“What’s wrong with you?” Rael yelled. “You don’t want me. No one wants me. I’m worthless. Go away. Why are you here?”
She turned to walk away.
“Because I love you, Rael,” Charles said. Her body began to shake with sobs. Charles reached out and held her tightly. “Rael, we all miss you. Mama Esther misses you. I miss you. All of your brothers and sisters miss you. Will you come home with me?”
Rael wiped her nose with the back of her arm. “I don’t want to be here. This is horrible. I want to go home.”
“Well, let’s get you into the car then. I bet you’re hungry.”
Rael nodded. “Thank you for coming, Daddy,” she whispered.
Street children kept arriving, and somehow Charles and Esther found room for two hundred of them at their house. But by late 1993 it was obvious they needed a bigger home for everyone. Charles began contemplating a bigger facility for his ever-growing family, but where? He knew exactly the place. Although Charles had sold all his businesses and the property that went with them, he and Esther had kept five hundred acres of undeveloped scrub land at Ndalani, where Charles’s parents still lived. The land was located beside the Thika River, and Charles and Esther had planned to retire there one day. Since the property was out in the countryside, there were no immediate neighbors to complain about the noise that two or three hundred children would make at the site.
Charles talked to Esther about using the land to build a second home for the children. She readily agreed. After all, she told him, with so many children to raise, it didn’t look like they would ever be retiring. Charles was grateful he had a wife who was 100 percent with him in his vision.
Meanwhile, the Mullis’ biological children were growing up. Miriam graduated from university with a bachelor of education degree and came back home to help teach the children. Jane graduated with a degree in nursing and fell in love with a local man named Nicky. The two planned to marry. It was satisfying for Charles to see his children focused on their studies and finding their own place in the world, despite the sacrifices they had made.
As Charles prayed about who should initially be sent to Ndalani, he realized it was an opportunity for the most difficult teenage boys to go there and try something different. He asked two teachers to take charge of the seventeen most challenging boys at Eldoret and take them to live on the property at Ndalani. As well as keeping up with their regular studies, the boys would clear the land for farming and build several simple buildings for the other children to occupy when they moved there. Charles felt that hard physical labor and a sense of purpose would do them all good.
Charles and Esther spent a day together on the property on the Thika River, walking, talking, and praying together. It was a refreshing time for them both. By the end of the day, they were encouraged and full of faith for the things God wanted to accomplish on this land.
On Saturday, August 20, 1994, four hundred people, including all the Mully Children’s Family members from Eldoret, Charles’s parents, and other relatives and friends, arrived at the Ndalani property for a service to dedicate the land. As Charles looked over the barren red scrubland, he saw the future—a lush, fertile area filled with happy children.
Charles’s parents sat proudly in the front row. Daudi Mulli was a changed man, an elder in the local church and someone whom people sought out to mediate arguments. Rhoda, too, had a strong faith and worked tirelessly to help the poor women in the area. Most of Charles’s brothers had also become Christians, and several of them planned to work for him at Ndalani once the facility was up and running. Aunt Muthikwa had also given her heart to Christ and sat beaming through the whole dedication service.
Afterward, the entire Mully Children’s Family traveled to Nairobi for Jane’s wedding. When all the children stood and sang at the service, many people were moved to tears. Following the wedding ceremony, Charles and Esther headed back to Eldoret to welcome more street children into their home and ever-growing family.
Six weeks later, on a Wednesday afternoon, Charles noticed a look of concern on Esther’s face. “What is it?” he asked. “Is something wrong?”
Esther hesitated to speak. “It’s, well… I hate to tell you this, but we have only enough food left for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow. After that there is nothing.”
“Oh,” Charles said. “And there’s no money in our bank accounts to buy more.”
“Now what?” Esther asked.
“We pray,” Charles responded.
“Isn’t it a bit late for that? Can we expect God to create food for hundreds of children out of thin air?”
Charles shrugged. “I don’t know. He fed the Israelites in the wilderness, and Jesus fed the crowd with the loaves and fishes. All we can do is pray and trust Him.”
Esther burst into tears. “It’s so hard. What if it doesn’t work? What if we’ve failed God and all these children?”
Charles closed his eyes and raised his hands. He was quiet for a long time, and then he prayed, “God, You have called us to this work. You said You are Father to the fatherless. We have enough food for two more meals. You know that. Please meet all our needs according to Your riches in glory. Amen.”
That night as he lay in bed, Charles struggled with the future of the ministry he had been called to. The children—his children—many of whom he had rescued from starvation, might have to go without food in his home. Was this the beginning of the end? Charles slowly drifted off to sleep, praying that God would give him the strength to trust Him.
The next day Charles calmly went about his morning duties. He was counseling a boy in the backyard when several children rushed up to him.
“Daddy, Daddy, there’s a big truck at the gate and a woman asking to talk to you,” they said.
Charles was puzzled. He knew he had not ordered any new shipments. They didn’t have the money to do so.
The children escorted him to the gate, where Esther was waiting for him. “I heard all the commotion,” she said. “I wonder what’s happening.”
Charles saw a middle-aged woman standing beside a truck at the front gate. “Are you Mr. Mulli?” she asked with a smile.
“Yes, I am,” Charles replied, “and this is my wife, Esther.”
“How wonderful to meet you,” the woman said. “I came as soon as I could. Last week I heard a woman at our church talk about you and all that you had given up for the street children. Then last night as I was going to sleep, I felt God telling me to hire a truck and load it with food for you. I hope you can use it.”
Charles laughed with delight. “As a matter of fact, we can!” he replied.
“Come and see,” the woman said, leading Charles and Esther to the back of the truck. It was loaded with sacks of maize, beans, rice, and many kinds of vegetables.
Charles shook the woman’s hand. “Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. There is enough food here to last the children for at least three days. You have done an incredible thing for us.”
The children unloaded the truck and carried the food to the storehouse. Before the woman left, she handed Charles an envelope. “This has been such an honor,” she told him. “I mean, I got to meet the famous Mr. Mulli. It is so exciting.”
After the woman drove off in the truck, Charles pulled out the envelope and looked inside. It was stuffed with money, enough to buy food for several more weeks!
Esther and Charles walked back inside hand in hand. “This is a miracle,” Esther said quietly. “At the same time that we were praying last night, God was telling that woman to bring us food.”
“Yes,” Charles replied. “We must never forget that all things are possible with God if we believe.”
It was a refrain Charles would come back to again and again as he faced more daunting challenges.
Chapter 11
Ups and Downs
Charles and Esther sat together in the doctor’s office waiting for him to arrive. Charles had been to Eldoret Hospital more times than he could count accompanying sick children, but this time was different. This time Charles was here as the patient, to find out what was causing his tiredness and constant thirst. At first he just told himself he was working too hard. It was 1995, and in addition to driving to Ndalani once a week to supervise the boys and keeping the home at Eldoret functioning, Charles had enrolled in Bible college. He felt he needed more insight into how to help his adopted children in their own spiritual growth. Everyone told him not to work so hard and that it was no wonder he was tired all the time.
When the doctor walked into the office, Charles noticed his serious look as the two shook hands. The two men made small talk about the children before the doctor sat down at his desk and pulled a sheet of paper from the drawer. He glanced over it and then looked Charles in the eye. “You have diabetes,” he announced. “Does either of your parents have diabetes?”
“No,” Charles said, trying to take in the news.
“Your grandparents?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Your children or siblings?”
“No, again,” Charles said. “I can’t think of a single person in my family who has diabetes. How did I get it?”
“Many times it happens when a person is overweight and unfit, but you’re in great shape for a man of forty-six. Sometimes we don’t know what triggers it.”
The doctor talked on, but Charles found it hard to concentrate on what he was saying. The word diabetes kept pulsing in his mind. I have diabetes? How can that be? he asked himself. I’m serving God, I have hundreds of children who are dependent on me, and I have diabetes? He heard the doctor say, “If you don’t look after yourself, we could end up having to amputate your feet or legs. Stress can also contribute to diabetes. You will have to slow down. If you follow all the directions I’m going to give you, take medication every day without fail, and get plenty of sleep, you will probably be able to live a somewhat normal life.”
What did that mean? Probably? Somewhat normal? Charles’s life was far from normal. He had many responsibilities to bear. Would he have to slow down or, worse, give those responsibilities up entirely?
Charles was still stunned at the diagnosis as he and Esther drove home. The couple sat in silence. They had nothing to talk about. Charles felt as though he had received a death sentence. He was slim and fit, and people often told him he had the energy of a twenty-year-old. But not anymore.
That night Charles stood beneath the stars in his backyard. “How could this happen to me?” he asked God. “I have so much to do—so much You’ve given me to do—and now I have an illness that’s going to slow me down, maybe even stop me. The doctor talked about my legs being amputated. Is that in my future? How will I care for children if I have no legs?” On and on Charles prayed, focusing on all of the problems having diabetes would create for him. He stopped and waited. There were only questions, no answers, no clarity, no guarantee about how all this would end. You have a choice right now, he said to himself. Either you can turn your back on God and refuse to believe that He loves you because He allowed you to get diabetes, or you can trust Him no matter how things look at the moment. Which will it be?
A Bible verse, one Charles often quoted to the children when they were in trouble, came to mind: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
“Yes, that’s what I’ll do, God,” Charles said simply. “I will trust You. I have given You my body, my family, my wealth, everything that I have. I will not take it back now. I’m in Your hands.”
For the first time that day Charles felt at peace. Yes, it was difficult to have a disease like diabetes, but he knew that God was still in control of his life.
Charles began taking medication to treat his diabetes and closely followed the doctor’s instructions. As a result, the extreme tiredness he had been experiencing went away, though he still had to be sure he got enough sleep. He felt at full strength on December 31, 1995, when 220 second-grade through seventh-grade boys and girls from Eldoret relocated to Ndalani. Charles and Esther made the move with them, leaving behind a group of trusted workers to care for the children still at Eldoret.
