NRB 2024: The Girl with Special Shoes: Miracles Don’t Always Look Like You’d Expect

So again we're here at the NRB and you know it's so cool the different people that God sends our way and you know each time I turn around there's somebody new that I get to find out what God's doing and you know what a target rich environment from my standpoint of like God is working with all these folks and now we've got Hilda and then your last name is pronounced Mulu and you're an author of this book The Girl With Special Shoes. I'm the girl with special shoes.

So tell me how did God get a hold of Hilda? Oh I was born in a country called Cameroon on the west central coast of Africa. Really? I've never heard of it. You never heard of Cameroon?

Sorry. You end up traveling to Cameroon. I was born and I grew up in Cameroon. It's numerous with Nigeria. Have you heard of Nigeria? Absolutely. And Chad and Gabon and but it's a beautiful country.

It's a beautiful country. I was born into a loving family but when I was growing up I started developing a form of disability which was causing my body to be weakened. So this weakness no one could explain. We went to hospitals. We went to witch doctors. We tried to find witch doctors. Witch doctors? People go to witch doctors in Cameroon. You see why you need to read the book?

What is that like to go to? What does a witch doctor say to you? These are people who believe that they receive answers and solutions from the spirits or from the ancestors. So yes a lot of people sometimes would be disillusioned by the hospitals and go there but it's more of a cultural thing where many people believe that they can get answers from their ancestors. So we sought answers for my body weakness from those people as well and we didn't get this. My body continued to progressively weaken to the extent to the point that I got into a wheelchair. So all this while it was looking for answers as a family but personally wondering if God loved me still and if God loved me why would he let such a terrible thing happen to me. So I got to a point where I judged God's love only by the fact that he would heal my body. I prayed a lot for him to heal me but I guess he chose other ways to heal me. So the Lord, I got saved while I was in high school after reading John N. Monhagai's book My Son Johnny and Johnny Erickson-Tada's book Johnny.

Oh well I would suppose that would have a great, you know for those of you who are not familiar with Johnny Erickson-Tada she also is in a wheelchair from a diving accident and has been there just wonderful wonderful radio show host and author and just amazing amazing and singer and all that. So her book was really instrumental in helping change my perspective from that of God doesn't love me therefore he lets this happen to me to that of God still loves me and I'm created in his image and he can use me and my wheelchair to do amazing things. And that is when I came to the Lord when I was about 17ish and I went on to go to university. At that time when I had those questions I thought my life was not worth living. I tried to kill myself. I looked for ways of killing myself that would not really hurt my family you know but the Lord saved and kept me and so I went on to university. After university I stayed unemployed for a while which is normal in my country and then I got recruited to work as a radio host. Really? In Cameroon.

Well listen to that voice now that you think about it. Thank you. So wow so what kind of show did you host? I hosted different shows because I worked as a radio host for about 15 years. One of the flagship shows was like a national show where reporters went out to the field around my country and then I would be in the studio and receive the news and coordinate that. I also did a show for women called Women on the Moon about women in Cameroon and challenges they face just letting them tell their stories and also I did a show for persons with disabilities. Wow isn't that amazing?

God gave you a rolling platform. Yes he did he did and that permitted me to tell my story and to let other people tell their stories as well. And so how long ago did you write the book?

Oh it was a long process because from the outside I was not sure if I could write a book that others would read but I felt a prompting like other people's stories had done so much to change my life and it was just incumbent on me to write a book so that other people can also hear what God is doing in my life. But also coming from a culture where the perception about disability is still very much nuanced I would say at best. I wanted my story to be kind of a light to help people see that disability is not a curse as some people believe. Kids who live with disabilities should not be killed as it happens in certain cultures. Instead they should be nurtured and loved and encouraged and introduced to the love of God so that they can live up to their potential. Yeah I said 2 Corinthians chapter 1 you know God comforted you right?

Oh yeah I love those verses yes so that that comfort can overflow into the lives of other people. Right and then certainly you know have you ever seen the movie the butterfly circus? No. You need to this is on your to-do list it's an amazing story I forget his name is Nick Balachuk he doesn't have any arms he doesn't have any legs.

I met him yesterday. Yeah there's a movie that was called the butterfly circus. Wow. And you you if anybody on the planet earth needs to see that movie it would be you.

I don't have to look out for that. But it's completely on the whole idea first of Corinthians 2 Corinthians chapter 1 that whole idea of God comfort that now he's using right as he goes around with his platform like you do right and and you share that and so before we started the interview I asked Hilda you know about the shoes because it's what it says the girl with special shoes is the girl with the shoes. And she said you need to read the book. You need to read the book but um I've worn a lot of shoes in my life and there were times when I couldn't wear shoes because my disability was progressing and my feet were turning are you familiar with clubfoot? Yes. Yeah so my feet at some point were club plopped and I couldn't wear shoes so I had to wear you see on the cover calipers. Oh wow yeah. I had to wear calipers for a while and uh yeah I was called names because I wore calipers and so from calipers I graduated to other shoes and other shoes but then you need to get to the book to know more about the special shoes.

Yes you need to read the book but there's actually a picture on the back. Right. Of you in those. Yes. And and and that particular story so like did you come where do you live now?

I live in Bladensburg Maryland. How did you get to America from? I had to complain.

Just kidding um actually. I bet you did. You didn't swim? I did swim I wish I did but I um I came to America first in 10 years ago in 2014 as a young African leader um president Obama had an initiative called the Mandela Washington fellowship which brought together young people from around the continent of Africa to the states for six weeks to interact with the people here learn more about American culture and also go back to implement some of the things that we had learned and it was an amazing group an amazing opportunity so when I first came here in 2014 I came as that young African leader then the following year I came um I've been coming back and forth to speak at conferences uh to meet friends and to meet other people but I moved here in 2018 partly because unfortunately there is a conflict uh in my part of Cameroon yeah and other reasons. And so now you live here and so you're an author? I am. Are you still doing radio?

Say that again. Are you still doing radio? I wish I could I haven't really figured out how to do that but I love radio and I'm loving being here so um I hope that when things really play out well for me I'll be able to set up to do radio. Yeah well it just so happens I know some people in radio. Oh so you are the right person to me.

You are the person I have to meet. I uh kind of work in radio yeah I work for the Trim Network and you know something that you have is is a gift obviously that God's given you and and so you know when you get off with me by all means connect with her and and tell her you have an interest in being on the air and what that might look like. You know God does these things in my life like this God moments and this is this is one of them thank you for saying that I definitely will connect because I've been praying like Lord show me how to go forward. Because not only do we have the Truth Network which I work for but we also have the Light Network which is a black gospel network across different parts where they definitely you know we're all the time you know obviously trying to figure out the talent for those markets and for what that may be. Here I am. There you are and you have a background in a phenomenal story to go with it so and you know it's it's again God's given you that background and obviously from a very different culture yes yeah and and it's a beautiful thing you know to have all of these cultures blend in to show the manifold wisdom of God and you know I don't unfortunately run out of time because we just go into the whole direction but in your culture praising God is you probably find it a little dry coming here after being there that's right that's what I share in the book the girl with special issues moments of going to church and one of the things that was most frustrating to me is that we praise God a lot by clapping and singing and dancing and I'll be sitting in the church and I can't clap and I can't dance but the Lord has given me a voice to praise Him with and praise Him I will. Well now you've asked it you know I gotta ask one more question dance dance do you swing around in your chatty yes swing around in my chair sing along and yeah I can't clap and I can't dance like the others but it turns out everyone can dance oh yes they can everyone can dance you know what a joy it has been to talk to you today what a joy to meet you Robbie thank you so much for having me