Friday, June 25, 2010

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

Thursday, June 24, 2010

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

Friday, June 18, 2010

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 It seems that I originally made them a little too crammed, so even if you have a fairly fast connection, it may have taken you a little while to see all of the pictures on either of the two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

Thursday, June 17, 2010

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

Monday, June 7, 2010

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

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

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