[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 31, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H975-H976]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     WELCOME TO REV. JOE VOSS, VALLEY CENTER ASSEMBLY OF GOD CHURCH

  (Mr. TIAHRT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, today the House was opened in prayer by my 
friend and pastor, Joe Voss. Joe is from a tough neighborhood in St. 
Louis. As a teenager, he was sent to a correctional school for boys, 
but thanks to Salvation Army officers, Major Froeberg and Clarence 
Harvey, who is currently a Divisional Commander here in D.C., Joe 
turned his life around.
  He went to Forest Park Community College and graduated from the 
Salvation Army Seminary in Chicago in 1970. Joe married Connie 25 years 
ago and they have a 21-year-old son, Joey, and a daughter who is 18, 
named April.
  But the real story is what Joe and Connie are doing today. He has 
just finished heading up a building program for a new sanctuary without 
borrowing money. Instead of mortgage payments, Joe and the members of 
Valley Center Assembly of God are investing in young boys and girls, 
many from single homes, through a scouting program called Royal Rangers 
and Missionettes.
  They are not only working with the teenagers in their church, but 
also 

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reaching out to the gangs in Wichita. They have even reached out to 
those trapped by prostitution, by drugs, and by alcohol through their 
``Christ in the Streets'' program.
  Joe has exchanged pulpits with black congregations in our community, 
allowing them to come into Valley Center Assembly of God, while he goes 
to other community churches. Some would say that this is innovative for 
a church to reach outside its walls. Joe would simply say it is 
changing the hearts and minds of America one soul at a time.
  Welcome to the House, Pastor Voss.

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