Sunday, September 26, 2010

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

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

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

Sunday, September 19, 2010

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

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

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

Thursday, September 9, 2010

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

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

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

Thursday, September 2, 2010

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