Joe D. Elick

A funeral service for Joe Elick will be held on Saturday, November 20, 2021 at 11:00 AM at the Roseau Evangelical Covenant Church. Visitation will be held on Friday, November 19, 2021 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at Helgeson Funeral Home in Roseau with a prayer service at 6:00 PM. Interment will be held at Spruce Cemetery in Roseau, MN.

Joe Elick passed away on November 5, 2021 at the age of 81.

Joe David Elick, son of Ralph Elick and Donna Mae (Coates) Elick, was born on April 8, 1940 in Bremerton, Washington. He lived his childhood to adult years in Puyallup, Washington.

At the age of 20 he committed his life to Christ, which led him to taking a train to St. Paul, Minnesota to attend Bethel College. A year later he transferred to the University of Minnesota in Duluth, MN and took the position of Youth Director at Bethel Baptist Church. As a church youth director he was able to live in a small third floor apartment in a large three-story house called the Bethel Baptist Annex.

Soon after Joe was settled as youth director, he met Robert (Bob) Tanner, the Director of Youth for Christ in Duluth. Joe and Bob teamed up to create high school “Youth for Christ” clubs. These clubs were formed throughout the area of Duluth, Moose Lake, Barnum, Cloquet, Proctor, and up as far as Grand Marais, Minnesota. There were also clubs in Superior and Poplar, Wisconsin. It was in one of these student clubs at Duluth East High School where he met his wife Julie. Joe and Julie were married on February 10, 1968 and gave birth to a daughter, Londa, on December 20, 1968.

In 1968 Joe then took over the Directorship of Duluth YFC and worked full time for 11 years. In 1978 they moved to Tacoma, Washington where Joe took the position of YFC Club Director. In 1985 they moved to Chicago where Joe attended North Park Seminary, graduating with a Master’s Degree in 1989.

In 1988 they moved to Roseau, Minnesota. The Roseau Evangelical Covenant Church became Joe’s first and only pastorate. He pastored RECC for 25 years.

Joe enjoyed preaching, reading, using his typewriter to type his sermons and articles for the Roseau Times Region, going on prayer walks and picking up garbage along the way, loving animals, and meeting people, keeping his cars and bike super clean, and loving his family. Their motorcycle trip out west was an annual event. He also loved weeding gardens with a hand-held trowel. All in all…he loved life all around him.

Joe’s two life scripture verses are:

1 John 5:11-13 – And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God; so that you may know you have eternal life.

Romans 12:1-2 – And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Joe is survived by his wife Julie (Wingness) Elick of Roseau, daughter Londa (Marlin) Olson of Roseau; foster daughter Karen (Faraj) Shamsa of Three Points, Arizona; sister Marilyn (Phil) Stout of Camino Island, Washington; nephew Patrick (Carly) Stout; great-nephew Dallas Stout and nephew Shawn (Jen) Stout; Julie’s brother John (Terri) Wingness; niece Chelsey Wingness of Duluth, Minnesota.

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