Mary and John joined a mission work. They were excited about their ministry in which they would work shoulder to shoulder.

But, now on a mission field far from home, they were under the director's seeming complete control. Their work visa, their house, their children in the mission school. Everything was controlled in some way by the mission agency.

And the director abused his authority and created daily drama in their lives.

He lied. He manipulated. And he isolated them.

There a number of ways those, who are abused in the home or workplace, are isolated by their abusers. Isolation provides secrecy and a means for the abuser to remain unaccountable for his sin.

It is an extraordinary thing what the God of the universe has done on our behalf. It is written all over the Bible and experienced by millions upon millions through the millennia.

Jesus illustrated this reality in Matthew 18 when he told a parable (or story) of a middle manager (MM), his boss, and a subordinate of his own.

What I want to point out, in the context of this blog, is the toxicity of this middle manager.

The CEO was known to use people's words to turn on them. He would simply lie and justify and blame shift when exhorted.

We were concerned that he would simply kick us off the mission then and there and we would be stuck half way around the world from our home. Our children were in their last two months of class time in the mission school.

Yet the CEO said he wanted to hear why we were leaving.

To us it was asking us to stick our necks out with the possibility of being chopped off.