I was a 21-year-old camp counselor for the IHOPKC Summer Teen Internship(STI) in ‘05. I emailed a person to express my interest and I was in. A close friend of mine also signed up. All I had to do was go to Hickman Mills police station to print off my own background check. The kids would be staying at ‘Host families’ homes around the city. The host families were any IHOPKC adjacent families that were willing to give sleeping bag space and pop tarts to a few kids each day. Some kids were in Belton, Lees Summit, or in the nearby South KC area. My friend and I were assigned to live in quarters with around 10 kids in a large living space. There was an IHOPKC family that just finished building a large house on some nearby IHOPKC property with a large open basement with its own bathroom/shower and private entrance. So, we set up 5 sets of bunkbeds and single beds for myself and two other camp counselors. The teenage son of the family had his own bedroom in the basement next to the space where the camp kids stayed. He was around 15-16 years old at the time. We’ll call him John. There were three of us camp counselors staying in the room with the teens. Myself and my friend that had been students/staff with IHOPKC for two years, and another guy from out of town. Let’s call him Mark. Mark was a college student out of state. He had never done anything IHOPKC except for attending a conference. He had met a well known IHOP worship leader and their so when they led worship in his town, and that’s how he got connected with STI. Mark was a really nice guy. He was a musician and worship leader and often led worship for the teens. Our personalities worked well with each other. We all got along well living in close quarters. We had fun with the teens, ministering, and staying up late goofing off together. John, the teenage son of the family that owned the house where we stayed, would often hang out with all of us. He was not enrolled with the internship, but he was present and knew everyone. He became friends with some of the teens and Mark. Mark rented a movie one night to watch with the teens on a laptop. I believe a group of the teens, Mark and John watched it in John’s room. After a long day of camp sessions, prayer room time and Bible studies we would all get home later in the evening and hang out as a group and stay up relatively late in our living quarters. One time a few of the teens were shirtless while hanging out. Somehow, Mark ended up sitting on a bunk bed with 4 teens all giving each other shirtless shoulder massages. The two of us other counselors were uncomfortable. We cautiously suggested they stop, without drawing attention to it or accusing anyone. When at the house, Mark would hang out with John more and more. We all generally hung out in the large room, but they hung out together sometimes in John’s bedroom. One night everyone had gone to sleep and I noticed that Mark’s bed was empty. I looked around and found him asleep on John’s bed next to John himself. I woke up Mark and strongly suggested he go to his own bed. He woke up and didn’t think anything of it. It was very uncomfortable for me and stayed with me. My friend and I didn’t really know what to make of it, but we knew it had to be passed up to the leader of STI. I think maybe my friend told him about it. STI Leader approached me about it. He asked about the shirtless massages and finding Mark asleep in a teen’s bed. I confirmed it and he thanked me for saying something. I believe within the next day, Mark was let go from the camp. The staff got together and explained what had happened and that it was best for Mark to leave. That was all that was said and we agreed and accepted it. I was talking about it with worship leader’s son that had met Mark in his hometown since he was the one that connected Mark to STI. He was saying how weird that was and that he never vouched for him because he hardly knew him. He met him one weekend while traveling. Mark had asked for a way to come to IHOPKC for a bit and he suggested the STI. And it was never talked about again. I have my doubts that the parents of John were brought into the conversation about Mark. Today as a father, I cannot imagine putting my children in any situation even close to what I described. And if I had found out a counselor was sleeping in my kid’s bed and giving massages, I would lose my mind and would have kicked all of the STI kids and staff out of my house at the very least.
- FT Staff/Student; Summer Teen Internship Group Leader Summer ‘05‘03-‘09