The short version of our story is that both Eric and Holly grew up in Christ-centered homes, and were very young when they placed their faith in Christ as their Savior from sin. Holly’s father was a lead pastor, so her passion for ministry and mission work came very early on. Eric’s commitment to missions came during seminary as he was exposed to the profound needs in the world, and began exploring how God had shaped him to meet those needs. Two years abroad for Eric (Indonesia and Kazakhstan) and Holly (Brazil) further confirmed their calling.

After getting married in 1998, they decided to start their family in America before heading overseas. Eric served as the youth pastor at Riverview Church in San Diego for five years, followed by being lead pastor at Kingsburg Evangelical Free Church in the central valley of California for four and a half years. After this, he served as the associate pastor at Eagle Rock Baptist Church in Los Angeles, focusing on discipleship, families and missions. Along the way, God blessed Eric and Holly with three delightful children (Adam, Andrew, and Alyssa).

In August 2009, Eric, Holly, and kids moved to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, living the adventure and loving the opportunity to serve God in Africa by training pastors in a variety of important areas such as discipleship, leadership development, Bible study methods, and OT/NT overview. Due to health issues, we were forced to return to the U.S. and Eric transitioned into his present role as Africa Director of Pathways Bible Training. We now reside in Olympia, Washington and Eric makes monthly trips to Africa to train pastors all over the continent as well as training U.S. pastors to join him. It has been an amazing journey as we have sensed God’s grace and guidance upon us, albeit not always easy, but we gratefully press on in service to our King.

“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 24-25)