Nikau Church - JMS in Wellington, New Zealand

[ChrisN]

Hi people,

I had this account registered a while back because I was hoping to get my thoughts together enough to write a proper post about JMS in Wellington, but that hasn't quite eventuated. I don't know anything about the activities of JMS in New Zealand other than in Wellington, where the group is known as "Nikau Church". At Victoria University of Wellington they have a female only "dance club" called Dance With Me, which operates primarily as a front for the group to recruit people to their bible studies. As far as I'm aware, the University administration is totally unaware of this.

Here's where things really cross the line. A video from this group posted on the official marketing channel of the university. Seriously. Now, there's nothing JMSy about the video itself other than that it's a really weird thing to do, BUT...

Thoughts? Advice?

[Peter]

Thank you for that, that is indeed interesting and I think significant enough to warrant a response of some kind.
Cultists do pop in here, so any ideas as to what kind of response should go through private messages^^

[ChrisN]

Since I posted that video, DanceWithMe have run a dance event in conjunction with Victoria's Recreation Services!

Anyhow, for a little more information about Nikau Church one can check out their Facebook Page. One of the people you'll see on there most often is the local cult leader.

Coming up in February next year is the other component of every good JMS group - modelling. It's their annual ladies-only fashion show The Recipe.

Edit: Just corrected the Facebook address.
Peter

Update 2: Sept 1. 2015, that page, along with numerous other JMS operated Facebook pages, has been deleted

[Peter]

Edit: Long story, which will soon be told

[Virago]

I'm new to this site, having joined after my new partner at last identified what her daughter's church actually was after some years of not knowing. That's allowed us to trace some of the links, and the information here makes is much easier to make some sense of them. These, in turn, make it much easier to trace the tendrils into her daughter's life.

The associated modeling group here in Wellington is called Kotuku Models. Wellington has a strong presence of fashion design, and a large show called WOW World of Wearable Art is held here annually. I suspect that this provides an opportunity for Kotuku Models as a respectable, and appealing, front. With that in mind, I'm fascinated by the degree of openness on the Kotuku site, including its relationship to Nikau Church and quotes from Joshua Jung. I don't know whether people don't check the quotes out, or whether the source doesn't worry them. If the latter, maybe they don't get as far in their reading as Peter's article, or maybe they really are OK with it.

Dance With Me is a club registered with VUWSA, and its links to Nikau Church are much less transparent than Kotuku Models links.

Kia haha - Stand strong

[ChrisN]

Hi Virago, I'm sorry to hear that your daughter is involved with Nikau Church, if there's anything I might be able to help you with please send me a PM! I don't have really strong contacts with anyone in the group these days but there's still a possibility that I may know her or have mutual friends etc..

Modelling groups are something that JMS has set up pretty much wherever it goes - I understand that the original motives may have been substantially more insidious until Jung was caught. As for the quotes... well, the way Jung is quoted on Facebook is basically the same as every other "inspirational" quote that somebody sticks on top of a photograph of a sunset or a beach... they are basically inoffensive and meaningless unless you know the JMS-theological context.

(Oh, hey, the latest post on the NC facebook page is a quote on top of a sunset!)

[Peter]

At Victoria University of Wellington they have a female only "dance club" called Dance With Me, which operates primarily as a front for the group to recruit people to their bible studies.

Hi Chris,
I posted about this on a NZ Atheist group and a couple of people contacted the dance club. The following was recently posted on the club's Facebook page: Would appreciate your thoughts...

The Dance with Me at Vic - Club President and the Executive advise the club has no affiliation to the Providence Church. The club is constituted to provide Dance services and performances to the wider VUW community. If there is anyone who wishes to seek clarify or confirmation - please contact the Club Executive directly on this matter.

I find the above request to contact the Executive directly a little odd. Why specifically ask for it to be not discussed under that post?

A lady who was involved with Dance With Me for two years said she was never exposed to any "church" stuff, but she did recognise the two girls drawing Jesus and JMS above as being members of the church, the modelling group, and the Dance group. And a photo of her at a Dance With Me event appears on the church's Facebook page.

Certainly there is/was some crossover in membership between JMS and the Dance group. An example of JMS infiltrating a separate organisation or an example of a busted front group denying its ties to the parent cult?

[noMoreJMS]

Certainly there is/was some crossover in membership between JMS and the Dance group. An example of JMS infiltrating an separate organisation or an example of a busted front group denying its ties to the parent cult?

Interesting, I know that it is a tool to directly evangalise people. Im sensing a cover up here.

Unless of course it has been passed on, given its success rate cannot have been too good.

This photo does have a few church members in it, and a familiar pose.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4040080677882&set=o.208987172032&type=3&theater

[Peter]

I got an email which I think looked very sincere and totally trustworthy to my skeptical eyes.
Apparently the Dance With Me dancing group was founded by JMS members, but over time their influence faded as non-JMS girls joined the group and discovered its origins. Eventually the JMS founders left the dance club to focus on a modelling front group. The dance group, now under totally non-JMS management, is in the process of renaming and rebranding itself to shake off any lingering associations with the cult.
 

[noMoreJMS]

That is good news. So i assume all efforts are going towards the Kotuku Models now, which should help with the recruitment of more young females.

[Peter]

Exactly right... I imagine the dance group stopped providing them with new members once word got around it was a front for a crazed serial rapist's harem..

[Peter]

While Kotuku Models' Facebook has been deleted - along with quite a few other JMS operated Facebook accounts, the associated Twitter account, which hasn't seen activity since October 2013, yields some of the cult's NZ hunting grounds which include the previously mentioned Victoria University of Wellington, Massey University, and Tawa College - a high school.

[Peter]

Since I posted that video, DanceWithMe have run a dance event in conjunction with Victoria's Recreation Services!

Anyhow, for a little more information about Nikau Church one can check out their Facebook Page. One of the people you'll see on there most often is the local cult leader.

Here's a strange one. Chris initially provided the first name of the leader of Nikau Church in his post. This evening I got a rather polite email from that leader asking me to delete her name, which I did, and I was quite happy to do so.

As I expressed in my response to her: Although I fail to see how posting the first name of a recruiter for a serial rapist is in any way shape or form a violation of the law she quoted - see below, I don't see her first name being on my site as a necessity. Hence, I edited it out of Chris's post within minutes of receiving her request.

Then I went Googling out of curiosity and found her full name listed on this New Zealand cult awareness site: http://www.cults.co.nz/p.php#providence

If Chris's post of just her first name is a violation, then her full name on that site most definitely is. And I'm not even sure that first name is her real name. It could simply be an English nickname and not her legal name. Anyway, she felt the posting of that first name was unlawful. Either that or she was directed to make the request by leaders in Korea:

The information disclosed is a disclosure of sensitive personal information, made unlawful under section 6 of the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015.

Here is that section.

The site with her full name is actually operated by a New Zealander in New Zealand as opposed to this site which really has no connection to New Zealand at all. As such, she has a much greater change of actually getting somewhere with her compliant should she wish to take things further, and why wouldn't she? I wish her all the best in her quest to rid the Internet of pages connecting her with her serial rapist and the cult he leads. It will be interesting to see if she makes a similar request to the operator of that site and what will happen next if that request is refused.

[Peter]

Strange, I just got another dubious copyright take-down notice from a cultist. Counter-notice sent. Game on... again.

I assumed the cult had deleted the Twitter account concerned since they're so worried about screenshots (with the extra privacy of blurring faces provided by me free of charge)  appearing. But the account is still online and the posts at the root of Jessica's complaint (and more) are all still online, at least as of April 22, 2016.
https://twitter.com/KotukuModels/status/300822689571037184
https://twitter.com/KotukuModels/status/338817429134274560
https://twitter.com/KotukuModels/status/311600561675968512

[Peter]

Just some random observations and a thought

The Twitter account's last tweet was in October 2013. The entirely ridiculous copyright complaint came from a member living in the US. The cult seems to not want those tweets and images shared, yet they're all still online, while other social media sites run by that front group are long gone. It just occurred to me that perhaps that Twitter account was set up by a member who has since left the cult and took the password with her? Wouldn't that be funny?