Started in 1970 by Allen & Alice Stickney, ACO has been investing in East Africa for over 5 decades.

Allen & Alice, invested their lives in Faithful, Available, and Teachable young people on campuses throughout Kenya. Today, a handful of those students are now the backbone of the ministry that stretches across 4 countries in East Africa. With discipleship as the intentional foundation, African Christian Outreach continues to mold young men and women into change agents, with the mindset of investing their lives in those God puts them around.

In 2008, Allen Stickney ended his battle with cancer and joined the saints in heaven. The African Christian Outreach Board of Directors was left to orchestrate the next steps of the ministry. With a handful of volunteer indigenous staff in Kenya, the Board felt like the next generation of ACO leadership needed to come from just that, the next generation. They began approaching those that had a heartbeat for discipleship and a history with Allen and Alice on shorter mission experiences in Kenya.

Allen never pushed or prodded his son to take up the cause, but behind closed doors he shared with a select few that he wouldn’t mind it either. Tom recalls a time in a Dallas hospital when he told his father that he was considering more of a ministry role in Africa. “I told him I thought God might be calling me to work more specifically with an organization that worked in Africa”, Tom shared. Tom remembers Allen’s response, “you were made for it!”

The power of presence is Stickney’s approach to ministry. Tom and Kerry are graduates of Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas. They both quickly realized their shared desire to impact the lives of individuals by introducing them to Jesus and then, through a relationship, helping each person develop a life long, ALIVE, relationship with God. An open home, being a part of their families lives, seeing, hearing and talking through their faith as they live life each day, is what the Stickney’s really believe helps makes the difference in peoples’ spiritual lives the world over.

Three days before Allen passed away, Tom led a mission group from his church in Dallas to Kenya. Kerry and the kids followed, arriving the evening before Allen’s death. With his son, daughter in-law and two of his grandchildren standing on the soil he had toiled with for over 4 decades, Allen passed. Tom and Kerry remained in Kenya with the mission team and later realized that the experience is what confirmed the call for them to, after 17 years of US student ministry, pull up their roots and continue the Legacy.

Many savannah sunsets have dropped below the horizon since Allen and Alice left the ministry to Tom, Kerry and the ACO Staff. African Christian Outreach now employs trained workers in 9 different countries, working on numerous campuses from the Indian Ocean to the thousands of hills in Rwanda. The ministry growth has not changed however from the foundations that Allen and Alice laid. Weekly evangelism in done by knocking on dorm room doors throughout East Africa. Small group Bible studies meet all over campuses during the week and one-on-one discipleship between staff and key students is the heartbeat of ACO. Community Investment Projects complete the circle of training for students. Local and international mission trips, working in orphanages, tutoring and mentoring in local schools, agricultural and medical ministry and many other avenues are made possible through ACO Mission Partnerships.

In 2017, partnering with Matt & Kelly Elmore ACO began a new chapter. The Elmore family lead ACO’s investment in the local church by reaching the youth of East Africa. The 412 ministry helps to train youth pastors across the region, teach in seminaries across East Africa and lead youth weekends with ACO’s 412 Staff Team. Kuza is a digital platform of Bible Studies, training videos and blogs written by Africans for Africans.

Today the Stickney's live in Dallas, Texas connecting with ACO’s Donor Base and raising awareness of ACO’s mission across the US and helping their mothers as they age. Tom and Kerry spend time traveling in East Africa to each ACO hub, encouraging and equipping the National staff several times a year. The Elmore’s call Nairobi, Kenya home, but for a few months out of the year you’ll find them in a car somewhere in the US traveling to stay connected with ACO Partners.