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.

We haven worked 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.

Currently, we are serving as field directors for AFM.

Frontier Stories

Spiritual Power

There is a spiritual war raging out here, and we covet your prayers.

By: Stephen Erickson
November 01 2018, 1:46 pm | Comments 0

Go Getta Dala

May there be many Gogodala in the Kingdom because of people like you who “Go getta dala.” Thank you.

By: Stephen Erickson
August 01 2018, 9:52 am | Comments 0

Wind, Earthquake and Fire

A bright flash lit the sky followed by a loud explosion. People screamed, and children cried and grabbed their parents, eyes wide with terror.

By: Stephen Erickson
July 01 2018, 1:49 pm | Comments 0

Prayer Request

Please join me in praying for Dick and all the other Gogodala people that they will understand the truths of the Bible and apply them to their lives.

By: Stephen Erickson
May 01 2018, 9:15 am | Comments 0

Mr. Canoe

Praise God for bringing forth spiritual fruit in one of our first acquaintances in Gogodala territory.

By: Stephen Erickson
April 01 2018, 10:43 am | Comments 0

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