Singing in Columbus, Mi.

We had another great meeting this past Sunday in Columbus, Mi. The crowd was fantastic, and loved everything that we did! They were also one of the best laughing crowds that we've sung for in a while. I preached a short message at the end as well. They were very appreciative at the table, and the pastor enjoyed us so much that he already booked us back for next August! I'll be posting that dates on our schedule as soon as I double check something to confirm it.
Be sure to keep checking our schedule. After new year's eve, I'll be locking myself away from the world until I get our schedule filled. God always has been good about getting us new bookings, but He expects me to put in my part of the effort!

-Stephen

College Concerts, Church Cantatas, Plays, Etc.

Just because we are out of school now does not mean that we have had nothing to do! We go out last Thursday, went to college choir rehearsal on Friday, then sang for their annual Christmas concert on Saturday night. We were at our home church on Sunday morning, and then I had to come back early that night to get ready for Dixie Baptist's annual Christmas cantata that night! Two huge Christmas concerts two nights in a row! The only thing that was difficult for me was that I sang through the whole cantata on the way to church for practice, sang the whole thing again for early rehearsal, then again for the actual concert......three times in one night! I wasn't hoarse at the end, but my voice was VERY tired!
Both concerts went really well. Tonight, we are having the annual kid's program of the Nativity. It was supposed to be on Sunday evening two weeks ago, but we got snowed out! Even though Josh and I are college students (soon to graduate) we never were able to get away from jr. church. Hope it goes well!
Next Sunday will be the encore performance of the church cantata. If you missed it the first time, come our to Dixie Baptist Church at 6:00pm for one of the best Christmas concerts that you've ever heard. I know, because I was there once already!

-Stephen

Finished!

Well, it's official: Stephen and I are done with our college classes! As of tonight, we have finished up our requirements for our associates' degrees and we will be graduating in May. It's a pretty exciting feeling to get through this stage of our lives, and we're excited to see what the Lord has for us in the future! We won't be taking any classes in Spring 2011, so we'll be heading off to Florida to do some dates down there. God is good, and we can't wait for what's in store next!

-Joshua

I Live!..... Again!

WOW it's been forever since I last posted a blog! Sorry about that, everyone! School has been hectic, but it's almost over! Tomorrow will be our last day of classes for the semester and then we'll be out for the year!...... (Man.... this blogging stuff is kinda nostalgic.... it... smells familiar.. I KNOW this place!) Sorry.... Anyway, word on the street is that penguins DO in fact taste better than unicorns! I have tried and I know for myself! (Don't ask............ seriously, don't...)

-Joshua

Blessings from God!

Josh and I have been given a nice reprieve in college this week. We were supposed to have three final exams today, the worst one being in the sinful world of Algebra! But, our teacher got stuck in snow in the dorm driveway this morning and could not make it........further proof that there is a God! The test has been moved to Thursday, so we have a couple more days to study and (hopefully) pass the class.

-Stephen

Saturday & Sunday Morning

Our two meetings this weekend went really well, which is nice since they were both at the same church! We sang for a Christmas banquet on Saturday, and then came back Sunday morning for a Sunday school concert, then two specials in the morning service, then a kid's show in the morning service for Jr. church.
The food was great, people loved us, sold lots of CDs, and they already booked us back for a different event next year!
-Stephen

Christmas Concerts

The Christmas season is now officially upon us! I am happy to say that I've already got all of my Christmas shopping done...and it's been done since mid-November!
The ministry goals that I posted in my last blog are already starting to come true! The booking is going well, and plans are slowly coming together for our first annual homecoming concert. Most of the other plans will come together a little later next year, but I'm already excited about them and making my plans!
I am now involved in TWO Christmas cantatas! My college is having their annual concert on December 18th, and our home church is holding their choir cantata the next evening on December 19th (with an encore performance on Dec.26th).
Speaking of my college concert, here's a look at the poster that I designed for that event (for those of you who have not seen it on Facebook).
Lastly, be sure to check our schedule on our website for our meetings that we have booked during December. We have a couple of Christmas meetings coming this Saturday, with another on December 12th.

-Stephen

Ministry Goals for 2011

2010 has been a great year, and I'm eagerly looking foreword to the meetings that remain in Dec, but I'm already looking ahead to 2011. I've always kind of been a go-getter, and I have some big ideas that, if the Lord will allow them to come to pass, will bring great new things to our ministry, see more people saved and saints encouraged, and so much more! I've already begun to make these following items a matter of prayer.

In 2011, we want to:

1.Double our number of ministry dates.
We've booked about 63 concerts this year, but next year, I would like to push for over 120! This will be much easier for me in 2011, since I'll be done with college this fall and have no classes next year!

2.Host our first annual Homecoming concert.
Although we've been traveling since June 29, 2008, we have not yet hosted a big homecoming concert. I'm already planning it!

3.Release Josh's new comedy CD.
Josh has not released a new CD since his original in 2008. We had trouble finding a good way to record him live in front of an audience again. Now that I have found a way, we are currently recording him little by little in our concerts to piece together a great new CD!

4.Record my new solo CD.
I did not record a new solo album in 2010 because we had already released the DVD and instrumental CD so close together. I'm already pulling songs together and setting up studio time for this.

5.Get onto Christian radio.
Christian radio stations in various parts of the state are already playing our music, but I will be aggressively pursuing radio in a campaign to let more people know that we are on the planet!

6.Record a live CD in concert. One of our all-time favorite churches to sing for has already booked us back next year, and agreed to let us record our first live CD featuring singing, instrumentals, comedy, puppets, and more!

7.Help to build the MGMA. We recently joined the Michigan Gospel Music Association. This organization has been around since 1975. It promotes gospel music by bringing together gospel singers for fellowship, conferring for new ideas, and puts on a few concerts to promote gospel music in Michigan. We would like to help them recruit new members, book concerts, and lend our various talents and skills to them. This will help bring the MGMA to new heights, promote gospel music in Michigan, and help to build and encourage our ministry and the others represented by the MGMA.

8.Become promoters in gospel music.
I especially want to be more than a singer and musician. I want to do more to keep gospel music strong. It is a music that does much good in the lives of many people. One way that I wish to help it is through the MGMA, as mentioned above. The other way is that I want to put together concerts of my own next year, not just plead to pastors and booking people for concerts. I hope that next year I will be able to set up some concerts, promote them myself (with some help from others involved), and be responsible for how it comes together. This is perhaps the riskiest goal I have, but if it is done properly, it could be one of the most rewarding!


Finally, as a goal that I'm considering for either 2011 or 2012,


9.Begin building my recording studio. My older Mark Forester (Mark & Andrea Forester Ministries) has been running his own recording studio since around 1999, and has used it to do many great things for his ministry, ours, and in so many others. I wish to follow in his footsteps. It will cost a great deal of money, and I will be piecing it together over time. I don't know yet if I will start assembling it in 2011, or wait until 2012, but it is coming!

I hope that you who read this will join me in prayer for the Lord's direction in our lives and ministry in 2011.

-Stephen

Holidays around our house!

Well, Thanksgiving is here. This is the time of year when we all get together for food, games, movies, football, and so much more! Inevitably though, someone is going to stop in the middle of all of this and think: "What the heck are all of these people doing in my house, eating my food?"
I love Thanksgiving. I enjoy the time off from collgege to let my brain just run out of my ears and not do anything. I love the family time, and of course, the great food! Last, but not least, Thabksgiving is a gentle reminder that Christmas is in hot pursuit, not far behind!

-Stephen

Our weekend + Thanksgiving

Josh and I had an awesome weekend. we sang in Kalamo (a little town north of Lansing) for a pretty nice crowd on Saturday night, hurried home, got to bed, then got up and did the same thing all over again twice on Sunday! We sang for a pastor in Brown City who has quickly become a good friend of ours, and had a great time. We then headed out for a service at a new church that we had not yet been to. The pastor moved his evening service to 4:00pm so that he could invite people from other churches in the area. This proved to be a good idea, because we had a number of folks show up that had seen us in other places. I guess it pays to sing in multiple churches in the same area and develop a little bit of a fan club!
Thanksgiving is this week (just in case you didn't know) and Josh and I are very excited! Of course we are looking forward to the family, food and thanking God for His blessings, but we are also excited about the fact that we don't have any classes on Thursday! We normally are in college on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we basically are going to have a week off! It will probably be the best Thursday that we've had this year!

-Stephen

Fan Page!

If you haven't checked it out yet, go to Facebook.com and type into your search "The Forester Brothers" to see our new fan page. You can instantly become fans and read our posts, see our new pics, and follow what's happening in our lives and ministry!
-Stephen

Facebook Fan Page

Yay! I just got our brand new Facebook fan page up and running! Hurry and go to Facebook.com and look up "The Forester Brothers" to keep up to date with us there. I'll soon have new posts, pics, info, and so much more. Log on today to become the first of our fans for this exciting new area of our ministry!

-Stephen

Last Sunday Night & Facebook

Our concert last Sunday was a little different experience from what we've had lately. The church was literally within walking distance from our house! The only reason that we did not actually walk was because we still had to get all of our equipment over there!
Only fourteen people showed up, but it was still a great night. The pastor loved us, and sat in the back row of the church, laughing his head off at just about everything that we did, and most of the people did the same thing!
There was one lady who found all of our stuff so funny that she laughed almost constantly, even if it wasn't funny......I must say that it was a little odd to have her laughing so hard during MY GUITAR SOLO! (LOL!)
All in all, it was a great night. It was also very nice to get home so soon afterward as well. Traveling very far away for our concerts is fun, and we both love the ride, fast-food, and general experience, but sometimes it's nice to do a date at a church where we only use about 2 cents worth of gasoline.

Also, be sure to watch for an announcement for our soon-coming Facebook fan page! Soon we'll have a new page there where you can become a fan and catch all of our latest updates from the world's most popular social site.

-Stephen

What's happening this weekend!

Josh and I have both found a new love...... and no, I'm not talking about girls (though Josh is not doing to badly there either!), I'm talking about our new X-Box 360! We put our money together a couple of weeks ago and decided that, although we are college students who will soon be graduating and moving on with our lives, we wanted to make one last silly spurge on something that's maybe not-so-grown-up! We have both been having a ball with it in our spare time, and wondering why we did not do this a while ago!
We are going to have an unusual weekend. Today, Josh is off to a church in Flint to help out with a special youth day that friends of ours are hosting. Many of our college friends are also heading out to help the church, and advertise for the college. I couldn't go today because I have some other things that I have to do. Too bad, 'cause it sounds like they are really gonna have some fun together!
Tomorrow, Josh and I will be in our home church in the morning, and singing at another church in the evening. The neat thing about where we are singing is that the church is literally "around the corner". The church building is within walking distance of my house! If we did not have to carry so much heavy equipment over there, we would just walk to get a little exercise and not waste both drops of gas that would be required!
I love travelling long distances to sing, and we've done a lot of that lately. Such travels do have their advantages, but for once, it will be a relief to leave only a short time before church starts, then be the first ones home!

-Stephen

Singing this past weekend

Josh and I had two different places to sing this past weekend. On Saturday, we sang for our first Michigan Gospel Music Association concert. It went quite well, and both the MGMA members and the audience seem to be thrilled that we are now a part of their work!
The next day, we sang in Richmond, Mi. for a morning service. It was our first time there, and the people said that we were a blessing......so I guess we had a good day!
Today, we have college classes until this afternoon, then I'll probably slam my head into a brick wall after trying to understand the latest chapter of our Algebra book!

-Stephen

School & MGMA

Well, Josh and I had a unique week.
We had midterms last week, and got our results back this week. We both did well in most of our tests, and......at least passed on the rest!
We also auditioned for the Michigan Gospel Music Association on Tuesday night. We went to their meeting and sang three songs, and Josh did about four or five minutes of comedy. We then were voted in by a unanimous decision! They have already asked us to sing for them at their next concert this Saturday, and have offered us a couple more already! We are looking forward to many great times with all of these people.

-Stephen

Mid-terms!

Today, Josh and I are having to take FIVE Mid-terms! We had to take three of them this morning, and we will have two more tonight!
Fortunately, most of them turned out to be pretty easy for both of us. After we get done with them this week, we still have to take one for Algebra that was moved to next Tuesday!
Right now, I'm sitting in our student lounge, with pretty much nothing to do while my brother sits here trying to charm the socks off of his special new lady friend! He met a new freshmen this year, and they have hit it off quite well!
Meanwhile, I have nothing to do right now except write a blog and study for two more tests tonight!

-Stephen

Recap from last week

So, it seems like we are never bored. Last weekend, We sang for that ladies conference four times on Saturday, and spent the night at the youth pastor's house to rest up for two more meetings the next day. It was a tremendous blessing to not have to drive nearly three hours home on Saturday night, then get up waaaaaay to early Sunday morning to drive over two hours back in that direction for two meetings that day!
All three meetings went very well, and God really seemed to bless!
This Saturday, we are singing up by Houghton Lake for a church's dinner concert. The pastor is trying this as an experimental "dinner theater"-type concert. Sounds like a lot of fun to us, and we can't wait!
Next week is mid-terms for college, so it may actually prove to be a relief to have a little span of time after this weekend where we won't be singing. Probably not though, because I'm never as happy off-stage as I am on-stage!
WE are also excited about the fact that we will soon have our concert posters available for download on our website once again! Our original poster was down-loadable on our old website, but when our website was rebuilt, we never got our posters (old ones or new ones) up there. We are hoping to have our our awesome, full-color posters up for download sometime next week. I'll be sure to post an update when we do!

-Stephen

Crazy busy this weekend!

Well, things are looking better for our proposed trip to Florida. I checked my e-mail this morning, and was delighted to see that another campground had invited us to come to sing for them next March! I love how God always seems to bring these things along just at the times when it can be the most encouraging.
This weekend is going to be nuts! Josh and I will be at college all day on Thursday for classes, and then the party begins Friday morning! I will be preaching in chapel in the morning, then we head out for an activity with the college, followed by immediately leaving for a trip to the western side of the state. We will be setting up our equipment that evening for a laddies conference the next morning. We'll stay the night, sing most of the day, then go to bed and get up early to sing at two different churches the next Sunday morning!

Busy, Busy, Busy......but singing like this is the kind of busy that I love!

-Stephen

College.... And Algebra

Well, we've been back to school for about six weeks now, and things are going pretty well....well, mostly anyway. This semester, the instrument of torture is algebra. Did you know that people in the Middle Ages used algebra as a torture to the death? I can picture a dark, wet dungeon with a man stretched out on a rack while Quasimodo tutors him in advanced algebra. That poor, poor man. It's not so much that I'm having trouble with the subject, it's just that I don't like math without any numbers! It's like they're trying to teach me the alphabet and make me speak Spanish at the same time. Now I have no idea what the sequence of letters is supposed to be. I think it's something like "A, B, C, D, a+b= 4/5 - x (-7 + y)". I could be a little off, but that sounds more and more accurate every time I go to class. Oh well, it's not like algebra or the alphabet will ever get me anywhere in life.

-Joshua

Ministry News: Last week, This Week, & Florida

So, anyway, it took me a little longer to get back to this than I thought it would (two days, but....whatever!) So Josh and I had an awesome meeting last week. We went back to Riverwalk Baptist Church for their annual kid/family carnival event. They had many people this year despite the rotten temperature and blowing rain. The put most everything under a couple of tents this year, and our services were held indoors like before. I did not get a count this year, but I know that we had a bucket full of new people get saved this year, including several adults!We did four kid shows, and then gave the gospel, and the Holy Spirit did the rest!
We also drove up to Standish, Mi. for their outdoor "Depot Days" festival the next day. It was a small fair, and the weather was cold enough to keep a lot of people away,but it wasn't freezing, and we were able to get the gospel out again.
This Saturday, we will be singing up in Whitemore for an evening concert, then staying over to sing for their sister church the next morning.
Josh and I are still working on finishing up our degrees. If all goes well, we'll be done and off to Florida! We're both struggling a little bit for one class, but hopefully the Lord will help us get through it!
Speaking of Florida, things are starting to look better for booking down there. I've got several places that I think will probably book us anytime now. I'm starting to get antsy, though, so if they don't call me back soon for confirmation, I'll be calling them again!

Stephen

Yay! Internet!

Hurray, my college finally has Internet again! We have moved this year from Pontiac, Mi. to Orion, Mi. The college is meeting in our churches building while the college works to build new facilities. The church has WI-FI, but that only works for those of us who have laptops! The only laptop that I have right now is either my old one that I use to run my soundtracks in concert, or my mother's laptop that I'm pretty sure is three days older that Jonah! She got a new one for her birthday, but won't let me take it to school!
Anyway, they finally got all of the new connections in for the desktop, so I'm back into the blogging from school business!
Check back soon! I have to go to class right now, but I'll have a new update on recent ministry events later today!
-Stephen

Singing last Friday, plus jr. church surprise!

This past weekend, Josh and I were busy in very different ways than normal.
On Friday, Josh and I sang for a multi-group concert that we were added to at the last minute. I met the lady that hosted the event at Mark & Andrea Forester's Homecoming concert two weeks ago. She sat next to me, and before the night was over, we had been added to the upcoming event.
Back to this weekend. The place was absolutely packed, and the event featured 11 different current groups, as well as reunions of a couple of great Michigan groups from the past!
This Sunday, we did not have any bookings, so Josh and I went to our home church at Dixie Baptist, and had a very unusual morning service. Mom teaches jr. church, and since we have both been gone a lot lately, she asked us to come into her class to help out. The kids had been clamoring for me to do another magic show for weeks, so I went to fulfill that request.
But just as Mom was starting the class, several of her kids burst through the door singing "Happy Birthday Mrs. Forester" at the top of their lungs! Mom's birthday was this past Thursday, and some of the kids got their mother and one of the other jr. church workers to make a huge batch of cupcakes for a birthday surprise! Most of the other kids brought her homemade cards and special presents too, and we found ourselves in the middle of a party!
I went ahead with the magic, and it was great. We have a girl in Mom's class that has been struggling with some hard health problems, and she has been waiting to see me do magic again for a while. She's being promoted to the teen group, so today may have been the last show that she will see me do, and I felt honored to do it for her, as well as the other kids.
I started thinking about how Jesus loved children and always encouraged "the little children to come unto me", and days like this make me see why. It was also one of those days that reminded us why the Bible calls children "an heritage of the Lord".
Usually, when my family goes to church, we go there with the hope of ministering to other people and trying to be a blessing and encouragement to others. This time, however, the tables were turned, and the kids and workers at Dixie Baptist Church were a wonderful blessing to us!

-Stephen

Busy times are coming!

Wow! When it rains, it pours! This weekend, Josh and I have received three new bookings! God has been sending people our way that have heard about us in different ways, and it seems like the phone has not stopped ringing (or playing music, as the case may be). We are now singing for eight or nine dates in October alone!
At the same time, I have been getting some good responses from my calls in Florida. We've already had one RV park say yes, and I've got several more parks and churches that say they are very interested that I will be following up on very soon! The neat thing about booking in Florida is that singing for RV parks is a huge thing down there, and more of their churches are receptive to southern gospel music (SOUTHERN gospel, duh!)
Sometimes, I think about how good God has been to me, and my jaw hits the floor like a 100 pound lead weight!

-Stephen

Singing three times in one day!

Wow, what a day we've had! This past Sunday, Josh and I sang three times in two different churches. We got up early to drive to a church just outside of Lansing to set up and sing for both their 9:00am and 11:00am services. They had to run two services because their auditorium could not hold all of the congregation in one service! Both of their crowds were great, and some people from the first service stayed over for the second service to see us again!
We drove home to rest for just about an hour and a half, then headed out again for a great evening service in Pontiac, Mi. for a youth-centered evening. We sang and did our thing, then the youth pastor got up and preached. The highlight of the night, of course, was the pizza dinner after the service!

We would like to ask prayer for a friend of ours, Les Gandy. He and his wife traveled together as gospel singers for many years, and then later added another lady to make them a trio. I had been receiving updates from them that Les' wife, Joyce, was in poor health and not doing well, and just received an e-mail that she past away this weekend.
This may bring an end to Les' longstanding ministry, but even worse for him is the fact that he just lost his life-long partner and loving friend.

-Stephen

Ministry and College News

Whew! School has just barely gotten rolling again, and I'm already tired! We've had a couple of good days so far, and made some new friends this year.
I'm still killing myself trying to get bookings for Florida, and God seems to be blessing the work. We've already had one campground book us for a Sunday evening service, and I've got several more campgrounds and churches that are very interested in what we do and say that they are planning to schedule a date with us very soon!
Last Sunday, Josh and I had a great meeting. The church had us do 30 minutes of our kid's program stuff, then we did about forty-five minutes of music, comedy, and sharing the gospel. The crowd was very receptive, and they've already booked us back for a special Christmas-themed kid show in December, which is basically going to be a substitute for their Christmas play this year!
This Sunday, we will be singing in two different churches that are a sizable distance from each other, so we can expect a lot of driving! Sometimes it can get tiring with all of the work involved in this ministry, but I never get tired of it........it's the homework from college from that wears me down!

-Stephen

First Day of School!

So we started school again today, we are now into our fifth semester of college! We got off to a great start today by arriving for our first class LATE! We got stuck in traffic, so we are going to have to re-learn how to judge taffic again!
We did not get into trouble though, because our teacher was late for class......in fact, he never showed up at all! He actually went to the hospital a couple of days ago, but he is supposed to be OK, fortunately!
I am currently sitting in the student lounge, waiting for Algebra to start. One word keeps coming back to mind.....HELP!!!!! I'm not sure if I want to actually go to class, or just stick my head under the wheel of a moving semi-truck!

-Stephen

Registering And Talking ... (Apparently To... Myself..?)

Well, it's official: we're back in college. Yup, we registered yesterday and now we're getting ready for our fifth first day of college. (This being the fifth first day of college since we've already had a first first day of college, back when we started. Actually, I guess this is more like our third first day if you don't count all the winter semesters too, but I don't really think it matters; really, this ridiculous conversation is just cluttering up an otherwise short blog..... why do you keep asking me these questions?) Anyway, we're going to be finishing up our double associates' degrees this fall and then heading off to do a Florida tour in February. (February... why is there a second "r" in that word?) Sorry. Anyway, we'll be in Florida from February (HELLO!) through March. (Now there's a funny-named month!)

-Joshua

Singing: last weekend & this weekend

We have been very busy the last few days (then again, are we ever not busy?). We had an excellent weekend with two great meetings. Last Saturday we sang at Chapel In The Pines Music Barn. We had both sets of services that they do, and both went pretty well. We did our kid show material in the first half, and a gospel music concert in the second half. Our Dad went along with us to help with driving and set up/tear down work so that we could get things done quickly and head back home that night. We were originally going to stay over night to sing for our Sunday night meeting booked nearby, but we wound up going home so that, in between Saturday night and Sunday night, we could help Mom with her crazy special Sunday that she was doing in jr. church back home at Dixie Baptist (see Josh's last blog below this one for more info there!).
We are both trying desperately to stuff, stamp, and address as many demos to Florida as we possibly can. We've only got five months 'till we want to be singing in Florida, and I want to get as many demos down there as I can before we go back to college next week.
Speaking of that, next week Josh and I will be going to our college president's house for a special Labor Day picnic that he's hosting to welcome new and returning students for this year's class. We're both eagerly looking foreword to it so we can check out the new girls coming to school this fall! (Just kidding.......sort of!...)
This weekend will be a truly nutty one. We are singing for the annual Brown City Missionary Camp gospel festival featuring some truly amazing talent. We are singing at 12:30pm, hanging around for about 30-45 minutes, then packing up and racing to the opposite side of the state to sing with Mark and Andrea Forester for an evening concert in Howard City, Mi. We're hoping to find a place to stay the night over there, 'cause the next morning we are singing for the Schnabel Lake Campground (no, I did not make that name up!). We are singing and speaking for their morning service. Whew! I'm tired already!
-Stephen

Ow. And Again I Say, Ow.

Well, this past Sunday morning, my brother and I were helping our mother in junior church at our home church. It was Clown Sunday, with the theme being giant sandwiches.... no, duh... clowns. Anyway, My brother and I were doo-dadded up in clown digs and doing a skit which called for him to "boost" me into the air... notice the word "boost" was in quotes. That's right, in reality all I was supposed to do was just jump backward and do a pratfall. Instead, my brother, that wonderfully forgetful gentleman that I work with every weekend, hurled me about five feet into the air. As I was hurtling upwards, I thought about the floor. I thought about the very thin carpet over the very hard cement. Then I thought, "Hey... did I leave the iron on?" No, I thought, "This's gonna hurt!" And hurt it did. My left ankle, knee, hip, ribs, shoulder, elbow, and wrist all went ka-thwap and joined together in hating me for all of eternity. Ouch. I'm mostly recovered, but I'm deathly afraid of clowns now.

-Joshua

Tornado Aftermath & Ministry News

We'll, as Josh wrote about in his last blog, we survived a tornado last week! We never actually saw a twister, but they were spotted near us and some of the damage to our surrounding trees point to that idea! We live back in the woods off of our road, and I can't remember a storm of any kind that has taken down so many trees! One pine tree was completely uprooted and fell across our driveway! Dad, Josh, and I all were outside after the storm broke, slicing through it with two chainsaws and hauling everything aside so we could go to work the next day. There was a lot of mess, and we were without power for almost two days, but God was still so good! We thank Him that there was only minimal damage to our garage, and nobody was injured!

In other news, Josh and I will be heading out this weekend for two very exciting concerts. We are returning to the gospel music barn where our concert video was filmed last year, and this time we will be doing a kid's show and a gospel music concert, both on Saturday night. The next night, we will be singing at a church that is practically next door to the Gospel Barn for an evening service. I actually sang there back in January along with my brother and sister-in-law, Mark & Andrea Forester. I filled in on three dates for Mark that weekend when he was very sick with almost no voice left, but he came along on Sunday night to sing a few songs with us, and we had a great time. Josh is really looking foreword to both evenings, since the crowds in both places are usually excellent laughing crowds, which is great for a comedian.

I'm also hard at work, looking up new places to send demos to for new bookings.......in Florida! We are tentatively planning to book a Florida tour from February 1st - April 3rd, and I'm getting a late start because we weren't sure that we could go, plus booking will become more difficult when college starts again in a couple of weeks. WEEEE!

Pray that God will bless this weekend
-Stephen

Where Did The Yellow Brick Road Go?

So a tornado hit our property last night. We were sitting at dinner when the rain looked like it was flying upward. We promptly decided to head to the basement. When we got down there, we did something brilliant: we headed for the window. The window. In a tornado. Brilliant. Anyway, we looked out of that window (which was along the ground) and we saw a tree in our back yard that was taller than the house... snapped in half. And as I saw the rain flying sideways, and branches swinging through the air, and the tree lying on the ground, I thought: "Isn't that pretty?"....No, actually, I thought "What if we wake up in Oz?" Fortunately, we don't have any real damage to the house. We don't have power, several trees were uprooted or snapped in half, and our trampoline looks like a pretzel. The only way I'm writing this blog is because we have a generator. Looks like God was very good to us through it all and all is well. Still, I can't put my finger on why, but I have the strangest urge sing "If I Only Had A Brain".

Make sure to stop by our website, www.foresterministries.com, to see everything we have to offer!

-Joshua

I Hate Cats

So, my brother blogged about the concert we did on the 14th, but he DIDN'T mention one very.... interesting thing that happened. We were in a barn, singing in front of what you could call a pyramid of hay bails. The concert was going well, right up until we got to our last song, "On My Journey Home". Now, if you've seen us before, you know that some interesting things happen on that song, but NOTHING has ever happened like this before. We're singing in front of this stack of hay, and afterward I was informed of a hilarious incident. Right in the middle of the song, a cat had climbed up on top of the stack of hay where everyone could see him. The cat then began to dig a nice little hole in the hay... also known as a kitty toilet. Yes folks, right in the middle of our performance, that cat decided to lay his burdens down, and it was NOT at the feet of Jesus, do you know what I mean? Nothing like a good show stealer.


Don't forget to stop by our website at http://www.foresterministries.com/ to see all about us and... well... everything else that's there too!

-Joshua

Singing here, there, and everywhere without mosquitos

Josh and I are excited to be singing quite a lot lately. We sang for that family reunion concert a couple of weeks ago, and it went quite well. Last weekend we sang for the Forester Park concert in Forester, Mi, and it was absolutely great! We were there in 2008, and were delighted to come back again. Our Dad and Mom came with us that night 'cause they had not been able to see us for several months, it allowed us to have some good time as a family.
This weekend we are singing up north in Au Gres for an outdoor concert. The Pastor called me to let me know that the location of the concert had been moved due to an overwhelming mosquito problem in the original area. Sunday morning we will be in Dryden for a morning service. We will be finishing out the month with a two-date weekend on the western side of the state that we are really looking foreword to.
September will also be very busy. Although a church had to cancel for a three-day weekend of concerts, we still will have six different places to sing and minister, and we are praying that the Lord will continue to bless!

-Stephen

Recent ministry happenings

Well, Josh and I just finished a lot of hard work in a Vacation Bible School this week. Clifford Baptist Church started their VBS on Monday, and we came in later in the week to finish things out for them with a bang! It went pretty well, and we praise the Lord that we had several kids saved in the event.
Tomorrow we will be singing for a family reunion over in Ovid, Mi, just north of Lansing. We've never sung at a family reunion before, so it'll probably be a new kind of experience for us, but I'm sure that it will also be great.
Keep watching our website (http://www.foresterministries.com/) for updates. I've posted new dates recently, and hopefully will have more soon.
We are pleased and incredibly grateful for how wonderfully God has blessed our ministry this year. Last year, we sang for 52 different meetings. Between what we've already done this year and what we still have in the book, we are going to eclipse that!.....and some pastors still book meetings later in the year.
I'm really looking foreword to January 2011. The reason for this is because is because from the start of the year through about the first week in March is the prime time for booking new dates, when churches are still writing their yearly schedules. Since (by God's grace) I'll be finishing college this fall and not have to go back in the spring, I'll have much more free time to pursue mailing demos and calling churches.
One more thing, if you enjoy reading our blogs and would like to say something or comment about what we've said, there is a way that you can let your voice be heard (or rather...read!) For those of you who may not know, at the bottom of each blog is a line that says POST A COMMENT, which you can click on to write your own comment. It's very easy to do, and you can sign your name to it or post it anonymously, if you prefer. You can also click on the button near it that says COMMENTS to read what others have said. We love to hear from our readers!
-Stephen

Boats And Music School

SO, my brother and I had a great time at CMC, learning that we are nowhere near as good as we thought (which isn't saying much). Now I kind of hate the way I play piano, but we have a new drive to perfect what we're doing! That's never a bad thing. Anyway, there's not much time left before school starts and we're hoping to be able to take our boat out before summer's over. However, the way dad and I have been slammed for work, who knows if we'll take it out before my dog graduates from art school.

-Joshua

A great weekend

This past weekend was awesome for us! On Saturday, we went to Cass City, Michigan for an all-day outdoor concert in Evergreen Park and sang with a bunch of other gospel groups, some of which have become friends of ours. The crowd seemed to enjoy us pretty well, and we had a good time.
We then drove up to Reed City to set up our equipment for the morning service the next day. We spent the night at the Pastor's house so that we wouldn't have to drive such a long way so early Sunday morning. It was a fantastic service. The people really loved us, the Lord blessed us, and the Pastor already invited us to come back for next year!
The only bummer was that during the morning service, our mixer basically died. Our eight-channel mixer already had one channel that did not work, and now another one quit on us, so now we only have six channels when we need at least seven. The pastor's wife from last Sunday let us take one home that she had, and we're looking at buying it from her. Funny how God has timing figured out all the time........

-Stephen

Music school and concert dates

Well, Josh and I just back from our trip to Murray, KY for the Charles Novell School of Music, and it was AWESOME! We attended lots of great classes, took piano lessons from Dr. Novell himself, met a lot of great people, and performed in all of the evening concerts. We returned home late last Saturday night with a bucket full of new knowledge in our heads, as well as some great new motivation for practicing our craft.
The actual flying was kind of a pain, though, because our layover in Chicago on the way to KY was a lot longer than we expected. We were supposed to fly from Detroit to Chicago, wait a couple of hours, then catch a plane to Padukah, Ky with Dr. Novell picking us up at the airport. When Dr. Novell arrived at Padukah, he learned that our 2nd plane had been delayed due to MECHANICAL PROBLEMS!..........But they never said that in Chicago!

Be sure to check our schedule at www.foresterministries.com to see several new dates that I've just finished posting, and come out to see us if you get the chance!

-Stephen

Flying to CMC!

Well, Josh and I will be leaving for Christian Music Conference this Saturday, and we couldn't possibly be more excited! This is the school where we learned to perform this amazing craft that we call gospel music. If you've been to our website (http://www.foresterministries.com/), then you know what I'm talking about. We haven't been back to the school since summer of 2007, so we are eagerly looking foreword to taking every class that we can, soaking up the knowledge, get some professional critique on our work, and catching up with some of our musical friends that we have not seen for awhile. We will flying out from Detroit at 10:00am, changing planes in Chicago, and then Flying to a little place in the middle of a cornfield called Padukah, KY! The school is actually in Murray, but the closest airport is in Padukah. If you've never heard of it, I'm not surprised......the name fits right in with the other crazy KY names like Possum Trot and Monkey's Eyebrow! (Seriously, those really are town names down there!).

On a related note, I asked Josh today if he was afraid of the flying (we haven't flown since we were very little kids). Although he said that he was fine with it, I keep getting signals that he may be lying. He tends to chew on things when he gets nervous, but today he he's graduated from nail-biting to chewing through more shoes than our new Border Collie puppy! (I'm just kidding...sort of!)

-Stephen

Dog Spit And Kung Fu

Okay, normally I'm a dog lover, but today I got kind of scared. My dad and I (in his refrigeration business) went to this lady's house to fix her A/C. I was getting tools out of the truck while dad made his way up to the door. Suddenly, a very large, very fast, very... doggish... German Shepherd came barrelling out of the doggie door... headed straight for yours truly. I wanted to drop the tool bag and do some tae kwon do on that dog... but then I remembered that I don't know tae kwon do. Fortunately the dog was just as friendly as it was big. It promptly decided that my face was not clean enough and decided to use it's tongue for a sponge, slobber for soap, and its tail as a shammy. Oh well, at leats I didn't drown...

Anyway, take a look at our website, www.foresterministries.com, to see our schedule updates and new pictures, including pictures of us at a Gaither Homecoming concert!

-Joshua

A Miracle!

"Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice!" At long last, ladies and gentlemen, we finally have faster Internet! (insert Hallelujah Chorus here!) After trying to get high-speed Internet from from every provider around, and failing, we finally just went to a Verizon Wireless store and bought one of those 3G USB wireless adapters. Our signal strength is three out of four bars, so it should stay connected. It's not quite as fast as a true high-speed connection, but it's leaps and bounds over our old dial-up.......I can actually see the pictures that I've posted on my website now......from my own house!
Now that we have descent Internet, I'll be making more website changes soon (I...can...do..it..from..HOME!.....AT LAST!). Be watching for new pictures and other things coming to our website (www.foresterministries.com), as well as more frequent blogs (hopefully, faster Internet doesn't cure lazy bloggers!)
-Stephen

MUST...HAVE...HIGH SPEED...

So my mother has been shopping around for high speed internet lately because, you guessed it, we still have dial-up. Now, for those of you blessed enough to have high speed, let me explain to you what we go through EVERY TIME WE TURN ON OUR INTERNET: We turn the computer on; easy enough. Then we enter the internet password; simple. Then we join hands and we all shove our heads in a bench grinder while singing "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" in four-part harmony. That's only when it's running "fast". When the dial-up is REALLY slow, we take a vacation for six months, travel the globe, help rebuild third world countries, and try to attain inner peace. THEN we come back and type in the first web address we want to visit. THEN we.... never mind... that part scares me.

Make sure you stop by www.foresterministries.com to see our schedule, store, pictures, and info!

-Joshua

New Website Changes

Well, my cursed Internet connection didn't work tonight, so I had to borrow my brother's. I had to run over to Mark's house to bring him something he needed, so I volunteered his Internet in return!
Anyway, I'm making some new changes to the website. I've been altering the pictures pages. It seems that I originally made them a little too crammed, so even if you have a fairly fast connection, it may have taken you a little while to see all of the pictures on either of the two pages. I've been shrinking the pictures so that there is not so much to load, and have been putting fewer pictures on each page. There are now three pages, with most all of the original pictures back online. It's still a work in progress, but hopefully sometime next week I'll be able to get the rest of the old pictures back up, and put up a bucket full of new ones!
No guarantees though, I'm still stuck on dial-up, and we're having trouble with it. We are working to try a way to finally get hi-speed Internet at my house, or I may just have to do it at my brothers' house again!
He'd better hope that I don't get a hankering to fix my website at 3:00am!
-Stephen

School And Work.... Hmmmmm....

So, today I realized that the summer is almost half over. That's kind of a bummer and a cool thing at the same time. It's like I get to go back to college and I have to go back to college at the same time. Anyway, tomorrow my dad and I are going to do some work for a guy who always seems to have just one more thing he wants us to check out. We go there for one thing and wind up moving in by the end of the day. I'm debating about whether I should bring the living room furniture tomorrow or save that for the moving van.
Anyway, the doctors have decided so far to avoid removing part of my dad's ear, instead putting him on a nearly salt-free diet in hopes of a cure. We're just praying that it all works out this time. We have our hopes high, knowing that God is in control.

-Joshua

Singing, Super Heroes, and Music School

Well, Josh and I had an awesome concert last weekend. We sang with our family and fellow gospel singers Mark & Andrea Forester, as well as an awesome family group called the Thurstons. There was supposed to be another group there called the Sammons Family, but they had something come up and had to cancel the night before. Oh well, that just meant that the three groups that did show up got more time to sing! It went really well, and we had an absolute blast. We give a special thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Lamping for their awesome job of putting the event together.
That will be the last time that we sing in June. For some odd reason, I couldn't get any more dates for this month, which is strange since summer is usually a busy time for concerts. Oh well, it gave us a chance to work a little in our home church and help Mom in jr. church. We spent four weeks in a row dressed up like super heroes for our "Super Heroes for God" campaign. Hey, I know it's cheesy, but it's better than sticking my head in a freezer! Anyway, we came back as super heroes each week and had to defend the church against the forces of evil with Bible verses and muscles (Hey, those two really do go together!).
Our schedule in July will be much thicker. We have several dates booked, including a three-day Vacation Bible School, plus we are going back to Christian Music Conference! This is where we first learned how to play and sing gospel music the way that we do. It's been three years since we've been able to go and study, so we are really psyched about it! If you haven't looked at our CMC page on our website yet, there is still time to sign up and become the singer and musician that you've always wanted to be! (www.foresterministries.com)
Keep watching our schedule to see if we are in your area, and come out to see us if you can!

-Stephen

I Stole Something....... By Accident!!!

Well, so far the doctors haven't totally decided on what to do about dad's circumstances, but all will turn out in God's will and timing.
Anyway, I was working with my dad the other day and we were finishing a job. I was packing up the tools and saw green tape measurer on the counter and threw it in the truck. The problem: it wasn't our ruler. Turns out we accidentally stole somebody's tool. That must've seemed real good. "Wow, that Mr. Forester is so honest, and he and his son are Christians, and.... hey... where'd that ruler go??? Hey, somebody call the cops on those honest Christians!!!" Oh well. Dad returned the ruler the other day, and did not return in the back seat of a squad car looking for me, so I was happy. I never realized how much trouble a couple of honest AC repairmen could get into.

-Joshua

A Little Different. . .

Well, my blog today will be a little different than usual. I'd like to request prayer for my dad. If you've read some of our past blogs, or if you've seen us in concert, you know a little bit of what's going. Our dad has been having heart trouble; having the heart of an athlete, his normal heart rate is in the fifties, but for over a year-and-a-half now, he has been spiking up over one-twenty. He's had numerous procedures to try to correct the problem, and none of them seem to hold for very long. On top of that, he also has a rare problem that messes with his balance and makes him sick, a lot like vertigo, but worse. He is going to Ann Arbor on Friday to see what can be done about all of this, and we pray that the doctors will find the answer. One possible solution to the inner-ear problem is that they remove part of his inner ear. It could cure his inbalance and sickness, but he would be deaf in that ear.
Sometimes our family looks at this situation, along with dad's recent accident in which a seventeen-year-old girl hit him and totalled his work van, and we ask God the number-one asked question He gets: why? We don't always understand, but God has a good reason for it. I was reading the story of Lazarus the other day and, although I hope our situation turns out NOTHING like Lazarus, there are some things to be found for comfort. I realized that, although the people begged Jesus to heal Lazarus, Jesus had a good reason for not healing him. If he had healed Lazarus, he never would've gotten to raise him from the dead! I believe sometimes God allows difficult situations in our lives so He can bring a bigger miracle out of it.
I also see that perhaps Mary and Martha, and even Lazarus, may have needed a little reminder. The Bible states many times how Jesus loved that family, and even stayed in their home on occasion. Perhaps they had gotten used to Jesus. Perhaps they knew Who He was, but had just let it slip into the back of their minds. However, when they saw Him raise Lazarus from the dead, I'm pretty sure they knew exactly Who He was! But perhaps also Jesus wanted to remind them just how much He loved them. Actions speak louder than words. Jesus gave them an incredible miracle, and brought them out of the saddest, most difficult time in their lives, to remind them that He saw and loved them more than they could ever know.
Maybe that's what God wants us to know. We don't always know exactly why God does what He does, but all of it comes back to one simple reason for which He does everything:
"For God so loved. . ."

-Joshua

Chicken and FIIIIIRRE!!!!!!!

So my dad burned me today. I was working with him in his heating and cooling business and we were replacing a compressor in someone's AC. To do this, we had to use a torch to heat up the copper hoses enough so that we could pull them apart at the joints, which allows us to.... never mind... Anyway, dad was using the torch while I was pulling back on the compressor to get it loose. We freed the thing from the copper tube and dad pulled the torch up to turn it off. In doing so , however, he burned some of the hairs on my forearm. It's nothing serious, but what was once a luscious forest is now a bunch of dead trees. Thanks dad.
In other news (also pertaining to working with my dad), we were working at a rest home the other day and had to go to the maintenance room to tell the guys there what was wrong with their refrigerator. We arrive there to find them eating........... KFC..... Now, you have to know.... I AM A MAJOR CHICKEN FANATIC!!!!!!!!! As long as the chicken is not burned or defiled in some unusual way, I will probably eat it, but my F-A-V-O-R-I-T-E of them all is Kentucky Fried Chicken. And these men had the audacity to eat it front of me without offering me any!!! The nerve. Then, yesterday, my dad and I got to somebody's home to fix their fridge, and what do I find??? The couple is eating CHICKEN!!!! RIGHT in front of me!!! It was all I could do to keep from killing them both and taking the chicken for me me me me ME!!!!! This is how I know who I'm going to marry. God wants me to marry a cat burglar.... that way she can break into the KFC headquarters and steal the secret recipe for the best chicken on earth.

-Joshua

Booking Work & College News

Hey folks, I thought that it was about time that I started writing blogs again. I was afraid that some of you have started to think that I died and Josh has gone solo! This is definitely not the case! Josh is fantastic at what he does, but I have charge of the datebook and book the concerts.
Speaking of which, this week I am hammering the schedule work like crazy. I did a little better during this last semester of college at doing my homework and keeping up with calling some churches for new singing dates, but still could not do it like I wanted to. Now that we are done with school, however, I want to treat this like a serious job: look up new churches, stuff more demos, mail them, call those churches, and pray that they will consider us for a concert. We've been averaging about four dates a month lately, but I'd like to increase that 3x if I can! Lots of work in the office, not much fun, but it does pay off!
We're both still on a high note about the latest news with our college situation. Like josh said in his last blog, we met with Dr. Carr, our president, and we made arrangements so that we will be able to go back this fall with a pretty thick load, and then be finished, with no need to return to school next semester (except to graduate, of course!) The most awesome part is that we will be getting a double A.R.E degree in Bible and music. We were not expecting to achieve this, but with the classes that we took as electives, we will be able to work out both degrees! I'm hoping that we will be able to use this new free time in the spring to go to Florida and sing down there, and if we can make the arrangements work, I will soon start flooding the Sunshine State with demos and phone calls to begin booking concerts down there!
Keep watching our schedule on our website (http://www.foresterministries.com/) to know where we are singing, and come out to see us if you get the chance!

-Stephen

I'M GONNA GRADUATE!!!!

My brother and I just received fantastic news! We met with our college president Dr. Carr, and we worked out some amazing stuff. Based on all the classes we've taken and what we still need to take, my brother and I have only one more semester to go before receiving a double A.R.E. degree! We'll both pull down an A.R.E. in Bible and music, and then.... well, actually I haven't thought that far ahead. But it'll be fun getting there!

On a lighter note, my toe is better and that mollusk did not have to operate on me. Don't ask. Anyway, our church's junior church teacher (a.k.a my mother) is going to kick off a four-week campaign at our church and my brother and I are going to do some crazy things tomorrow....and then go sing like professional adults that night. Go figure. Also, I and my parents (without my brother Stephen because he has to work tonight because he forgot all about what was happening and didn't mark this night off from work a long time ago like he should have and now has to go to work while we have fun) are going to see my older brother and his wife (Mark and Andrea) in concert with Greater Vision tonight. Well, I guess that means I'll have to put my chia pet out for the night.

-Joshua

Hellooooo Summer!!!

YEEEEEEHAAAAA!!! Right now my big toe on my right foot is KILLING me. It started hurting me during commencement last night and now, it's beginning to tell me things. I think my toe is saying, "Cut me off; I'm suicidal right now and I have nothing left to live for." I'm very close to complying with its demands. Anyway, I am officially out of college for the summer, and I feel like I've been dipped in chocolate, lathered in peanut butter, and covered in chicken.....that's a good thing, by the way. Anyway, I passed all my classes with good grades (I hope!) and am looking forward to some time off....after this weekend. My brother and I are going up to Vanderbuilt Michigan tonight, a three-and-a-half hour drive, to do a concert tomorrow morning. THEN I'll be on break for a while. Cowabunga!........WOW that was dorky.....

-Joshua

Tests And Sleeping In... Sort Of...

So tomorrow my brother and I have all but one of our finals in one day! That's right: six final exams in one day! YEEEEEHAAAAAAA!!!!! Actually, I'm glad that they're all gonna be in one day (outside of the one we already took), because I'd rather just get them all over with. That's kind of the way I feel about shock absorbers and gurneys. Anyway, after having all of my tests on Tuesday, I won't have to get up at 5:00 AM on Thursday (Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice!). I'll only have to come into school so the choir can set up at the place where the alumni banquet will be that night. (I hope they have chicken...)
After the banquet, there's commencement on Friday night.....which for me only means that I've got another year of schooling to go....cheers. Oh well, when it comes to the world of macadamia, you've gotta do what you've gotta do.

-Joshua

Ministry News And Bad Timing

Well, the revival in Ovid is over and we saw some wonderful things happen there. My brother and I started off each service with about fifteen minutes of our thing, then the preacher would get up and we would go downstairs to do a kids show each night. We know that at least one boy got saved in all of that, and that makes every minute of it all worth it. The church took excellent care of us and we appreciate the marvelous blessing that they were to us.

So, today I am at school early and my brother is at home sick! Yay. He's trying to get well enough to sing this weekend. He isn't too sick, just enough that would kill, say, a rhinoceros. No, I'm kidding. He'll be able to sing as long as he just doesn't talk too much today (Praise God!). Anyway, I kind of misjudged my timing this morning and I am at school about forty-five minutes early. Did you know that our library has 43,721 books in it? Yes, I counted....maybe...

-Joshua

Nephews And Papers... And Starch....

Well, I spent all day yesterday writing papers for finals. I started around 12:00...and at 12:03, my brain exploded. From there on, everything in my papers was pretty-much mush. If I get a bad grade on any of them it will be because none of my classes have to do with nails and starch. Anyway, our older brother Mark and his wife Andrea are singing in Scotland this week and we have their one-year-old Trevor and their four-year-old Tyler....the best is that they both want my undivided attention. That can be difficult while writing papers (one of the papers might have something in it about diapers and Batman...).

-Joshua

Road Signs And Animals (And Gravy....)

My brother and I did a concert in Beulah this past week and I saw a few signs that kind of scared me. I'm used to seeing pedestrian crossing, duck crossing, and deer crossing signs, but when I saw a BEAR CROSSING sign, I spent the rest of the ride in the trunk. If that wasn't bad enough, a little farther down the road I saw the scariest sign of all: TRUCK CROSSING.... "Whoa, man did you see that deer? That was close... Holy smoke, a bear! We almost hit that one!............SWEET MERCY AN EIGHTEEN-WHEELER!!!!" Anyway, I have resolved never to drive back there again. I may have to take a submarine next year....
However, all that got me thinking about how different animals cross the road differently. For instance, a deer will look and say, "I can make it..." then you feel BUMP. Then there's the squirrel: a squirrel will look both ways, get all the way to the center line, and THEN go back... Then you feel BUMP. Then there are cats. They wait until a car is coming and THEN go. Then you feel BUMP...then back up and feel BUMP..then go forward and feel BUMP...then go in reverse and feel BUMP...sorry, I'm not a cat person... Then the last of them all: then there's the old ladies that just don't care... they cross the street whether there's a car or not. They usually make you wait.... I don't like to wait....

-Joshua

MY FIRST RECORDING!!!

Hey everybody, I'm going to be singing on a CD! No, it's not my first solo album. The college choir is making a CD and I'm in the choir, ergo, I'm going to sing on a CD. Ergo....that's a cool word. I like letting the ergo out of a balloon. WOW that was dumb. Anyway, I'm waiting for a class that got moved and I'm not totally sure the teacher remembered. I guess I'll know if it's around eight-thirty and the class is an hour late. If I have to ride home on an empty stomach, I might have to stop off at a craft store for a snack.....seriously, don't ask.

-Joshua

Pair-Of-Somethings

So, I found out today that my pet germ has moved on to that great cold infestation in the sky. Oh well, on the bright side, the concert, as my brother said, went VERY well. I'm upset that Michael wasn't there, but it was still god in spite of that. we got our picture taken with a bunch of people who don't know who we are, and then we drove and drove and drove...and drove... and drove.... mater of fact, I'm pretty sure that the car is ready to sue us for abuse.
Anyway, the school year is more than half over and I'm looking forward to summer and dreading it at the same time. It's like another weird pair-of-oxen.....oh, kielbasa!If I can ever say right just paradox once, I'll be able to die happy. I just can't seem to say paradox without messing up some part of the word. Tricky word, paradox. Anyway, it's like a strange pair-of-...never mind. it's that I'm looking forward to summer and dreading it at the same time. I really enjoy college, but I'm looking forward to summer break; however, I am NOT looking forward to mosquitoes. Or platypuses. Those things scare me.

-Joshua

Going to concerts, and singing in concert

Last Saturday, Josh and I went to Grand Rapids to see the Gaither Vocal Band in concert. They sang in the Van Andel Arena with a few other groups and soloists, and it was one of the coolest concerts we've ever been to. The only bummer was that Michael English was not there to sing with them because he recently had gone through some surgery and couldn't make it. He had to have some back surgery on a bulging disk, but for some reason the doctors had to go in through his neck! The doctors didn't have to touch his vocal cords (praise the Lord!) but he still can't sing for a couple more weeks because he still feels like he's been hit by a truck! They had Reggie Smith sing in his place, and he did a pretty good job.
This weekend will be busy for us. Our college choir is recording a CD this Saturday. They hired our brother Mark to bring part of his studio stuff to the college and record them. The same day, Josh and I will be driving up to Beulah, Mi to set up for a morning service the next day.......this will be a lot better than getting up before the roosters crow!
I'll be adding more pictures to the website this week. If I don't get it done later today, I'll definitely get them up by Thursday!
Please pray for our travel safety, and Michael English's recovery.
-Stephen

Stomach Pain, Concerts, And Cheese....

Aside from the fact that my pet germ hasn't been seen or heard from since yesterday, I have a MAJOR stomachache right now. If you want to know how much it hurts, take your bottom lip and pull it over your head; now staple it there and stick potatoes in your ears. Okay, maybe that's a slightly huge exaggeration, but I don't think I'm going to sleep at all tonight.
Anyway, my brother and I are excited because we're going to a concert tomorrow night (Michael, you better be there to sing!). It's in Grand Rapids so we get to drive a long ways, stay for several hours, then drive a long ways back home really late...... I CAN'T WAIT!!!! Seriously, it's gonna be fun.

-Joshua

P.S.- If you're wondering what relation cheese has from the title to this blog....never mind, don't try to figure it out. It gives me nightmares just thinking about it. (And I'm not even asleep!)

Website news + more!

Hey everyone! Well, If you haven't checked our schedule yet, you really should. God has been really good lately and has helped to fill our schedule with a bucket full of new dates!
May is going to be a crazy month for us. During the week that we are supposed to be studying for finals, we are booked for a four-day revival from Sunday through Wednesday, one day off (at school), then singing in Cole,Mi. for a Mother/Daughter banquet on Friday, then singing for a Ladies' luncheon on Saturday! If I fail my tests.......I'll know why!
Keep watching our website. I've been adding more stuff to it, including some new pictures this week, see if you can spot the new ones!
Mark and Andrea have finally arrived home from Florida this week. I'll be in the studio tomorrow for some track fixes from our new instrumental CD, then we'll be singing again in Clifford, Mi this Sunday!

-Stephen

What IS Schnitzel???

Well, it's like my brother said on his last post: we are on spring break. Unfortunately, that ends for us when we go back to classes this Tuesday! I'm kind of looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time. It's kind of like a weird pair-of-ducks.... wait, I mean paradox. Part of me is saying "Yes, I can go back now!" Meanwhile, the other part wants to stick my head in a vice. "Crank 'er down, Charlie!" Anyway, enough about a pair-of-boxes.... Schnitzel, I did it again!
Oh well, in other news....other news...hmmm...other.... news..... Ah, yes! I've discovered that there's nothing poetic about sardines.

-Joshua

Spring Break!

Well, Josh and I have the week off from college this week for our spring break. A lot of people do a lot of wild/foolish thing on their school break, but not me. Probably the craziest thing that I've ever done for my school break is dive into a pool without first checking for water! Some of my friends who go to a Bible college down in Florida have told me that they do not get a spring break. To these poor souls, and all who share their unfortunate situation I say.......NANANANANANANANA!!!!!
Just kidding, but I had to get that one in! While I'm off from college, I'll be doing a little spring cleaning. It's amazing what can take root and start growing in your bedroom if you don't clean it once in a while! I'll also be taking extra time to work on filling our schedule with new concert booking. That kind of work can be very tricky. On more than one occasion we have been called for five new dates in one week, while at other times, trying to fill our schedule can be like trying to make Niagara Falls dry up!
We're also hoping that we'll finally be getting hi-speed internet this week. I'm glad, because while waiting for my dial-up to load to write this blog......I had to go shave again! (Which is bad, because I usually only shave once a week!)
Keep checking our website. I have been adding new things a lot lately (from my college, with real internet). The newest feature is a page dedicated to advertising special events. We consider them all special, but the concerts listed there are unique with events that feature us singing with multiple groups, along with other great surprises that don't normally happen in our concerts! Be sure that you also watch our regular schedule page as well.
I've also added a page dedicated a page to advertising the Christian Music School conference that Josh and I have gone to in the past to learn about Gospel music.Practically everything we know about our ministry today we learned there. I'll try to add some pictures to it later.
Check it all out!
-Stephen

EXCUSE ME!!!!

I just wanted to say my piece about all the hits my brother got on his blog, "Stephen and Girls". Apparently, he said something about only being able to get a girl on another planet, and then he received a bunch of comments on it, denying the FACT and even countering his comments. To me, this proves only one thing... there IS life on Mars!!! No offense if you left a comment, but...OK, I mean a lot of offense. Deal with it.

P.S. If you wrote about me....you must be in tune with God.

-Joshua

News and website updates

Hey everyone, Stephen here. Josh and I had a great time this past Sunday at First Baptist Church of Attica, Mi. The pastor was away at a conference and asked if we could fill his place with whatever it is that we have been doing for the last two years! The people were great, and we had a fine service.
Keep watching our website. I've been having a lot of fun adding new things to it every week. I usually make website changes and update our blog from the computer at my college since my computer at home is still hooked up to dial-up. It takes about six months for anything to load at home, so I just do it at the college when I'm here two days a week. I've posted new stuff recently, and will hopefully be able to add a special new page this week. I want to put in a page dedicated to special concert events that we have coming up. We have a schedule page and consider all of our concerts special, but from time to time, we get to sing for unique events that will feature us with other groups, or there may be something else different that we would want to advertise about that particular event. Hopefully I'll have it up and running this Thursday, and be sure that you check our schedule page and pictures pages for new things as well.
-Stephen

New Website Updates

Hey folks, I just finished putting together another pictures page on our brand new website. The old one was barely even cold in the grave (....woah, I don't know where that came from!) and I've already loaded a new page with more pictures. This one has more of our family and college friends, and well as new concert pics and hilarious shots of Josh just being.....well...Josh!
Our new CD "Instrumental Classics" has arrived and is now up for sale on the store page of the website. It features Joshua and I playing old classics in fun, exciting new ways on songs like "I'll Fly Away", "Come Thou Fount", "Sweet Hour Of Prayer", I've Got That Old Time Religion", "Learning To Lean", and many more! Our new price bundle is 1 CD or DVD for $15.00, or all 5 pieces of product for $40.00!

Lastly, be sure to check our latest schedule page to see if we are coming near your neighborhood. Feel free to come and see us in concert.

Enjoy the new pics!
-Stephen

Weekend News and Red Bull

This past weekend my brother and I went to an all-night youth lock-in....no, we didn't stay all night long. I may be nineteen, but I just don't have the energy I used to. I used to be able to stay up all night on nothing but a pixie stick and a cup of Kool-Aid. Now you can't keep me up past eleven with a Red Bull, a 5-Hour Energy AND a pot of black coffee. Oh well, I guess we all get old sometime....I was just kind of hoping it would happen to me after another fifty years.
Anyway, we did the lock-in that night and had a great time. The church put us up in a lovely house with some fantastic people (thanks again!) and we had the Sunday Morning service the next day. All in all it was a great weekend (except for the squirrels.... never give a squirrel peanut butter...).

-Joshua

How To Sleep All Day, Eat Nothing All Winter, And Still Be Fat

Sorry I haven't written a blog in a while, but you know how it is when with peanut butter and snails.... Anyway, My life has been pretty busy lately... okay, it's been so-so...all right, it's just plain been crap... anyway, I was wondering: how do bears eat so much, sleep all winter, and still come out in the spring fatter than a bloated cow. You would think that they would come out looking like most Hollywood actresses.

Oh well, I guess I have to go to class now.

-Joshua

New Website Changes

Hey folks, sorry that I've been away for a while again, but I've got some great news. Our website now has a great new pictures page! Now that our website has been overhauled. I can update it myself from any computer that I want to. I recently figured out how to add new pages to it and put in whatever I want, so I'm very excited about the new possibilities. Eventually, we're going to upload our new concert and kid's show posters for download like we did with our old black & white ones on the old website. I also am considering other possibilities to include later. For now, enjoy the new pictures from our road experiences, studio shots, family, college friends, or whatever else I put up. I'll try to update it with new pics from time to time, and I'll be sure to include a notice of that here as well.
Our new instrumental CD has been shipped and is ready for sale. I'll put it up for sale on the store page as soon as I can, but you can order it any time by calling (810) 653-0089 or e-mailing us at foresterministries@yahoo.com .
Also, be sue to check our schedule page of the website to see where we are in concert. Come out to see us if you can!
-Stephen

Stephen & girls

Q: How much wood would a wood-chuck chuck, if a wood-chuck could chuck wood?
A: He'd cut a quarter of a cord of Conifer if you gave him a quarter for every cord he cut!

Why would I waste this space to write about something a dumb as that? I have no idea! Maybe I'm just trying to impress any and all ladies that may be reading this?
Aw, who am I kidding, I'll probably never figure out the right way to attract a girl, and I'm sure that coming up with (OK, ripping off) dumb sayings is not the way to do it either.
Really, I have no hope for love on this planet. What I'm really hoping for is that there is life on other planets. After all, if there is life on other planets, probably some of them will be female, right?
I really hope so, because girls on this planet don't seem to want anything to do with me. Can't you just see me on a date with an alien: We are walking side by side, I'm holding her eight-fingered hand, staring into her one large eye, while trying to figure out which set of lips to kiss!
Not-so sincerely,
-Stephen

Ministry Update

Hey everyone, it's been a little bit of a spell since I've been back on blogger, but some great things have been happening. Josh and I have received a lot of new dates to sing for. I've really been at it since college started again and God has blessed my efforts pretty well. We sang in Brown City, Mi. this past Sunday, and it went very well. I was originally supposed to preach, but the pastor told me when we got there that his brother was in town and that he'd asked him to preach. I said that that would be fine, of course, but with the way that the service went, neither one of us preached! The Spirit seemed to be moving in the crowd, and when our set was finished, the host pastor got up and delivered and impromptu message that he tied into the message, and then they called everyone to the alter and prayed.
In other news, Josh and I are happy to say that our new CD: "Instrumental Classics", is finished and the artwork has been sent to Nashville for print. We are expecting to get it back in a few weeks, and then the new recording will be ready for sale.
Please continue prayer for our Dad. His injuries from the auto accident a few weeks ago are still causing him a lot of pain, and his inner ear/heart problems are still active. In fact, the trauma from the accident initially caused his existing health problems to worsen greatly, but fortunately that seems to have subsided a bit and he is doing a little better.
Be sure to check our schedule at foresterministries.com to find out where you can see us in concert soon!

-Stephen

Ministry and Life- some good, some bad.

Wow, the last couple of weeks have really been great!.......But, they also have had some not-so-great moments as well. I have been putting in a lot more time lately calling churches and pursuing more dates, and the Lord seems to have blessed my efforts. One look at our schedule and it is obvious that God has been smiling on us and has opened the doors to many new places to sing, as well as invites to return to many of the churches from last year. We even have a few more dates that I have not yet posted. I'll try to do that this weekend.
But at the same time, our family has had a rough ride lately. Our brother Mark and his wife have had many new disasters recently that have hurt them financially, the latest being that their motor home broke down on their way to Florida. They already had a major fix that they were going to have to get done in Florida on the "Grey Water" tank (the not-so-clean-or suitable-for-drinking tank!), but somewhere in Georgia, that no longer became the main concern. I can't remember what exactly broke down, but it meant that they would have to go the rest of the distance to the Sunshine state in a borrowed van.
Meanwhile, My Dad's health hasn't been too good the last few days. His Menniers disease has been making him sick again and our doctors have very divided opinions about how he should be treated. We have gotten some new medicine for him to try and hope for the best. Then there's Mom, who has been in physical therapy for the damage done to her back from the shingles.... Funny, she wasn't in too much pain before it started, but now, after she returns from a therapy session, she can hardly walk or bend over! We also had one of our cars break down and will probably shell out $1000-$1400 dollars to fix it.
The Devil seems to have found ways to attack nearly every member of my family these days. The important thing that we and all other people who may have great problems of their own must remember is that we have all determined not to let him win. These days, we often think of the story when God said to Satan "Hast Thou considered my servant Job?" Though we all agree that our problems haven't even come close to Job's trials yet, we do feel that we can relate to him a little. Job did not understand the hard times that he went through, nor could he see any purpose for it. What he did not know is that God was simply putting him through a test to prove to Satan his loyalty to God. When Job past the test, God rewarded Job with double of everything that he had lost. (I must admit that knowing THAT was coming would certainly make tough times easier!)
We try to look at God's blessings during times like these. The Bible promises "this to shall pass", and we know that if we can maintain our testimonies, attitudes, and not throw in the towel, God will show us our rewards for faithful service (whether here, or in Heaven. Either is fine with me).

-Stephen

P.S: We'd appreciate it if you readers would remember our parents in prayer!

Work, work, work! It seems like that's all that I can do right now! Sometimes it seems like it's been really hard to keep up with maintaining and expanding my ministry, booking new concerts, going to college, teaching piano lessons, working at DQ, doing my homework, plus all of the other things that a little thing called "life" may throw in my way. It can be challenging, but part of the problem that I seem to have to fight with is my time-management skills. I have known other people who have a much more hectic schedule than I do, and yet they maintain it very well without much trouble. Since I was home-schooled all through school, I always had a lot of time that I really didn't need to manage all that well. But now that I'm in college and am also into all of these other things, I have found my time to be more precious. Some days I seem to do well budgeting my time, while other days it seems like I can't keep my act together and will never have time for my video games again.........I miss Mario, Link, and Call of Duty! I guess that I'll just have to keep trying!
If you haven't seen our new website yet, log onto www.foresterministries.com to see our awesome looking new website brought to you courtesy of Mark Forester. He is still going to add a few more things to it, but more on that later.
If you are interested in our schedule to see where we will be singing, check the new schedule page on the website. I am no longer posting dates on the other blog page (just in case you happened to view it strait from blogger). I actually have four or five new dates that still need to be posted, I'll try to get that done a little later.

What A Weekend!

Well everyone, this weekend turned out to be much busier than I'd expected. I had a concert scheduled this past Friday night, but I had to do it without Josh, since he seemed to have a case of the flue. I'll admit that I was a bit nervous, but it actually went really well. The next day I was working at Dairy Queen when I got a call from my older brother Mark. He said that He and Andrea were scheduled to sing in a concert that night, but had no voice because he was so sick. He had been sick for a couple of days, and was wondering if I could get off of work early enough in time to fill in for him at the church with his wife. I agreed and was able to get off early, but the only problem was that although I know nearly all of Mark's songs before the intro is even past the first measure, I don't know the harmony parts to most of them (hearing harmony has never been one of my strong points, unless I spend a modest amount of time focused on learning it!). Our solution was to have Andrea sing a few songs that featured her and could do without Mark's part, and then I would sing or play a couple, and then she would sing the harmonies to a couple of my songs that she knew (she is a freak of nature when it comes to being able to hear and pick up a part instantly!).
Anyway, the Saturday night concert went very well. It went so well that some people asked if WE (ME and ANDREA) could come back next year! It went so well that Mark asked if I could help out again the next morning and sing with her in the morning service. I agreed, and although I wasn't originally supposed to preach, I found out that they wanted me to after all! I guess it went well, because a couple of kids came forward at the invitation to be saved.
That night Mark went with us, but he still could just barely sing. He sang a little with Andrea, did one solo, then I helped out by singing and playing my songs and they joined in on a few. We had a fantastic night, and the pastor asked to book Josh and I formally for a later date.
I wound up doing four concerts in three days this weekend, which was a lot more than I'd planned on doing, but I loved every minute of it!
I'd better sign off now, because all of that singing this past weekend got me a little behind in my homework for college!

God's been good!
Stephen