Mother, son to go on separate missionary trips this summer

ADRIAN, Mich. —

Mother and son Judy Ackley and Dennis Ackley will be doing some serious traveling this summer on missionary trips, though to very different parts of the world.
Judy Ackley and Dennis Ackley are both partners with Judy’s husband and Dennis’ father, Larry Ackley, in Larry’s Custom Cycles in Adrian.
On June 15, Dennis Ackley will leave for a remote area of western Alaska to help run a camp for Yupik Eskimo children.
The camp, operated by the Assemblies of God in Alaska, offers the children a week of traditional camp activities such as swimming, hiking, horseback riding and crafts, along with Bible classes.
The Ackleys belong to the Bethany Assembly of God Church in Madison Township.
The camp where Dennis Ackley will go is 500 miles from the nearest city, Anchorage, and 17 miles from the nearest village, called Emmonak. To get there, Ackley will fly to Alaska, take a bush plane, then go by boat and four-wheel drive vehicle to the camp.
At the camp, called Agaiutim Nune — Yupik for Place of God — Ackley will teach classes and help with running the camp. He will be working with David Boyd, a former Bethany Assembly of God children’s pastor who, with his wife, Mary Boyd, now is director of the Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge, a program of the Assembly of God churches that supports missionary work.
Boyd asked Ackley to go on the trip. Another young man and some church leaders from Alaska also will help them.
Ackley, an avid hunter who has been on some “pretty remote hunting trips,” said he looks forward to the chance to go to Alaska, and also to working with the children.
“It’s the opportunity to work with some needy kids,” said Ackley, who is making his first missionary trip.
At the camp, to which all supplies have to be brought, everyone will sleep in tents. The camp lasts a week and about 90 children ages 8 to 12 years old will attend In all, he will be in Alaska two weeks, with a couple days spent in Kodiak after the camp is finished, Ackley said.
Soon after Dennis Ackley returns, his mother will head to Cha-am, Thailand, where she will help care for the children of Assembly of God missionaries on retreat from India and southern Asia.
Judy Ackley is a veteran of missionary trips, having traveled twice previously to Thailand as well as to El Salvador and Mongolia. She made her first trip, to Thailand, 12 years ago.

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