Something that never fails to warm our hearts are the beautiful, precious children in each place that we visit in Uganda! This sweet baby is from the village of Lokalis, across the river from Greek, in Eastern Uganda. The student.go team who were here working with us in June gave a training about malaria and distributed 141 treated mosquito nets to this resettlement community.

The treated mosquito nets come packaged in blue bags, which obviously make pretty comfortable cushions to sit on!!

(*some of these photos were taken by the team members and we have nabbed them to use on our blog!!)

Nets were also distibuted in suburbs around Kampala--in children's homes, as well as in slum areas.

This is the community of Lokalis gathered for the training and distribution

Demonstrating how the nets are supposed to be used

The tribes in this area are traditionally pastoralists (the importance of cattle cannot be underestimated). Cows are extremely treasured and loved. This reality hit home when a leader stood up and asked if there would also be mosquito nets given to their cows!

Sweet kids from Kaberamaido!

Kaberamaido is where we have some projects going on and was the next destination for the team to visit.

Beautiful feet!!

These children from the orphanage in Kaberamaido played traditional instruments and sang for the visitors. Nets were also distributed for the children in the home.


We were so excited to facilitate a youth conference on "Character" and "Developing a Vision for Your Life" for 100 young people in Kaberamaido over a weekend in June.

Playing volleyball with the youth

The Participants

Shelah with a group of High School girls at the conference

The girls said the biggest challenge they face is being pressured into marriage at a young age, which usually means dropping out of school and giving up the chance of an education. Several girls shared how they want to break this cycle and encourage their peers to finish their educations

The Wolves Football (Soccer) team in Kampala, wearing their new jerseys that Carson and the team brought out! Thank you Carson!! They loved them!

At the youth conference

(Anna, Abby, Shelah, Lino, Debbie and Carson)

Kids Games!!

Sports Friends International (a group we partner with), along with many other organizations, hosted an amazing sports day for over 900 orphans/street kids at Heritage International School. The student.go team got to help lead the games and coach the kids. It was an amazing day. For many of these kids it was the first time they had ever left their slum areas. Some from children's homes had never been out of their neighborhoods so it was an exciting experience.

ACKER FAMILY LIFE!!!!!!!

In May we had three of our Sudanese guys home with us during their school breaks from boarding school. It was a crazy... but good time!

In the above picture is Peter (who works with us in the Refuge and Hope office), Saudi, Lino and Abraham with the girls. This picture was taken the day Abraham went back to school-- that is why he has on a school uniform and tie.

Saudi hanging out and sharing breakfast with K-J!! The girls never lack for attention with all their "brothers" around

K-J is growing up!! She is 17 months old already!!

Yes, I am the one who emptied out all those drawers full of plastic containers. I love to empty drawers and get into trash cans and closets!!

I also like to say "up!" Probably because I am a serious climber. I think my climbing causes great panic to my parents, especially when I stand up, wave my arms and march on top of whatever I have just climbed...

Playing with neighborhood kids who come over in the afternoons

I think the necklaces suit me well!

What can I get into while my big sister is reading her book???

A-G actually sitting still...posing and smiling for a picture!! Very rare indeed!

I love to play football with anyone who will play and my daddy says I am quite good!

A-G calls the neighborhood kids her "friends from the bushes," because she met them by talking to them through the bushes! Never the shy one, she came and asked if she could invite over her new friends from the bush to play and before we knew it we had a yard full of kids!

Lino!!

Lino is doing very well!! He is on school break right now. He ended up making As and Bs on his end of school report card and received the Christian Character Award for the term. He traveled with the student.go team to help out and really enjoyed it.

This is him at Sipy Falls in Kapchorwa, Uganda.

Our electricity goes out regularly...so this is Lino reading by flashlight in the dark

Shelah just celebrated her birthday on July 6th.

A-G was more excited about it than anyone. She woke up talking about it, helped decorate the cake, had all of us wear leftover "1st Birthday" party hats from K-J's birthday, led the song, helped blow out the candles... and ate lots of cake!

A-G shoveling cake into her mouth at lightening speed... and Jennifer, who is eating her cake with somewhat greater restraint and dignity

This past month Jade helped out at a basketball camp at Heritage International School. Here he is demonstrating defense!!

Acker family with the student.go team, whom we felt like were extended members of our family by the time they left. Carson, Abby, Jade holding A-G, Shelah (with mouth WIDE open) holding K-J, Lino and Anna

It has been a hard month in many ways...most of all because Shelah's mom, Dorothy, was just diagnosed with colon cancer and had surgery a week ago. This is still something we are struggling to understand and come to terms with. She has not seen an oncologist yet, so we will have much more information after that. Please pray for her and for all of us.

Also, we are in the process of adopting Lino!! Yea!! We are excited about this since it has been a dream for a long time. However, it is NOT a straight forward or simple process and we have been discouraged by many things in the past few weeks. Our first court appearance didn't go so well... because he is from Sudan and is a teenager (a very tall, large teenager) and it is harder to adopt teenagers. We have another court date in August and are praying and hoping for a favorable ruling at that time! Please join us in this!! It may be necessary to travel to Sudan and acquire more documents before the August court date. This adds more time and expense, but we will do what it takes on our side and leave the rest up to God!!

Overall, we love our life here in Uganda! We are blessed beyond blessed with our family, our friends and our colleagues. We are thankful! Thank you for your friendship!! We love you!!

The Acker family!!