“Adventures in the Great Land”
I was born into a Christian home of four brothers and one sister. I am the eldest and I was born in Yreka, CA in 1948. Mom and Dad moved to northern California to minister and this would be a constant theme in my growing years. In 1950 the family moved to Santa Barbra, CA, where the twins, Daniel and Daryel were born. Just a couple years later they packed up and moved to Vallejo, CA, where Jonathan and Martha were born. At this time Dad and mom worked full time for the US Government. Dad worked at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo and mom worked as a clerk typist at Benicia Arsenal in Benicia, CA. From the early years my dad, Wesley Erickson, and mother, Gladys, were called to ministry, specifically the Native Americans. In 1959 after several years of ministry in Sunday school and in children church in a good size Assembly of God church in Vallejo, they answered the call of full time ministry and moved to Sparks, NV to pioneered a work on Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation in Nixon, NV. It was kind of hard on us kids because we went from having plenty, to depending on monthly support from donors all over the western United States. I began leading worship and singing in our little church when I was twelve years old. We met for church in a 50+year old Trible Council Hall where Mother was the keyboardist, and we five children sang a special almost every week at church. We ministered there in Nixon a few years and then God called us to move south to a little Paiute tribe in Yerington, NV. Living in Yerington, I attended high school and the boys were in junior high. Martha attended a few years of elementary school there.
As I was getting older, a junior in high school, mom and dad decided to return to Northern California and both parents took full time jobs there. We moved to Rio vista, CA where I was a senior and then abruptly before the second semester started, we moved to Pittsburg, CA where I graduated from Pittsburg Senior High with 1000 other students. My brothers finished their high school careers in Pittsburg and Martha was in Middle School.
Us kids loved Pittsburg because we had a good church with an incredible youth group. Our pastor was in charge of the youth and he mentored me and my brothers through those vulnerable years. Because of his leadership I decided to attend Bethany Bible College in Scotts Valley, CA, and later my brothers and sister attended there as well. My major at Bethany was Bible with a minor in Music. During these awesome years at Bethany I was able to sing in several music groups and traveled all over the western states ministering in music. I graduated from Bethany in 1970 and immediately moved to Sacramento to become a youth pastor and music director. I was there for a year or so and the Lord directed me to go back to Bethany and work on my graduate degree. That is where I met my boy’s mother and we got married in 1971 in Long Beach, CA. Immediately we were asked to be the youth pastor and music director at Boyes Hot Springs Assembly of God. We lived in Sonoma, CA, just a few miles from the church. I worked a full-time job as well as taught Sunday School, directed the choir, Royal Rangers, and music every Sunday. I was promoted in my work several times as three boys came along while we were living there. Scott, the oldest was born in 1972, Cristian in 1974 and Jeffery in 1976. In my job I was transferred to several cities in CA. I was promoted to a nursing home administrator right after Jeff was born in 1976. I ran nursing homes for several years.
In 1981 I was a fast food manager in Portland, OR and I was offered an opportunity to moved to Alaska and run a Churchs’ Chicken in Anchorage. My wife at the time and I both took jobs in what we all call The Great Land. This is where, I believe, my great adventure began. I was extremely interested in acquiring land somehow or someway. In the early eighties, Alaska opened homesteading to Alaskan residence. I jumped at the chance and applied for forty acres in the Windy Creek Homesteading Area just north of Healy. AK. I fulfilled all the qualifications, including staking and surveying the boundaries within a 7-year time frame. Officially it was my procession. In the middle eighties, my boys, my wife, and I built a log cabin on this site. Through several years there I gained numerous survival skills that have benefited me even today. Several of my books were birthed out of these experiences.
I met Janice, when I returned with my boys to Yerington, NV in 1987. I left Alaska with a broken heart, but I gave it all to Jesus. Within a few weeks I was asked to accompany the Yerington Band on a field trip to the Nevada State Basketball Tournament in Carson City. My son was in the band and Janice was the band director. December 1989 Janice and I were married in Yerington, NV. We united two families, Scott, Cris, Jeffery, Yevette Watts, and Yvonne Watts, and Janice and David. A few years later we adopted Reyna Reyes and Janice and I moved back to Alaska in the early 90’s.
Beginning in the nineties I feel like God started calling me to begin writing songs as well as fiction books to inspire the Christian and excite the hearts of the adventurer.
I have self-published (republished), The Northern Force Book Series, (The Beginnings (2013)), They Came From The North (2014)), Northern Skies In Terror (2013)), The North’s Last 1200 Days (2013)), He Steps His Mighty Step (2014)), Destroying Leadership, (2013), Dniknam The Lesser (2014), Hurricane Blast (2013), The Truth, Alaska Style (2013), Inside The Cover (2013). I also have audio books for The Truth, Alaska Style and The Franklin Family Odyssey: The Beginnings. We lived in Alaska until 2001. In fact, we moved to CA the day before 911. My sister whose been a Christian schoolteacher for 40 years, invited us to apply to teach school in the school she had taught in for many years. She baited us with, “It will be a ministry.”
All together we taught and substituted in schools all over Contra Costa County, CA for almost 13 years. Most of my books were birthed in the arena of teaching Junior High and High School kids for those few years.
My Dad passed away in 2010 and I was in a mess for a while. I was leading worship in our local Assembly Of God Church in Pittsburg, CA and participating in school events and church programs but my incentive had disappeared. We took mom home with us and moved to a little house in Oakley, Ca for over a year. My dad’s passing re-inspired me and I wrote several songs and produced a new album. In 2014 we decided to move to Carson City, NV to be closer to our granddaughter, daughter and son in law, among other reasons, like saving hundreds of dollars. We found a great church here in Nevada’s capital city and began participating in the community activities. I started writing songs by the dozens with the inspiration of the Holy spirit. I have several sites and people are playing my songs all over the world. This isn’t the end for David Erickson. Janice and I work full time jobs here in Carson. Since we moved here, my two younger brothers, Jonathan, and Daniel, passed away from ailments they had acquired. Mom died a few months later of natural causes.
http://davidericksonmusic.com
https://www.n1m.com/daviderickson
https://indiegospel.net/david-erickson/