Cor & Grace Koelewijn
sold out to the orphans of Uganda
Cor & Grace have been serving the orphans of Uganda ever since 1986 together.
It all started when Cor, after giving his life over to the Lord Jesus, begun praying that the Lord would use him for 'something usefull in His Kingdom'. Well, out of experiance we can now tell you to be carefull when saying such things to the Lord! The Lord answered in a very practical way. His brother invited him to start helping with a sound-system at a concert of a children's choir.
Well, Cor ended up going to Uganda to support the orphans that made up that children's choir through an american organization. He worked there for about two years while God was preparing him for a new task.
Towards the end of 1999, the Dutch organization that supported Cor in Uganda did not want to continue working with the American organization and suggested that, if Cor would be able and willing, they would support him in starting a new children's ministry in Uganda. In case that would not be possible, they would close shop.
With this choice to be made Cor opted to go the next step and started to register the new organization which he named the "Children's Welfare Mission"
read more about Cor's history here...
The Dutch donors availed the funds to buy the 50 acres of land, which was at the time at the give-away-price of $200/acre. The land was bought in Namugongo and the beginning was made in clearing the land and the work on the first building was started.
As soon as the first building was up and ready, Cor was asked by people to help them with their orphans-in-need. This presented the next problem. Cor did not feel he could start helping these female teenage orphans.
He proceeded to ask the pastors of the Kampala Pentecostal Church, which had become close friends of Cor by now, to help find him a helper who could deal with this erea of the task at hand.
Pastor Solomon Kato soon came up with the job application of a young lady who had experiance in helping children.
We interviewed her and she was found suitable for the job. She was given the task and soon Cor noticed she was indeed a very good helper. To make a long story short, they fell in love and married in january-1994
Soon we became a strong team together!
read more about Grace's history here...
Together we discovered that the best and most popular way to help orphans is by helping them in a boarding school. This determined our direction. We went to the ministry of education and obtained permission to start a school.
Class by class the school continued growing alongside the children. Each year a class was added. Likewise, each year a new class was recruited with new little orphans. This way of growing along with the children allowed us to learn of our mistakes when small rather then make big mistakes.
Meanwhile we realised the need to involve volunteers and teams in this ministry. We opened our doors to Christian volunteers and found that this is a valid ministry by itself! Young people from the west need to get an exposure to the need in the world and what better way then to let them dive right into it
read more about volunteers here...
In seven years the primary school was fully grown and the need for continued education came up. So we developed a new concept of intergrated secondary/vocational training. This was quit common in Holland but a new idea here. Once established it was very well received by the ministry of education officials.
We should not forget to mention that while the schools were being set up, we also established a comprehensive health center as well as a church for the children, but certanly also for the community.
Around the year 2000 we could feel the Lord leading us to think about reproducing and multiplying what had been established at this Namugongo Children's Village. When we shared this with the donors they began falling silent and We noticed that this was where we lost their interest.
While on our sabatical leave in the Netherlands we were asked to hand the whole ministry back over to the Dutch donor organization and step down to become ordenary staff-members fully steered and controled by the Dutch organization. Due to the extreme tension that had already built up over the previous years we found we had little choice but to give in to their requests but only to ask them to release us into our own ministry. This was so accepted.
read more about the Children's Village here...
We believe we owe it to our long time supporters to give a full account of why we handed the Children's Village back over to the Dutch donors however, we have found that focussing on the negative past is very depresive and we advise you to skip that section and read on about the wonderfull things God is doing. For those who feel they need to be informed on this matter:
Why we handed over...
On the 25th of August 2006 Cor made the final handover to the Dutch chairman in Namugongo. From that point onwards we left our complete life behind. For the last 16 years we had lived only for our ministry, pouring all we ever owned into this project, holding nothing back and never creating any backup plan...
Yes we know, that is not wise in human perception, but this is how we trust the Lord.
We have now moved to Tororo, this is the town where Grace is from. We had to rent a house while we are building our own house. In the midst of so much turmoilt and trouble, the Lord has brought some very special people on our path which has brought us great comfort. Our life is still not completely settled as we do not have enough personal supporters as this used to be channeled through the previous Dutch organization, but we have peace again and the Lord is leading us on.
The Lord has given us a fresh new vision, not so far from what we used to do but with lots of fresh ideas. We would love to share more about this with you and who knows, perhaps God is calling you to be a part of this too!!
Read more about our new vision...