New kids team starting in Kenya; Bardises, Snyder, Nolf help

Photo: Kyle Snyder (right) leads a group of Kenyan orphans in prayer alongside John Bardis, Jason Nolf and Charles Mulli. 

By: Bryan Van Kley

Kenyan Charles Mulli grew up in extreme poverty in this eastern African country in the 1950s and 1960s. The son of an abusive alcoholic father, the young boy woke up one morning alone left with the daunting task of trying to find food. In dire straits after not being helped by an extended family member, the boy became a desperate transient beggar; at times resorting to stealing to find ways to buy food.

Eventually driven to the city to try to find work, Mulli was taken in by an Indian family that provided him food, housing and work. Eventually promoted to a manager on the family’s large farm, he quickly learned about the glorious dignity in work. And as the years went by, “Mully” as he became known by to everyone eventually had a family, started businesses of his own and became extremely successful and wealthy.

By 1986, the Christian Mully knew God was calling him to a different life than the business world he was in. After three years of resisting God’s call to start a ministry serving orphans like him, Mully broke down one day because of the burden he saw in how poverty was affecting Kenya and its youth. He made a life-changing decision and commitment that day. Mully told his family that night they were closing all their businesses and selling what they could to go all-in serving orphans.

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Mully and his initially-reluctant wife, Esther, started rescuing dozens of orphans off the streets, bringing them into their own family home. And in the 35 years since then, amazingly the ministry has exploded into 11 locations across Kenya. The ministry has rescued over 27,000 orphans, who call Charles and Esther “Mom” and “Dad”. It even now includes a self-sustaining farm that provides food for them and enough excess that they are able to sell even outside of the country.

What does the story have to do with wrestling? Enter wrestling philanthropist John Bardis years ago and God’s ultimate plan for the ministry, which includes a “comprehensive” program for these kids, who live on their campuses, which has evolved to also include sports.

John and Judy Bardis’ passion and support for the ministry called Mully Children’s Family has now expanded to include Olympic champion Kyle Snyder and three-time NCAA champion Jason Nolf. John had the idea, why not also start a wrestling program at MCF?

Bardis invited Snyder and Nolf along with his group this past November for a trip to Kenya and MCF’s Ndalani and Yagga campuses as they celebrated the 35th anniversary of the ministry.

“I was watching the Mully movie and was absolutely blown away by his faith and what he has accomplished through the Lord in Kenya in rescuing these children,” Snyder said.

Referred to as the “largest family in the world”, MCF is currently caring for 6,826 kids. Mully and other ministry workers literally walk the streets and slums of Kenya, often at night, looking for hungry orphans found sleeping anywhere they can find a somewhat warm, safe spot.

The documentary movie shows Mully walking by himself down these dirty, dangerous dirt-path streets at nights. He ends up finding young orphan kids sleeping on the ground on the sides of tin buildings along the street and takes them back to the MCF homes, where they can be cared for, educated, taught to work and given a new life.

Snyder said the Christian organization’s mission is quite simple: care for the kids’ physical needs, find them a job and a purpose, and teach them how to work.

As Snyder encouraged me to do, WIN readers should go to the ministry’s website www.mcfus.org to watch the movie and get the full story. You’ll be highly entertained and inspired, have renewed hope for the future and be reminded about the impact one person can make when on a divinely-given mission for the good of others.

There’s also a six-minute video recapping the story and ministry on the website to give you a sneak peak, but also watch the full version. I was blown away by the movie Snyder calls “his favorite”.

If you don’t want the full Mully movie story spoiled, please stop reading now, watch the video, then finish this column to find out more about the MCF wrestling program starting this fall.

But for those WIN readers who want to know now, here’s how wrestling is soon to make an impactful transformative start in another new pocket of the world.

MCF wanted their kids to be well-rounded in their development, which led them to adding extracurricular activities in the late afternoon and evening after they were done studying and working. The documentary details one former alum who qualified for the Olympic Games in taekwondo but was unable to represent Kenya due to the lack of his country’s financial support. The Bardises and Snyder’s long-term goal: have an MCF wrestler compete in the Olympics in wrestling for Kenya!

While there in November, Bardis, Snyder and Nolf extended the first invite to kids who had an interest in wrestling. Between 90-100 showed up; none of whom knew anything about the sport. Shown in the photo on Page 6, every kid who showed up was given an MCF Wrestling shirt. Snyder said by the time the kids were out and about proudly wearing their shirts, many others wanted to sign up as well.

Much like Mully answered God’s call to give back by taking in a huge number of orphans into his family, Bardis and Snyder are answering God’s call to help get wrestling going at MCF. According to the former Buckeye, after hopefully making yet another Senior U.S. World Team and wrestling in the World Championships this September, he plans to go back to the Ndalani site for a month in October to get the wrestling program started.

Snyder is currently looking for the right coach to lead the program. The paid coach will live on property for six months at a time, coaching kids ages 5 to 20. After six months, another coach will come in and continue the program. Eventually, Snyder wants to see the MCF orphan wrestlers have the chance to travel the world and compete internationally.

“As a person, seeing how determined these kids are to make better lives for themselves and their family and to be obedient to God’s calling in their lives, that inspires me,” Snyder said. “They call themselves the world’s largest family and they really are a family. I want to live that out more, be willing to help other people more and be compassionate more as I would my own family.

“I love wrestling. It’s such a great sport for building character, for building resilience in people, mental toughness and for refining the person that does the sport. I don’t think there’s anything like it. I was at first concerned that wrestling might be a little too intense and brutal of a sport for these kids that have already been through so much.

“But after being with the kids, because of what they’ve gone through, wrestling will only make them stronger. They already are so strong because of what they’ve been through in their life. This will only help these children succeed for the rest of their life.”

Fueled by the generosity of many and on the wrestling side through companies like Dollamur, which is going to be supplying the mats and Rudis the gear for the wrestlers, Snyder said MCF and this new wrestling program will be a special and inspiring place.

“I know they’re going to train and live the way that the sport calls you to because that’s the way they already do it,” he said. “I really love working with kids who have that attitude about what they’re doing. In a place like this, there’s just so many that live that way. It’s really an inspiring place to work at.”

For more information about the coaching positions at MCF, click here https://mcfus.org/wrestling/ or reach out to Snyder directly at kylesnyder45@gmail.com.