Stephen & Laurie Erickson

Field Directors since 2024, the Ericksons served the Gogodala people of Papua New Guinea as career missionaries from 2007-2024. They also served as Field Directors to other missionaries in the later years of their service in PNG.

We are Stephen and Laurie Erickson with our two daughters, Karin and Johanna. In 2003, after working as an architect for 20 years, I received a pink slip and suddenly was unemployed. But God provided me with small jobs to pay the bills while, unknown to me, He was preparing us for cross-cultural mission work. An elderly saint in our church said to Laurie one day, “Maybe God wants you to be missionaries. Do you get the AFM magazine?” I attended a Christian men’s conference and heard a fiery young preacher talk about the need for missionaries in unreached areas of the world. But it was another eight months before I started thinking seriously about AFM. One night, I experienced some serious doubts and prayed for clarity and assurance that God was leading. Before dawn the next morning, I woke up realizing I had just seen myself in heaven surrounded by a dozen PNG men thanking me for coming to share the gospel with them.

Now we’ve been working with the Gogodala people since 2007. We’re building a training-center campus that will also serve as a camp meeting facility. Twelve young men from Kewa village are helping us. None of them were church members before, but now, nearly all of them are baptized. Our plan is to use the training center to equip local missionaries to take the everlasting gospel to other villages up and down the Aramia River.

Frontier Stories

Farewell to the Gogodala

Asking a favor of someone can actually be a way of showing that you care about them — the one who lacks makes a request from the one who has.

By: Stephen Erickson
December 01 2024, 10:12 am | Comments 0

Two Floods

Preachers from inside and outside PNG preached the message live from 2,000 pulpits and grandstands across this small country about the size of the state of California.

By: Stephen Erickson
September 01 2024, 12:13 pm | Comments 0

Land of the Unexpected

“Steve, I’m not going to believe any of those hardship stories about travel in PNG!” Conrad exclaimed.

By: Stephen Erickson
June 01 2024, 2:49 pm | Comments 0

The Right Choice

Watching the dinghy disappear in the distance, a Gogodala man beside me said, “Okay, now I will tell you what happened. Winston was chased out of the village for practicing sorcery and magic.

By: Stephen Erickson
April 01 2024, 8:36 am | Comments 0

Water of Life

More than a thirst for literal water, we desire the Gogodala people to thirst for the water of life that only Jesus can give.

By: Stephen Erickson
March 01 2024, 9:17 am | Comments 0

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