African Perspective - Boge

In February 2008 I plan to return to the Mully Children’s Family orphanage in Africa to write a follow up book to the biography of the orphanage founder, Charles Mulli.

This new book will focus on the lives of some of the street children who have been rescued, and explore what life was like for them on the street and how their lives changed after Charles Mulli introduced them to Jesus Christ.

And, like my first trip to Kenya, I expect to hear stories and insights into life that I have never discovered.

Sometimes Christians in other cultures understand things differently than we do in our own. That’s what I discovered while researching Father to the Fatherless: The Charles Mulli Story. It chronicles his life as an abused and abandoned child who begged for food for his survival. Later, as an adult he started businesses which grew into a major empire. Impressed by God to sell all he had, Charles began rescuing street children. Today he has more than 1,000 children under his care. And with a faith experience like his, Charles offers simple yet profound explanations about life.

“Prosperity is a changed life,” he told me.

I had never heard that before. And it has stuck with me these four years. I hope it never leaves.

I also hope to be able to connect with George again. He was in grade 7 or 8 at the time. I sat next to him at an outdoor evening service one night as the bugs (many of which I had never seen in Canada) flew around us. George had a stained shirt and shorts and a pair of worn flip-flops. His smile was genuine.

“Why are you so happy?” I asked.

“Because of what Jesus has done for me,” George replied.

“And what has Jesus done for you?”

“Oh,” he said, his smile even wider now. “I couldn’t even begin to count.”

George had no possessions.

And so as I prepare for Africa next year, I’m armed (this time more so than last time) with the understanding that there is very little that I will be able to bring to my brothers and sisters at MCF. My hope, however, is that what those children give me I will be able to capture in a book that will encourage others to examine the claims of Christ through their eyes.

And, perhaps in so doing, will experience a rescue of their own.

www.mullychildrensfamily.org