Name: Bearing the Call
Author: Apostle Charles Mutuku

About the book

Bearing the Call is the life story of Apostle Charles Mutuku: a boy of nine made responsible for his brothers and sisters in a violent house, a mother who fled with her children through the valley, a grandparents' compound where witch doctors beat their drums in the dark, and a cold floor in the streets of the Mathare slums.

It follows him from a borrowed fifty-shilling bus fare to Nairobi, to a drawing board and a studio of his own, to salvation on a Sunday morning, a marriage begun with almost nothing, a famine in which he learnt to sow, and the long never he said to God before the words "do it, I will provide" ended his resistance. It closes in July 2026, with Harvesters Global Church on two acres of its own at Ridgeways and a harvest that has not ended.

I was nine years old when I first understood what it meant to be responsible for other human beings.

Written for

Anyone who needs to see that no circumstance, however impossible, can keep a surrendered life from the glory of God
Readers of the Discipleship Master Class Series who want the story behind the teaching
Pastors and leaders learning what it costs to be called

The book, laid out like a course

12 parts and 44 chapters. Open a part to see what each chapter helps you understand.

By the end, you will

How God claimed and kept a fatherless boy long before the boy knew His name
What a mother's faith and labour carried a family through
How a draughtsman who said never became an apostle, and what it cost
How a church of thirty-five people in a rented room came to own its ground

Full outline

Part1

The Dark House

A childhood in a house everyone learned to fear.

01The Boy in the DoorwayWhere his story truly began: a mother named Susan, a first love from Kitui, and a beginning that was not simple.
02Carried Through the ValleyFive kilometres barefoot to school, a first pair of plastic shoes bought with sugarcane-juice coins, and the day that changed.

Part2

The Flight

A mother's escape, and the compound of the drums.

03The Silent EscapeThe secret his mother shared on the Kansalu range, and the Wednesday they left Mutuku's house for good.
04A World of AbundanceThe welcome at Mbiuni: grandparents Kalii and Mutuva, who took in a daughter and all her children without hesitation.
05The Drums in the DarkWhat he saw in his grandparents' compound, where the old spiritual ways were at the centre of the family's life.
06AloneHis mother leaves for Kithyoko with the younger children, and Philip and Charles are left behind at Kabaa.
07The CurseWhy every woman of that house lost her marriage, and the story his mother told that explained it.

Part3

Kithyoko

A place of their own that was not the hope it promised.

08A Place of Our OwnWhat he found when he finally went to see the land his mother had hoped would be a home of their own.
09The Shrine and the TreeAccusations of witchcraft between two co-wives, and the wound inflicted at a traditional shrine.
10The Baby on Her BackA mother who burned charcoal and weeded other people's farms, and the words that became her son's vow.
11The Secret TestamentHow a boy nobody wanted to educate reached Thatha Secondary School, and the stepmother who made it possible.

Part4

The Nairobi Climb

From the cold floor to a drawing board and a studio.

12The Cold FloorFifty borrowed shillings for a bus to Nairobi, and the slum floor where the city received him.
13The Saltless TableA friend's house in Ngara, a first full plate in days, and what hunger teaches about generosity.
14The Drawing BoardA cousin at Ofafa Maringo who changed the direction of his life, and the first steps toward draughtsmanship.
15A Father Named BusuruThe studio where God set him under a father, the desk he nearly lost, and the teacher who coached him.
16His Own StudioFrom drawing boards to computer-aided design, two drafting stools and one table, and a desk for weekend jobs that became his own.

Part5

The Hinge

Salvation, deliverance, Gladys and the mountain.

17Salvation on a Sunday MorningA man who had gained the world and was lost, the nights at Super Mambo, and the Sunday that ended them.
18The SewerThe charm a witch doctor gave him for protection, and what he did with it the day after he was saved.
19GladysA crusade at Uhuru Park, a power that was clean and holy, and the woman he would marry.
20The MountainSaturdays of prayer and fasting to know who he was, and how God answered.

Part6

The School of Faith

Poverty, a famine, a seed and an auction.

21DirectorA marriage begun on almost nothing, a kiosk above a sewer, and a wife who called him Director.
22The Seed in the FamineA food business built on a promise that was never kept, and what he learnt to sow in the famine that followed.
23The Auction and the PeaceAuctioneers at the house, equipment taken in front of the neighbours, and a peace that only God gives.

Part7

The Bloodline Redeemed

The Gospel taken back to the family of the drums.

24Three Dreams of a GraveThe burden to take the Gospel back to the compound of the drums, and the dreams that prepared the way.
25The BurningA film, a strategy from God, and the night the objects of witchcraft were taken down with his own hands.
26The Harvest and the CostNinety-eight souls from one family in one weekend, including the uncle who had filled the compound with witch doctors.

Part8

The House and the Mother

A vow kept to a mother, and what she had carried.

27The House Built in SecretThe day his wife said they must build his mother a house, and the keeping of a boyhood vow.
28What Susan CarriedThree things his mother had held in silence for years, about a God at work before he knew His name.

Part9

The Making of an Apostle

Twelve years of following, and the long never.

29Jubilee Christian ChurchTwo spiritual homes honoured, and the news that led him to the church he would follow for twelve years.
30PeaceA daughter born five years after her brother, a bottle of olive oil, and a testimony of God's goodness.
31The Long "Never"The one thing he had decided wrongly, never to be a pastor, and the dream his wife kept to herself.
32"Do It, I Will Provide"A year of silence after a prophet's word, a second visit to Kasarani, and the words that ended his resistance.

Part10

Harvesters Global Church

An upper room in Pangani and the church that outgrew every hall.

33The Room Where God WaitedLife in the upper room in Pangani: tea and bread before anything else, and what it means to pastor the needy.
34Pride InnA woman healed of a generational affliction, and how God moved the church when the room could no longer hold it.
35The Eighty-FirstThe Goan Institute, a caretaker named Peter, and a hall big enough for seven hundred.
36The Red SeaRent raised from fifty-two thousand to eight hundred thousand, and how greed moved God's people forward.

Part11

The Land of Faith

Two and a half acres at Ridgeways, bought by faith.

37I Will Put James in Your HandsHired ground at Ridgeways, a landlord who decided to sell, and a price of two hundred and fifty million.
38The Flags of ShilohA prophecy spoken over a family's land years before, and the tears of the man who owned it.
39Take This LandA vision in the middle of a Sunday sermon in July 2024, and the final piece of the land.

Part12

Homegoings and Harvest

Homegoings, the ones with no one, and the harvest that never ends.

40She Left in VictoryA mother who lived to see the turnaround of all her children, and her last prayerful years.
41The Hand of God Is Upon YouBishop Allan Kiuna's last visit, and the fathers in the faith he honours.
42The Ones with No OneWhy a fatherless boy gathers in those who have no one, and how Naomi came to the family.
43The FoundationsAnnah, the orphan mother who became a graduate, and the foundations built into the church.
44The Harvest That Never EndsWhere the story has arrived in July 2026: two acres owned, thousands of lives transformed, and what is next.