Cees and Mirjam Molenaar

Donate to Cees and Mirjam Molenaar

Sent from International Christian Fellowship, Veenendaal

Cees and Mirjam serve the Lord in Kotido, a little centre in North Karamoja. The Molenaar family moved to Uganda in the Summer of 2023. Obed (2008) and Mozes (2009) are at RVA while the older children Joas (with his wife and son) and Rhodé (with her husband) support them from their home in the Netherlands. The move to Uganda means a return to Africa for Cees and Mirjam, as they served with another mission organisation in Zambia and Malawi from 2006 to 2016, training pastors and Sunday School teachers and leading in women’s outreach. After an initial year in Kampala, Cees and Mirjam settled in Kotido in 2024.

AIM is involved in disciple-making among unreached people groups in Uganda, particularly the Karimojong, Ik and Tapeth peoples. The team is equipping leaders for young churches that are planted in the towns. Partnering with the church in Uganda, the AIM team helps them discover God’s call to missions, develop and train missionaries and sending churches, and deploy African missionaries.

Cees and Mirjam work with the Karamoja ministry partners to identify, develop, and support contextualised training for church leaders in the region. The gospel still has a long way to go to reach the manyattas (villages) and the daily lives of the people. Local missionaries will be mentored and trained to disciple new believers in the communities. For example, Cees will be using Theological Education by Extension, a program accredited by a Ugandan University.

Next to pastors and evangelists, Cees and Mirjam hope to encourage ministry among children and women by training those who feel called to bring them the gospel of salvation. Mirjam is a certified trainer with BCM, Bible Centered Ministries. She trains Sunday School teachers, and trainers to do the same. She mentors Sunday School teachers to apply what they learn in their churches.

Another part of the ministry in Kotido evolves around the Mission Hub. This centre equips and encourages missionaries from the African church to engage in reaching the least reached. This brings training and experience right within the context of frontier missions. This project is carried out in close cooperation with churches and partner organisations in Kampala. The Mission Hub will host visiting church leaders to firsthand see and feel the need for mission work within Uganda and without.

A verse that inspires all that they do is 2 Timothy chapter two verse two: “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

Could you partner with Cees and Mirjam in this work?

Latest Prayer News

15 April 2026

Cees and Mirjam serve in Kotido, Uganda, to engage the Karimojong people for Christ. In January, they launched a Theological Education by Extension program, through which students in Kotido can earn an accredited certificate by studying books on their own and meeting weekly with a tutor. They are also busy preparing a program called “Scripture Engagement”, promoting listening to and interacting with the Bible in small groups. They have received 50 audio Bibles and plan to start Bible listening groups in communities where no one can read and where there are no Bibles. Please pray that as people get access to the Word of God, they will find life in Christ.

3 April 2026

Cees and Mirjam serve in Kotido, Uganda, to engage the Karimojong people for Christ. Despite the heat (and the energy it takes), wonderful things have happened in Kotido. Nine children’s workers/pastors who took the ‘Train the Trainer’ course with Mirjam received their certificates at the beginning of February. Here is a beautiful testimony from one of the students: “Halfway through the course, Mama Mirjam challenged me by asking what my deepest motivation was for participating and what my spiritual gifts are. Not everyone has the gift of teaching, after all. It made me think and pray. God confirmed very clearly through His Word that I could continue. I am a Karamojong, the first follower of Jesus in my family. I came to know the peace and joy found in my Saviour Jesus through a friend’s testimony. One of my brothers has also come to faith and now leads a “tree church” (a house church held under a tree). I hold the lowest level of education in the entire TTT group; thankfully, you don’t necessarily need a diploma in order to participate. Now I teach young people in my brother’s church, and I want to organise a training course for children’s workers together with another TTT student. Mama Mirjam is coaching that process and helping us with the preparations and the teaching. Together, we’re making great progress.” Praise God for the fruit he is bearing through this ministry and pray for more!

29 January 2026

Cees and Mirjam Molenaar serve in Kotido, Uganda, to engage the Karimojong people for Christ. Pray for the successful completion of the building work for the mission hub so that cross-cultural workers can be trained to take the gospel to surrounding unreached areas.

Uganda

80% of Uganda is engaged in agriculture. The healthy economy of the 1960s was crippled in 1972 by the expulsion of the Asian business community, and then virtually destroyed by tyranny and wars. It has steadily improved since 1992. Under previous government regimes there were restrictions on persecuted Christians, but there is now freedom of religion.

Learn more

Church Development

We hope that our church development work with local African churches will lead them to be centres of hope and love that draw more people to Jesus.

Learn more