DIRECTORS

Jade & Shelah Acker

Jade Acker was born and grew up in Alabaster, Alabama.  Jade received his BA in Mathematics and History with a Teaching Certificate from Samford University in Birmingham, AL in 1993. Jade then served in The Gambia, West Africa for two years as a basketball coach from 1993-1995.
Shelah Acker was born in San Antonio, Texas. She grew up in Zambia, Southern Africa, as a missionary kid and graduated from Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, Kenya. Shelah then attended Samford University and graduated with a BA in Religion in 1996.
Jade and Shelah Acker married in June 1996. Jade and Shelah both received their Master of Divinity Degrees from Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas in 2001. They have served refugee populations both domestically in Fort Worth, Texas from 1996-1999 and internationally in North Africa and West Africa until 2001.  From 2001-2003, they served with Samaritan’s Purse in Sudan.
In 2004, Jade and Shelah founded Refuge and Hope International to serve those affected by war and conflict.  The same year they were commissioned as field personnel with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
In 2008, they moved to Uganda to work with urban refugees in Kampala.  They have 5 children.