Ben

I love my husband with all my heart. We have gone through so much together and have always come out stronger. Since leaving VBM we have only grown closer together, and are discovering what a true partnership marriage is instead of what we were previously being taught. From the beginning of August when these allegations surfaced against Austin Gardner we have been talking about just how different our stories and experiences were, and just how much this affected how we view these allegations. I was able to share with him exactly what I had been through, and be open with what I was still experiencing because of my time there. My husband is an amazing man that I love with all my heart. Please keep in mind that he has grown and changed so much in the past year and especially the past month. He doesn't have FB but has wanted to make a statement of some kind so here it is:

"My name is Ben Thomas and I was part of the problem. Immediately after I graduated high school I began to attend the Our Generation Training Center and began to fall in love with everything about it. I loved learning about the Bible, I loved knowing I was part of something important, I was part of an elite group - the best of the best. In that environment there were two types of people: those who played the part and the 'losers'. It was fun to be part of the crowd that mocked the people who couldn't handle it and to preemptively mock those who seemed that they may not make it.

As I graduated and started my work as a missionary I began to take on more toxic behaviors. I saw missionaries who had left as failures and the worst thing in my mind that could happen to soeone was that they leave the ministry. My life became less about doing what God wanted me to do and more about doing what would make me look good. When I faced major sin problems in my life I cared more about how that would make me look in my ministry than I did about how my family felt or even how that influenced my walk with God. My wife and I resigned the mission board in January of 2020 it was a mutual decision, I wasn't ready to be a missionary. We left Vision Baptist Church in September of the same year for a job I was able to get in Ohio. I want to give this summary so that you can know where I'm coming from as I say what I'm about to say.

I want to step back for a moment and reflect. I don't want to deflect any blame that I have for the way I was. It wasn't Vision's fault I did the things I did, it was my fault. What I am trying to say is that I bought into this culture of toxicity and in buying into it I (whether consciously or not) perpetuated it. I was culpable in this environment that has lead to the abuse of many. I was culpable in the environment that lead to the emotional abuse of my wife. That sentence just racked me. It's taken some time to finally admit the part I have played in it. In fact at the initial outset of the allegations of emotional and spiritual abuse I was quick to dismiss it all. I thought the narratives of the victim's was overwrought.

Allow me to remind you that one of those victims was my wife. I thought she was being, to put it bluntly, dramatic. It wasn't until I really heard her and started examining myself that I saw that I wasn't just there while these things happend, I allowed them to happen. I, through taking part in and allowing to happen, was guilty of the abuse too.

So this is where I stand. I want to reach out to all the victims a put forward my sincerest apology. I may not have directly hurt you, you may not even know me; but I took part in and perpetuated an environment that abused you. I know that no amoung of words can take away the pain that you feel. I just want you to know that your words are reaching some people. It's a tragedy that it took so long, but the courage that you have is changing peoples minds. I want to end this by saying that some of my closest friends were and still are at Vision Baptist Missions and as antagonistic as this seems I really just want to see things get fixed.