Ethnos360 Is Responsible for My Abuse
The continuing saga of Ethnos360 protecting predators
Paul Gess is a reported child predator.
The man who sexually abused me when I was a child.
When I first shared my story, I couldn’t bring myself to name him. I was scared—of retaliation, of people not believing me, of what it might cost me.
I wrote more about the details of what happened here: They Knew, and They Let it Happen
I’m done protecting people who harmed me. I’m done carrying shame that was never mine to begin with. That shame belongs to him. To them. Not to me.
I'm not going to hold their secrets for them and I am not going to protect them anymore.
Paul Gess abused me. And I am not his only victim.
There are many of us.
Yet somehow—he’s still in ministry. He is still respected and trusted.
Right now, Paul runs a prison ministry in Michigan. He’s speaks at multiple churches. On LinkedIn, he lists “youth ministry” as part of his experience.
Yes—youth ministry.
What makes this worse is that Ethnos360 (formerly New Tribes Mission) knew they should not put him with kids and they did it anyway.
They were allegedly warned about him in the 1980s. He was a missionary in Bolivia.
I’ve heard this from multiple people—independent of each other.
There were reports. Concerns. Accusations.
But instead of protecting children, they protected him.
They took him out of dorm ministry. They even sent him to live among the Ayore tribe for a while
I can’t stop wondering— did he do anything to those kids?
Then came the word that’s always used to justify this cycle:
“Repentant.”
He was “sorry,” they said. I'm all about repentance. But that doesn't mean we should pretend like nothing happened.
So they put him back in ministry.
In the early 1990s, they alledgedly made him a dorm parent.
For girls. Again.
He sexually abused children again.
He was removed again—but not reported. Not held accountable.
Just quietly placed into another ministry position.
And when they decided he was “repentant” again? They decided that forgiveness meant that they could pretend like he had never abused kids and pretend like he was not a danger.
So they sent him back into the girls’ dorm in the late 1990s. Again.
Where he abused again.
Let me say this clearly:
He should never have been anywhere near children.
But Ethnos360 gave him access—again and again. They had full knowledge and any children abused after the first time is criminal negligence on their part.
If they had done the right thing the first time,
So many of us could have been spared.
Instead, they chose secrecy.
They chose to protect the abuser, not the abused.
They should have reported him to the Bolivian authorities.
But they didn’t.
Because in their minds, they are above the law.
Years later as an adult missionary at their missionary training center in Missouri,
I sat through a child safety session where we were told—point blank—
that if something happened overseas,
the mission would not report it to local authorities.
The man who said this—during a child safety training—was Scott Ross.
That policy is not only dangerous and unethical.
It is illegal. And it is unbiblical.
If someone commits a crime in Indonesia or Bolivia:
They should be held accountable in Indonesia or Bolivia.
But that’s not how Ethnos360 sees the world.
They have operated for decades as if their mission is exempt from the rules everyone else must live by.
Today, they claim they’ve changed.
That they’re being “transparent.”
Yes—they do now have a list of known abusers.
But it’s not posted visibly. At least not by them.
It’s buried in a PDF hidden deep on their website, if you don't know what you're looking for you will never find it. Even when you do know what you're looking for it takes some work.
That’s not justice.
That’s not accountability.
That’s damage control. It’s a PR machine in action.
And meanwhile, Paul Gess is out there, standing in churches, saying:
“Oh, I was misjudged.”
“This is just Satan attacking me.”
Let me be clear.
You are not being attacked.
You are a pedophile. You should have gone to prison.
You were protected by a system that cared more about its image than whether or not children were abused.
That system is still alive.
Still hiding.
Still minimizing.
Still shifting the weight of all this onto survivors.
I’m not carrying that weight anymore.
I won’t hold their secrets.
I won’t protect their comfort.
I’m speaking the truth—no matter how uncomfortable it makes them.
Because this is still happening to children today. I am not okay with that.
Because the only way forward is through the truth.
Not allowing them to hold the narrative anymore and hide.
You can read and watch more about what happened here:
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Anyone that continues to support Ethnos360 missionaries continues to support abuse. It’s that simple. Just shut it down.