Random Recent Family Pictures

Ceylon Lagoon, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin 6:30am

We spent 4 days at YWAM Conference in Lake Geneva, interspersed with visiting a lot of Renee's family. 

We didn't see much of Rachel and Joshua during the conference because spent so much of their time with new friends.  

It's a family tradition to take pictures at the pink elephant in DeForest, WI, but it was too windy and cold at the front end,  so this is what you get.  

A Sunday Science Outing

or, An Outing Whereby We Unknowingly Collect Ticks.  

Joshua the Experimenter building a boat.

Rachel the Artist illustrating our outing.

Madelynn the Inquisitive

Hudson the Handsome (that's not a booger, it's rug burn)

Bros.  

Mommy's been having us all drink activated charcoal in cherry juice.  

Charydyn and Rachel and the Children's Shelter of Cebu banquet.  Charydyn was one of the kids in the Philippines our church sponsored before she got adopted by a family in the Minneapolis area.  

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Hey a "Pike" cabin at YMCA Camp Ihduhapi where we had a 2-day planning retreat for Missions Adventures this summer!  

He'll grow into it.  

Our first nature hike of the season.  

Oliver!  Best buddies since birth.  Practically.  And still. 

Oliver and Joshua made breakfast of their own initiative with no adult supervision while wearing footies.  

Daddy grills for his birthday in a snowstorm.  I think that's getting to be a tradition too.  

Thanks for checking in on us.  Tomorrow morning Renee and are off to stay here: 

Which is here:

For our ten year anniversary.

Tootaloo.  

April Newsletter

Our family with Davi, from Brazil, an English Cross-Cultural Orientation (ECCO) student, on his graduation day!

Please Pray. 

Dear friends and family.  This month we'd like to ask you to pray with us for two things that are on our hearts:

    1. That God would reveal the specific mission He has for our family.
    2. That we would be content while He prepares us for that mission.  

We came to YWAM Minneapolis trying for find our place in the world, and what a great place this is for that!  Through this season of Lent, we as a base have been focusing our daily prayer times on the theme of "Crossing the River", asking God what is the Promised Land (people, place, mission) that He is calling us to, and what lies in the way of us getting there?   We are seeing God move some of our staff off our Rockford campus and into strategic places in the metro area.  They are crossing the Crow River to reach the un-reached in Minneapolis.  It's exciting to be a part of.  I'm helping one couple get a donated trailer house ready in an impoverished mobile home park where we've been doing homework help for a couple years.  Now we'll have YWAMer's living there full time!  Another couple is creating a business that provides summer work for youth with on-the-job evangelism and discipleship.  My Ford F-150 just got donated to that work.  A staff lady from Pakistan is moving to the inner city to work in women's shelter.  We are looking for someone to move into Columbia Heights where the largest population of Tibetan's is outside of Tibet.  

     The picture that follows is a symbolic act culminating our Lenten season of prayer - YWAM staff and students crossing the Crow river on the 1885 bridge in Hanover, as we ask God to help us take possession of the spiritual lands He's promised us.    
   
So we ask you to pray with us as we wait on God for the people or place that He has for our family.    
   
     Meanwhile there are more than enough projects around the campus, as well as worship leading, collecting maple sap  and firewood (Joel), homeschooling (Renee) working in the accounting office (Renee), hosting a medicinal herb night (also Renee), learning Spanish (mostly Renee and the kids), as well as trying to make new friends here.
 
    We really enjoyed some of the English Cross Cultural Orientation students who graduated at the end of March.  Some are off to further missions training. Others are going back into their workplaces, universities, churches and YWAM bases in six different Latin American countries.  We look forward to being more involved with students in the upcoming schools as well. 

     In our local outreach, a playgroup in Columbia Heights with kids from an un-reached people group, we are seeing a gradual softening of hearts toward us.  We have a new group of YWAM students from a School of Ministry Development coming with us each Tuesday and they are full of enthusiasm to spend more time praying and planning ways to engage these kids. Only Joshua and I are a part of this local outreach because it ends up being a late night, which ties into our prayer request theme of missions for the whole family.

           "Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."  Joshua 1:9


Thank-you for standing with us in prayer. For giving sacrificially. For working alongside of us.

A Happy Easter, full of Resurrection, Hope and the Love of Jesus, be to you.

Love, the Pikes 

P.S.  In this next month we will participate in a planning retreat for Missions Adventures,  a YWAM regional conference in Wisconsin, and Renee and I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary in the Redwoods of CA!   

A Typical Atypical Day - Joel

4-2-14 YWAM MINNEAPOLIS

8-9am Intercessory Prayer Meeting (for our 2 schools starting next week, Missions Adventures, Kids Against Hunger and local outreaches)

9:30-11am Urban Ministries Workshop with Tim Svoboda (International Urban Missions Director for all of YWAM) - exploring this direction the Lord is giving us to reach Minneapolis itself as a stepping stone to the nations.  Many of the world's unreached peoples have large populations in the Cities.

11-11:15am Doughnuts!

11:15am-12:30pm Urban Ministries Workshop.

12:30-1:30pm Lunch.  Sat with one of our Minneapolis staff I had not met before.  He talked about the Providential timing of our arrival at YWAM Minneapolis.

1:30 - 2:30pm Urban Ministries Workshop - Renee joined me while the kids watched a movie in the Student Center.

2:30 - 3pm caught up with Renee.

3-3:30pm Priced out a conference room table and chairs for a remodel project.

3:30 - 4pm Down to the barn with Tommy to pump maple sap out of the temporary tank to the holding tank.

4-4:30pm Met with a painting contractor about painting our fire-sprinkler system,.

4:30-5:45pm Drove the tractor so Tommy, Edgar and Gama could collect sap.  185 gallons!

6 - 8:30pm Supper, shower and putting kids to bed.

8:30-9:30pm played guitar with Tommy next door.  Schemed and dreamed about recording our songs.

9:30-10pm Talked with Renee.  

March 17th Update

Renee's update: 

We've been here two months already, but it feels much longer than that!! As you may know, moving someplace new with new faces and new places is quite overwhelming and time seems slow.

Just last night all four kids became sick in one way or another! That hasn't happened in a long time and reminded me of having a newborn in the house-up out of bed every 15-30 minutes, but thankfully most everybody was asleep by 1:30 or so. 

Still plugging away at homeschooling-we are just about done with our second term! (we have three 12 week terms in a school year). Joshua's math is improving, Rachel and Madelynn are excelling in their reading skills and Hudson is very good at asking questions about random things. (smile) We are learning Spanish! (Most of the staff here speak fluent Spanish and English-so we thought we had better learn too!)

The kids have been getting outside while it is nice out. The three older kids are much better on their bikes this year and Hudson is learning to ride the tricycle!

Renee started going to a 13 week Christian based Grief support group. The first night went really well and I look forward to the next 12 weeks. It is good to be around other people who have experienced loss and grief.

Joel is staying busy with his "to-do" list, leading worship at the base and filling in where needed. 

The snow is melting fast! Six to eight feet of snow has dwindled down to a foot here and there with patches of grass.

We put up bird feeders outside our dining room windows and love seeing the chickadees, juncos, cardinals, blue jays, nuthatches and the squirrels come to feast.

The Framework of Hope

A mom, whose ten year old was just diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, posted a wonderful blog post. So much of her emotions I (Renee) could relate to. Funny how some people can put things into words that I simply cannot. Here are a few excerpts from her article:

For the past few months, truth in my life has been less about beauty and more about brokenness. Last July I watched helplessly as my ten-year-old daughter faced for the first time the moment when childish innocence is invaded by something dark and cruel, an intruder whose presence is a constant and unwelcome reminder that bad things happen. Unexpectedly diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, she discovered first hand that this story we live in has evil villains and dark forests with monsters who sneak up on us when we least expect it. For every needle that pricked her skin and broke my heart a little more, another question came. It just felt wrong.

 The sudden intrusion of deep questions that many people don’t have to face until well into their adult lives. Why did God allow this to happen to me even though I have chosen to follow Him? Why does He not heal me when all it would take is a word? Does He care that I am hurting? Is He even there at all?

I am often asked if Ellie will grow out of her need for insulin and the question is usually followed with the whispered ending “Will she have to do this forever?” I don’t know what medical advancements the future holds but I can answer with absolute certainty that it is not forever. If only the true survives, then all that is not true will one day be consumed by the fire that makes things beautiful, and the only thing remaining of the struggle will be the beauty that was formed within it. The reality is that, as people who were created for eternity, we are defined not by the things that will soon be cast away like an old winter coat with the coming of summer, but by the things that will endure because they are made in the image of God.

You can find the article here: http://www.rabbitroom.com/2014/02/the-framework-for-hope/