New Post @ Vossen Adventures

Well, we have now officially consolidated our two blogspots into this one. Now we are considering, creating a new blog presence with a new consolidated name, so we snagged Vossen Adventures (You will have to check the first post to see why). I know that many of you subscribe to this one so we may end up keeping it, but we thought we would try it for now. Sorry about the confusion, but to tempt you to at least check things out we posted some photos of our recent trip.

A Major Announcement

Well, I can't believe that we are already halfway through November. We have been plugging away at our jobs, internship, school, our church. We do have one major announcement to make. No, it isn't an upcoming addition to our family. I (Brad) can now officially put M.Div. behind my name. It is official! I got my M.Div. diploma in the mail last week!!!!!!!!!!! However, I will still walk during Western Seminary's graduation ceremony (with my lovely wife) until the end of April.

Happy Birthday!

Well it was my wife's birthday this week! She celebrated a golden birthday. We were able to sleep in because I worked on the weekend and we went out to the Olive Garden that evening to celebrate. Steph's sister came down this weekend to celebrate! We spent a fun day enjoying the sunny weather in Portland.

Transitions

Well, I have started my new job as a CPE resident at Providence Portland. This week is orientation. I was able to meet my new group of coworkers. We are a diverse group. I am the only Protestant in my peer group. We are a very diverse group with members coming from Africa, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Steph has also started her internship and the new school year. She will soon transition out of YD. I am sure that she will miss it!

One Year Anniversary

Well, we celebrated our one year anniversary on Sunday. Steph's aunt lent us her Whidbey Island cabin for a quick weekend getaway. We had a great time! I can't believe that a year has gone by this quickly! I have an awesome wife!

Brad Vos, MDiv

Well, I thought I would let you know that today is the day we've been counting down to for the last year... Brad will turn in his last paper TODAY!!! As of 5:00 p.m. he will have completed his MDiv degree!!!! I will let him tell you more about it later. :) All of his hard work has definitely payed off, and I could not be more proud of him!!!

Creation & Beyond

A lot has happened since the last post. The last weekend of July, Stephanie and I worked at the YD Adventures booth at the Creation Music Festival at the Gorge near her hometown. The photo is one of the David Crowder Band performing. We then headed over to Mount Vernon for Pastor Kooy's farewell service. He was my senior pastor at First CRC Mount Vernon and accepted a call at a church in Chicago.

I am trying to wrap up my M.Div degree. Four classes down. One more to go! My professor graciously extended the deadline for my last class until Tuesday!

One class down! Four more to go!

Well, one class is officially done today. Thankfully, I (Brad) passed my oral theological exams this morning. This means that I have four more classes to complete by August 10! I also preached at Southgate last night. Here is the link to the audio (I know some of my family likes to listen). In this sermon, I articulate my worldview or what I believe about truth.

Steph's sister Shelley came and visited us this weekend. It was great having over! She and Steph had a ton of fun hitting various hotspots in Portland on Saturday & Sunday (at least that's what they tell me). We all got to go see the movie Hairspray on Saturday night. Honestly, it was a pretty funny movie. It is worth seeing!

Life

Well, Stephanie and I are definitely in the middle of our busy season. This is why we haven't blogged in a while. I have been preaching and trying to finish my degree at Western. Stephanie has had a busy summer at YD. Please keep us in your prayers throughout this busy season!

Updated Website

Just wanted to let you know that we have finally updated our website (www.bradandstephvos.com). There aren't too many changes. We added a section for the new Home Community (small group) that Stephanie and I are leading at our church and posted her newest support letter online as well.

It sounds like we are going to have a heat streak here in OR next week. They saying we might hit temps of 100 degrees. It should be good times since I have class every day from 8 to 2:30 p.m. in a building without air conditioning.

We're back

Life is back in full swing. I (Brad) have started up my last five classes (It will be a race to the finish until Aug. 10) and Steph is ramping up for her final summer at YD.

A few of you ask periodically when I preach and if the sermons are available online. Well, this past Sunday I spoke at Southgate Chapel on Acts 9:1-19 and you can get the MP3 file by clicking here or visiting their sermon audio file @ http://www.southgatechapel.com/April-June.html.

Road Trip

Well it has been a while since my wife and I have posted. We have good reasons for it. I completed my 3 classes at Calvin,Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI, which meant that we were apart for 3 weeks (It wasn't fun). However, Steph flew out to Moline, IL and I picked her up on my way back from Michigan. We then drove to my sister and brother-in-law's house and spent a day and a couple of nights there.

From there, we headed to my brother's wedding. It was a great time. They got married in Peoria, IA church and had reception in a beautiful old barn next to a pond. We took off from the Pella area on Sunday and headed north to Sioux Center. This was one of the most eventful parts of our trip. In Des Moines, a car came up our freeway lane heading the wrong way. We spent that evening hanging with friends and my parents and then headed west. Monday was South Dakota (see the photo above), Wyoming and half of Montana. The last stretch of our drive was on a pretty desolate U.S. highway with lots of deer grazing on the side of the road. Thankfully, none decided to take Lola our Coralla on. Tuesday was Montana and Idaho and we stopped by friends in Boise that night. On Wednesday, the final day of our journey, we traveled across our home state of Oregon.

Overall, Lola the Corolla put on over 6000 miles round trip. We were thankful for a safe trip and very glad to be home together again.

There isn't much rest for us. I preach at our church on Sunday night and start my final 5 classes at Western Seminary next week. Steph begins her busy season as well.

Raft Training...

Hey! It's me, Steph. Well, I am off here in a few hours to the McKenzie River, and our first raft training weekend of the season. I will be shuttling for the weekend. Not to worry...I am armed with the thickest thermarest (camping pad) they make, an eggshell foam mattress, and my tempurpedic pillow. Hopefully that will take the edge off of sleeping on the ground for four days for me. Kinda high maintainence, I know...but oh, well. It's worth it, I guess. Please pray for safety for all of us who are going to be out at the river this weekend!
Well, one week down, and 13 days to go before I get to fly to Moline, Ill. to meet up with Brad. I am counting down the hours. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as were apart. Talk to you all soon! Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

G.R.

Well, I (Brad) made it safely to Grand Rapids. Let the classes begin!

Where is the World Is Brad?

Okay, it isn't the world, but I am an American traveler. Today, I had to leave the love of his life and head to MI to finish up some classes at Calvin Seminary. He has traversed three states and deadman's pass (put on just under 1000 miles in Lola the Corolla) and is now in Rock Springs, WY.
Please keep Steph and I in your prayers as we are a part and as I travel to IA tomorrow.

Weekend at Newport!

Well, as of Friday, Spring Semester at Western is over. Yeah! To celebrate, Brad and I took off to the coast for the weekend-compliments of Western Seminary and Shilo Inns and a complimentary two night stay we won in February. We had a great weekend together walking on the beach, checking out the Oregon Coast Aquarium, exploring a few lighthouses, and eating at a great local cafe-Cafe Stephanie. :) The weather was perfect, and so was the company. It was a much needed reprieve and time together after the pressures of finals at school.

And two have become one

Okay, we have already celebrated our 8 month anniversery, but we thought it was time that our blogs life matched our home life. We have decided to combine our two blogs into this one. We will keep my blog address, but now you will get posts from either of us!!!!

The big news other than this combining of our blogs is that I am almost done with my spring semester!!! After today, I have one more book and one more paper to write!!!!!! Oh, ya and did I mention that I am 32 years old now!

Easter

Well, Steph and I had a great weekend. We went up to a wedding in Mount Vernon on Saturday and got to connect with some friends. Then, we went to a baptism of one of Steph's friends. What a great way to spend easter and see the visual representation of Christ's death and resurrection that comes with seeing someone being immersed and raised up! What a great visual image to help us celebrate Easter! Steph and I also started up a new Easter tradition. I went to Costco last weekend and picked up a leg of lamb! Steph did a marvelous job of cooking it to perfection! We thought it was so fitting since Easter is all about the True Lamb of God sacrificing himself for you and me!

One other thing. I don't know how many of you have seen the article the God Debate that Newsweek. Check it out.

Other than that, please keep Steph and I in your prayers. This next couple weeks is very busy for me with homework, preaching, etc! Please pray too that YD Adventures Oregon can find summer staff!!!!!!

Where did March go?

Well, it seems as if the month of March has flown by. Thankfully, my spring break has arrived. Spring break kicked off with Steph and I heading up her parents last weekend. It was good to take a break from the books and relax a bit. Now, it is back to the homework grind. This past week, I filled out my summer schedule and it looks like I should be able to fit in all my classes! This means that I will be done with school at the end of August! This is good news.

Other than that, there really isn't too much going on. April will be busy month for us between weddings and me preaching every weekend is booked.

Internship Is Done!

Well, it has been three weeks since I have posted. The biggest news of the day is that I just finished up my CPE (Chaplain) internship!!!!!!! I should clarify things a bit. I am done with the part-time internship and will start up full time at Providence again in September. This means that I can now focus on my 5 classes!

This month, Steph and I celebrated 6 months of marriage. My school has a Valentines Day dinner for the married couples. During the evening, they had a Newyledwed Game (even though we were the only newlyweds). We not only got in the game, but we won!!!! Our prize? A two night stay at any Shilo Inn.

Other than that, Steph and I are trying to raise her support level a bit and starting to get involved in our church. This shot is of Steph with the flowers I got her for Valentines Day. Went with the tulips!

Its Feb already

First, I want to thank you all for reading this blog. I am always amazed at how many people subscribe to it or visit it consistently. I thank you for staying connected to our lives this way. It means a lot to us!

Well, I honestly can't believe that it is Feb. already. Life seems to be cruising by so quickly. Jan. 20-21, we went up to Mount Vernon for B-Doss's wedding. I sang and MC'd the reception. First CRC MV let me preach that morning as well. After that, Steph was out of town 3 days each of the nexttwo weeks for work related trips (retreat & staff recruiting). So needless to say, we are happy that both of us should be around for awhile. I think we are both ready for things to slow down a bit after I finish up my extended unit CPE at Providence at the end of this month. It has been a great experience and I am excited about working there full time again in Sept. 2007-Aug. 2008. Yet, my schedule is pretty overloaded since I am also taking 5 classes so that I can finish up my degree on time.

This past Sunday too major things happened, Steph and I led worship at the church we have been attending, Southgate Chapel and my Chicago Bear lost the Super Bowl. The previous Friday night, our seminary put on a free valentine's dinner for married students. Now I am Dutch so when I hear free romantic dinner. I am there. An amazing thing happened to us, the seminary had collected gifts from various local business to give away. One of the activities they did was similar to the old Newlywed Game (the couples take turn writing answers down and then their spouse need to try and answer the question correctly). We were excited enough when we made it to the final 4 couples. To our surprise, we won! Our prize? A two night stay at a Shilo Inn. The amazing thing is that we had just talked about how fun it would be to go somewhere for our 6 month anniversary, but didn't feel like we could support it because Steph's financial support was really low this past month. We can go now. It is a Dutchman's favorite word--it is free!

We do have a couple of serious prayer requests for you.

First, please pray that Steph's financial support will pick up. We sent out a support letter this past month. If you didn't get it and would like one, feel free to email me and I can add you to our list.

Second, please pray that YD Adventures Oregon can find summer staff. Steph took on this second responsibility after another staff person left. She is trying to do this and marketing at the same time. It is a lot of work and finding staff is always difficult to do. So please pray that Steph can make good contacts with a number of people and that they will send in applications. Pray also for wisdom when it comes to selecting the staff

Snow Days

Well, it has been a crazy couple of days of weather. We have been below freezing for the past week. Hence the sign our apartment complex put up. Steph is standing by it in the photo. This is something you will only see in the Pacific NW. Tuesday, I woke up amidst news of snow. We actually got 3 inches where I live. This ment that I got to spend some time with my wife! There is a slight chance we get more snow tonight.

We are heading up to B-Doss's wedding this weekend. I am singing at his wedding and MCing the reception. I even get to preach in my former stomping grounds, First CRC in MV, on Sunday morning. Pray for safe travels!

A year in Portland

This Christmas break, Steph and I spent a week with each of our families. At Steph's folks, we got together with the entire Faw clan of 45 people, went to Leavenworth to see the Christmas lights, and spent time with the family. At my folks, we spent time with my immediate family, had an Iowa open house, sheared sheep, and I was able to preach for the first time at my home church. We loved our time with our family, but it was great to be home.

Speaking of home, today marks the one year anniversary of my move to Portland. I am honestly amazed at how much has happened in this past year. I got married. I gained a great in-law family. Steph and I found a church home and we were given the green light for church planting. It truly has been a crazy yet amazing year that I am very thankful for.

I need to share one story with you. This past month, my need-based scholarship at school ran out. I applied to renew it, but hadn't heard. Without this grant, Steph and I would have been unable to pay for all our bills and the tuition. A couple days into our Christmas break, the financial aid director of my school emailed me and told me that I qualified for a special 3rd Year Student scholarship and encouraged me to apply. I filled out the form that day and emailed it to him. On Christmas day, we got home from Steph's family and in the mail was a letter informing that I had gotten this scholarship that covered 25% of my tuition! This is a huge gift! I was amazed and felt completely thankful to God for it!