The Mully Children’s Family Narrative Volume 2, Entry 1

MCF 35 Years on: Scale, Scope, and Sacrifice

The original residence of Charles and Esther Mully, MCF Ndalani

November 2024 marked the 35th anniversary of the beginning of this remarkable ministry. This Mully Narrative commemorates the 35^th with this overview of MCF development in three dimensions: scale, scope, and sacrifice.

Christmas 1989 at the Mully home in Eldoret, Kenya sported Charles/Esther Mully, their children and a handful of the first rescued children from the streets of the city. Charles had become Daddy Mully.

With food handouts, his faith in God, and a determination beyond comprehension he continued to reach out to the abandoned young people of the streets where poverty, vulnerability, and neglect were destroying their lives. Mully Children’s Family was growing. Within a year, it became clear that the big stone homestead was becoming inadequate for the constant growth of the rescued population and iron sheet housing was added as dorms in the compound. Within two years the rescued number scaled up to the point it was outgrowing the Eldoret Compound.

In the early 1990s, as the considerable wealth accumulated by Charles Mully dwindled, local farmers and others began, in answer to prayer, regularly donating foodstuffs. International benefactors took notice and reacted with their prayers, influence, visits, and real donations. Charles tells the story he went to the bank to close an account as it was near empty. The teller advised him that there was quite a bit of money in the account from an anonymous donor. To this day Charles is grateful but has no idea from whom came this just-in-time donation, an answer to prayer. The size of the student body, number of donors, and donations continued to grow.

In 1995, with Eldoret being unsuitable, MCF moved to Ndalani with the first set of boys. The girls followed later. MCF Ndalani grew as more rescues arrived at its gates. The scale of the referral sources grew as Kenyan churches, schools, family courts, and medical facilities learned that this was a credible safe place for children.

The needs of the children at MCF Ndalani alone meant increasing the school facilities, dormitories, vocational training, secondary school, pre-school nurseries, child-care, kitchen/dining room capability, the indoor chapel, the library, potable water, medical facilities, self-grown farming for food, fish, fruit, chickens/meat. Today MCF Ndalani cares for more than 1,200 rescued children. Across the road in nearby Yatta, MCF Yatta has grown from a small women’s vocation training to the Mully College with more than four vocational/diploma disciplines with over 500 students.

MCF expanded these three sites by establishing 8 more in Kenya (including Lodwar, Kitale, Vipingo, Malindi, and Ngong) and three in Tanzania (Ukerewe, Bagamoyo, Dar Es Salaam). There are, at the 35^th anniversary, 7,800 rescued children supported by MCF, about 200 full time employees and another 600 part-time co-workers. As MCF’s reputation grew worldwide so people in Kenya and beyond sought to partake in “the biggest family in the world” through donations, volunteerism, and conferences like eco-tourism.

The initial scope of the Mully ministry was rescue. Professor Mully, often alone, looked for and rescued the orphaned hungry children from the streets of Eldoret. From the rescue by food, housing, and family, the scope of the work had to expand to rehabilitation of the traumatized neglected beneficiaries. Hence in-house medical attention, education, training, counselling, sports, music, praise, and talent development were developed. Then as beneficiaries with marketable skills were ready to enter the workforce, reintegration was added to the scope of services. Reintegration includes freedom through forgiveness by the rescued, if possible, of those who harmed him/her.

The scope of work expanded from these 3 “R”s to what is named in the Mully Model as the three “P”s: planning, prevention, and protection. There is ongoing and professional comprehensive planning for each child. Prevention of the perpetual cycle of intergenerational poverty through day care programs and rescue/training of the expectant/young mothers of the street was added to the scope. It was initiated in a women’s training program which became the Mully College at MCF Yatta, with a second campus set up later in Malindi. As MCF was recognized as a leading model for this ministry, other NGOs and Governments consulted MCF about child protection.

The Mully Model, as written by Professor Charles, states clearly that ministry under God needs to maintain its gaze not only on its own needs, but also the needs of its environment, i.e. neighbours. At MCF Ndalani the local elders looked at the Mully Secondary School as a solution to the educational needs of families in the nearby villages and farms. Professor Charles pointed out that school was for the rescued and not suitable as a local private secondary school, however he pledged to build a local suitable Secondary School. The Dr. Charles Mully Secondary School was built around 2012. This was part of the astounding expanding scope of the MCF outreach.

The beneficiaries needed potable water and food. Hence the construction of large-scale farms, fishponds, chicken production and water treatment. The scale of the farms meant excess produce. Hence MCF farms are now a source for free lunches for over 70 schools in the county and serves potable water to about 5,000 households outside MCF. Life skill education about waterborne disease along with the treated water supply reduced the diseases tied to bad water by 60% in the community.

Well-organized as a Community Health Program the scope of MCF now comprises provision of food, water, education, healthcare, child protection, poverty/abuse prevention, sanitary pad provision, women’s mentorship, home support visits, maternal/child care, medical referrals, and medical financial support, among other interventions.

MCF is a leader in water conservation which includes the supply of seedlings for re-forestation around Ndalani and Yatta. To date there are now over 5 million trees planted locally and 20 million trees to reforestation projects across Kenya.

MCF would be the first to say that the remarkable scale and scope of the family grown, as it has over 35 years, are real gifts, even miracles, from God. It is carried by the unwavering belief that God loves the creation and promises to ensure justice/compassion especially when the world shakes. Sacrifice is the choice Charles and Esther took as the vehicle to see MCF as the world class marvel it has become 35 years on.

The word sacrifice comes from the Latin and means “to make sacred.” That which is sacred is set apart from the ordinary, mundane, worldly or, to use a technical old-fashioned word, from the profane.

Charles and Esther chose to make sacred the abandoned orphans starving in the slums. When Charles decided he would work never again for money, but for God and God’s children he made MCF a sacred family. He sold everything he had to follow the teachings of his teacher, the Nazarene. Sacrifice!

There was in the beginning great resistance. Their church was horrified and banned the rescued children from the streets from their community. Charles was marginalized and people urged Esther to leave him. Their children were swept into the sacred family and had to learn how to care for the street bound neighbours whom they did not at first like or embrace. Sacrifice!

One beneficiary from the earliest days in Eldoret tells the story of his first act arriving at MCF was to ride and destroy the prized bicycle of one of Charles’ biological children. He thought he was about to be tossed out, but Mama Esther told him that the bicycle was just a replaceable thing, but he, the rescued boy, was sacred in the eyes of God. Sacrifice!

Mama Esther gave up ordinary life with a big house, life-long financial security, lovely clothes, and mother to her own beloved children to become the quintessential mother, cleaner, barber, cook, launderer, nursemaid, baby caregiver to dozens of strange, ill-behaved, broken children. Sacrifice!

Taking the decision to move to the backwoods bush in eastern Kenya, an arid land, living in a tiny hot shack (pictured) was sacrifice. Charles and Esther gave up living in the big stone beautiful house to make sacred MCF Ndalani. Their new neighbours. in the beginning, were hostile taking the “not in my neighbourhood” position. It took sacrifice to increase the scope of MCF and win over the hearts of the people living in the community.

Making MCF sacred today continues to take an energy, focus, compassion, and love that is beyond human comprehension. Watching and knowing the staff one can see how infectious is the “God-driven dream.” Charles has trained his staff within the Mully Model, and sacrifice dominates the training program, through his own leadership, inspiration, wisdom, kindness, faith, love, forgiveness, and compassion. For example, the hospitality staff in MCF Ndalani work long hours coordinating weekly events and a near daily stream of visitors with charm, thoughtfulness, kindness professionalism, and due diligence. Sacrificing much of their own interests, they serve God through MCF, and they are thrilled to do so.

The biological children, well educated, capable young people in their own right, have had opportunities to pursue any kind of life they might have wanted. From the profane point of view the work at MCF is unrelenting, risky, and exhausting, with little financial long-term security. Willing to take the risk and make the sacrifice, Esther/Charles’ children have chosen a life of service just like their parents. They are the next generation who have chosen, joyfully and enthusiastically, to make sacred the lost, marginalized, hungry, homeless, abandoned youngsters of Kenya through MCF.

The founders, the next generation, the leaders, and supporters of MCF understand that it takes faith driven sacrifice to derive energy from the calling, to know deep-felt security by faith in God alone, and to experience restfulness/peace that is beyond comprehension.

This 35^th anniversary Mully Narrative celebrates, with deep gratitude, the hand of God which has guided MCF from its meager small beginnings in scale, scope and sacrifice to become the biggest family in the world, a world class philanthropic child development program, and a quintessential role model of faith in action. Congratulations and thank you MCF for being the Light of God in a dark and dangerous world.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Written by George Zimmerman, M.A., Ottawa, Canada

This narrative is endorsed by Prof Dr. Charles Mulli, founder and CEO, Mully Children’s Family, Nairobi, Kenya