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