CAPE TOWN, South Africa — He was a missionary kid from Ethiopia and Kenya. She was also a missionary kid from Kenya. Now, Bruce and Sheri Erickson are missionaries ministering to young people with their three kids in Cape Town, South Africa.

Bruce was born in Ethiopia and lived there until he was 10, when he and his family returned to the United States for a time due to unstable political situations in the country. After two years, they returned to the mission field to serve in Kenya, where Bruce met his future wife in boarding school.

Sheri was just a teenager when her family left the U.S. for Kenya to serve in medical missions. Her father, a dentist, served for one year in Nairobi, then worked at Kijabe mission hospital in the Rift Valley and travelled many times to the Central African Republic (formerly Zaire) with his family to do dental work in rural areas.

After dating throughout high school, Bruce and Sheri took a break from their relationship upon returning to the U.S. for college. Sheri served one summer with Athletes in Action playing volleyball in South America and Bruce spent one year back in Kenya with his parents. The two had little contact during those years.

“It was a great time for us to grow independently and see what God had for each of us,” Bruce said. “He brought us back together at the end of [Sheri’s] college years, we were engaged six months later, then married six months after that.”

Bruce and Sheri have always had a passion for ministering to youth and over the years, God has nurtured a passion in them for missions. For much of their marriage, they had only two children, Bryce and Sheraya, and were happy with the dynamics of their family and their life in Murrieta, California.

God’s plans, however, would bring much change to their lives.

Come back tomorrow for the rest of the story …