all five to six country programs PFM was involved with combined, some of which was for the Ignite students upkeep and travel. That is 25%. I guess the rest (roughly 75%) must have been spent on other aspects of PFM’s “mission”, Mudman, the horse ranch and indoor arena, the Ignite program, travel expenses, and untold number of real estate properties and ventures? All of it cleverly labeled “part of the mission” of PFM and therefore a legal expenditure of the proceeds of the sponsorship program. I wonder, did the sponsors of “Evon” and “Bright” and “Joan”, and “Thierre”, children in Entebbe, know that much, if not most of their sponsorship dollars were actually helping to build Mudman Restaurants, run an elite horse ranch, buy properties, and sponsor PFM staff and American millennials to travel around the world? Using the plight, pictures, and stories of poor African children to manipulate people to give, in order to build your ministry, buy yourself properties, build restaurants, and sponsor American youth is so wrong on every level. You say it is legal. That may be the case, but Mike, you were not, and are not, being transparent, nor is it right! I guarantee that most of your supporters don’t know that this is what they signed up for! Ask them!”
There has been no confession of sin by the Rozell’s, no admittance of guilt, no contrition nor confession, and worst of all, no accountability to any of the alleged victims of their “ministries”.
They have outlasted the news cycle and go on doing whatever they choose and doing it covered in Christianeze.
God will not be mocked…and they would know that if they knew Him…
One of my wife’s friend mentioned that she got a routine email from Pam recently requesting support for the minus-three. We quickly related some facts and she was aghast upon learning of the scandal.
JD,
Thank you for sharing the truth with others…these people have no shame.
I have always been curious why Christians give to ministries that are not their church?
I give to my local church and to local community charities.
Michael, do you have their lawyer’s statement which has been deleted from the pottersfield.org? I am interested in the content but cannot find it online or on your blog. Thank you.