Saturday, April 2, 2011
Josh's new comedy CD
Josh's new comedy CD is turning out fantastic! He's not had a new one since 2008 because we had trouble figuring out a way to record him live again. I finally found a way to do it, and this will undoubtedly be his greatest comedy piece yet! We've been laughing hysterically as we've been trying to edit it, even though we have heard all of the stuff before! He's also playing two piano solos on it, so everyone should enjoy those too (be sure to listen for me playing the bass in the background!). We are wrapping up production this coming Monday night, then will be sending off his artwork (which Josh designed himself) to the printing company. It will be for sale sometime in late April! -Stephen
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Lots Of News On Our Ministry 3-5-11
Well, if you've been checking our schedule, you can see that God has really been blessing this year! Since I was able to finish up college last semester and have no classes right now, I've really put more time into booking work. Love it that the Lord has been blessing my efforts.
We have been hard at work recording Josh's new comedy CD. He hasn't had a new one since 2008! The reason for this was that we could not duplicate the way that we did it before, and we could not find a new way to do it without shelling out piles of money on recording equipment. I finally figured out a way to record him, and we have been recording his material little by little in our concerts. We're just about done, and have only a few things that we want to get down left. A couple more concerts should do it! Be watching for his new release "Is He Doin' It Yet?"!
I've been gathering together some great songs for my upcoming new solo CD. I'm really looking foreword to this one! I've not recorded a new solo CD since spring 2009 because we released the video and instrumental CD so close together late 2009/spring 2010. I think that this will be the first CD that I will have more freedom in song selection and expressing myself in the arrangements.
I've also been hard at work on new piano solos. People who think that they know me and have heard everything that I can play may be surprised with the new direction I'll be taking in the arrangements!
These days we are encouraging people to sign up for our new e-mail program! This is a new thing that we have recently started to give people special notices about upcoming concerts, new CDs, our first ever Homecoming concert (still in the works, more on that soon!), and more! People who sign up will receive special updates from me about once a month. You have my word that I will not send you spam, forewords (I REALLY hate those!), or sell your e-mail to anyone. Send an e-mail to foresterministries@yahoo.com today, and say that you want to be included in this program!
If you haven't done so already, check us out on Facebook! Go to http://www.facebook.com/ and search "The Forester Brothers". Like us, and get updates and news there, as well as great new pics!
Of course, don't forget to check back here as well!
-Stephen
We have been hard at work recording Josh's new comedy CD. He hasn't had a new one since 2008! The reason for this was that we could not duplicate the way that we did it before, and we could not find a new way to do it without shelling out piles of money on recording equipment. I finally figured out a way to record him, and we have been recording his material little by little in our concerts. We're just about done, and have only a few things that we want to get down left. A couple more concerts should do it! Be watching for his new release "Is He Doin' It Yet?"!
I've been gathering together some great songs for my upcoming new solo CD. I'm really looking foreword to this one! I've not recorded a new solo CD since spring 2009 because we released the video and instrumental CD so close together late 2009/spring 2010. I think that this will be the first CD that I will have more freedom in song selection and expressing myself in the arrangements.
I've also been hard at work on new piano solos. People who think that they know me and have heard everything that I can play may be surprised with the new direction I'll be taking in the arrangements!
These days we are encouraging people to sign up for our new e-mail program! This is a new thing that we have recently started to give people special notices about upcoming concerts, new CDs, our first ever Homecoming concert (still in the works, more on that soon!), and more! People who sign up will receive special updates from me about once a month. You have my word that I will not send you spam, forewords (I REALLY hate those!), or sell your e-mail to anyone. Send an e-mail to foresterministries@yahoo.com today, and say that you want to be included in this program!
If you haven't done so already, check us out on Facebook! Go to http://www.facebook.com/ and search "The Forester Brothers". Like us, and get updates and news there, as well as great new pics!
Of course, don't forget to check back here as well!
-Stephen
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Recent meeting on 2-13-11, plus e-mail news!
Had another great meeting this morning.......but whew, this can get tiring! I wasn't able to get much sleep last night, so it was that much harder today!
Funny thing is that it seems like I usually do better in our meetings when I am at least a little on the tired side! I always pray a lot before going on, and when I'm tired, it's even easier to recognize how much I need God's help in what Josh and I do!
Great meeting, nice people, and (as in many of our churches), GREAT FOOD!
One other thing. We are now starting a special e-mail list. People in our concerts can sign up to receive special notices about upcoming new CDs, news about our first homecoming concert (as soon as we finish ironing out the details), and updates about other special happenings in our ministry.
If you have not seen us in concert lately, but would like to get on our list, send me a notice at foresterministries@yahoo.com letting me know that you want to get in on this. You have my solemn word that I will not send you spam, scams, junk mail of any kind or forewords (all of which I HATE getting!).
-Stephen
Funny thing is that it seems like I usually do better in our meetings when I am at least a little on the tired side! I always pray a lot before going on, and when I'm tired, it's even easier to recognize how much I need God's help in what Josh and I do!
Great meeting, nice people, and (as in many of our churches), GREAT FOOD!
One other thing. We are now starting a special e-mail list. People in our concerts can sign up to receive special notices about upcoming new CDs, news about our first homecoming concert (as soon as we finish ironing out the details), and updates about other special happenings in our ministry.
If you have not seen us in concert lately, but would like to get on our list, send me a notice at foresterministries@yahoo.com letting me know that you want to get in on this. You have my solemn word that I will not send you spam, scams, junk mail of any kind or forewords (all of which I HATE getting!).
-Stephen
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Update on parents health + ministry news
Good news! Both of our parents seem to be doing better in their health as of late!
Mom is still having some pain in her ear, but we are thankful that it apparently is NOT cancer, as one doctor had feared! The swelling that she has suffered through has gone down greatly ,and the severity of the pain is greatly reduced! (Though she does still suffer at times, so keep her in your prayers.
Dad seems more stable in his health lately. He has gone a decent length of time now with no attacks in his health from his Meniers problems, and is doing fairly well. He has had trouble with his one ear in the last couple of days, which is usually a sign that the sickness is going to return, but as of right now, his only problem has been another bout of hearing loss in that ear.
Josh and I are doing well in our meetings. God has been good, and has allowed me to book 13 new dates since I resumed booking work after the holidays on January 4th.
We sang for a great church this morning. They had an 8:30am service, which was a little bit of a bummer for us, since we had to be there at 7:30am, and had over an hour 1/2 drive! (plus getting up earlier for preparations!).
Service was great though, and we sang and preached for them again at 11:00am for their second morning service, which was also fantastic!
Keep watching our website for new dates being posted, and check us out on Facebook soon!
-Stephen
Mom is still having some pain in her ear, but we are thankful that it apparently is NOT cancer, as one doctor had feared! The swelling that she has suffered through has gone down greatly ,and the severity of the pain is greatly reduced! (Though she does still suffer at times, so keep her in your prayers.
Dad seems more stable in his health lately. He has gone a decent length of time now with no attacks in his health from his Meniers problems, and is doing fairly well. He has had trouble with his one ear in the last couple of days, which is usually a sign that the sickness is going to return, but as of right now, his only problem has been another bout of hearing loss in that ear.
Josh and I are doing well in our meetings. God has been good, and has allowed me to book 13 new dates since I resumed booking work after the holidays on January 4th.
We sang for a great church this morning. They had an 8:30am service, which was a little bit of a bummer for us, since we had to be there at 7:30am, and had over an hour 1/2 drive! (plus getting up earlier for preparations!).
Service was great though, and we sang and preached for them again at 11:00am for their second morning service, which was also fantastic!
Keep watching our website for new dates being posted, and check us out on Facebook soon!
-Stephen
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Both of our parents really need prayer.
If you've been following for any length of time, you know that our Dad has battled a number of health problems on and off for some time. He has had an inner ear infection that we thought was Vertigo, but turned out to be some form of Menieres disease (same thing, only recurring and nearly incurable). He also has some problems with his ear processing salt (your inner ear does that, in case you did not know). We still don't really know what's wrong with him, if it's just one of those problems or a combination of both, but he has been very sick, lost hearing in that ear, lost balance and equilibrium, and other problems. The good news is that his heart seems to have completely healed and is working well, plus his ear problems have not been quite as severe or long lasting as they come and go.
Mom, on the other hand, is really sick right now. Over the Christmas holidays, she began having some pain and swellings in her left side of the face, and is now in torturing pain. It was not diagnosed properly at first, but doctors are now calling it a "mass". Tests will be done in a little over a week to determine what it really is (and rule out the possibility of cancer, we hope).
Please pray for both of my parents, Glenn and Sue Forester.
-Stephen
If you've been following for any length of time, you know that our Dad has battled a number of health problems on and off for some time. He has had an inner ear infection that we thought was Vertigo, but turned out to be some form of Menieres disease (same thing, only recurring and nearly incurable). He also has some problems with his ear processing salt (your inner ear does that, in case you did not know). We still don't really know what's wrong with him, if it's just one of those problems or a combination of both, but he has been very sick, lost hearing in that ear, lost balance and equilibrium, and other problems. The good news is that his heart seems to have completely healed and is working well, plus his ear problems have not been quite as severe or long lasting as they come and go.
Mom, on the other hand, is really sick right now. Over the Christmas holidays, she began having some pain and swellings in her left side of the face, and is now in torturing pain. It was not diagnosed properly at first, but doctors are now calling it a "mass". Tests will be done in a little over a week to determine what it really is (and rule out the possibility of cancer, we hope).
Please pray for both of my parents, Glenn and Sue Forester.
-Stephen
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Family & Florida
For the first time in a while, I'm writing about bad news.
We have had to cancel our Florida tour/family vacation. This is due to our dad's health. In the last 48 hours, his health has taken a turn for the worse and his menieres disease has returned. He went deaf in his infected ear again, started staggering, losing his balance, vomiting, and was generally as sick as he was a few months ago.
The only encouraging thing at the moment is that, as of this writing, he is already getting a little better! In the past, his sickness would come and go capriciously, and when it came, it would usually go VERY slowly, so the fact that he is already a little better is good news!
However, He is in no condition to drive an enormous motor-home nearly 2,000 miles down to Florida, and even if he got well suddenly, there is still a possible chance of him getting incredibly sick down there.
This, of course, leaves us with all of February and March w/ no ministry bookings. I only accepted bookings for those months in Florida, and now have canceled those dates. If you are reading this and you are a pastor or person that books concerts, we are now wide open for February and March!
Please pray for our Dad. This is a very hard way for him to live. We are hoping that he will be relieved and be all right soon.
-Stephen
We have had to cancel our Florida tour/family vacation. This is due to our dad's health. In the last 48 hours, his health has taken a turn for the worse and his menieres disease has returned. He went deaf in his infected ear again, started staggering, losing his balance, vomiting, and was generally as sick as he was a few months ago.
The only encouraging thing at the moment is that, as of this writing, he is already getting a little better! In the past, his sickness would come and go capriciously, and when it came, it would usually go VERY slowly, so the fact that he is already a little better is good news!
However, He is in no condition to drive an enormous motor-home nearly 2,000 miles down to Florida, and even if he got well suddenly, there is still a possible chance of him getting incredibly sick down there.
This, of course, leaves us with all of February and March w/ no ministry bookings. I only accepted bookings for those months in Florida, and now have canceled those dates. If you are reading this and you are a pastor or person that books concerts, we are now wide open for February and March!
Please pray for our Dad. This is a very hard way for him to live. We are hoping that he will be relieved and be all right soon.
-Stephen
Saturday, January 1, 2011
2010 Year-In Review!
Wow, is it really 2011?......That's just not right! It seems like only yesterday we were all hopped up about 2010!
I'm sure many of you who read this will be making some fine New Year's resolutions. Some resolutions that you could make for God could include:
1. Lose xxx number of pounds. (God would like that!)
2. Read through your Bible this year.
3. Win more souls for Christ.
4. Stop going to Mark & Andrea Forester's Concerts! (Just kidding on that one.....maybe!)
5. (If you are a pastor) Book The Forester Brothers in your church this year!
Some great things that happened this year included:
1.We got to see many people saved. We don't know of an exact number, and there are always those who may accept Jesus and not tell us, but I do know of a couple of meetings this in particular where people told us. In February, I sang in the morning for a baptist church and preached, and two or three kids came foreword to pray for their salvation.
We also sang for a revival in May, doing both the music and kid's show material, and know of at least one that trusted Christ in the kid's programs!
And then, there is Riverwalk Baptist Church, where we have gone three years in a row to entertain in their family carnival event, and give the audience the gospel four times. God richly blessed there, and we saw a large number of kids and adults trust Christ as their Saviour!
2. Our parents health improved!
We had a number of scary health-related events happen in our family in 2009 and 2010. Some things that Mom and Dad have suffered through between them include: Shingles; severe ear infections that caused hospitalizations, and led to the discovery that Dad could no longer process salt very well (hello low-sodium diets!); a herniated back disk; heart troubles; and many other problems related to the ones already mentioned.
But, by late 2010, these problems seemed to have cleared up well! Dad is not completely out of the woods in some things , and mom has been dealing with a mysterious swelling infection on the left side of her face for a few days and could use prayer. However, we are glad that God has helped us through some pretty dark and difficult days, and made us stronger through them!
3. We released our first instrumental CD.
It turned out beautifully, has been selling well, and the songs have been getting great reactions in concert!
4. We returned to the Charles Novell School of Music.
For the first time since 2007, Josh and I returned to this wonderful week-long school event to hone our skills and learn many new things in gospel music and ministry. We had a wonderful time, learned new things in piano, theory, performance, and stuff from other classes offered as well. We also reconnected with old friends and made new ones!
5. Our number of concert dates went up.
In 2009, we sang for 52 different dates. In 2010, it went up to 63.....and that's with several cancellations, and having a limited amount of time to pursue booking due to college work! By God's grace, we hope to double that number next year!
6. We joined the MGMA.
The Michigan Gospel Music Association is a great place for gospel singers to get together and share good times, laugh, and put on concerts together to promote gospel music and each other's ministries. We joined them in November this year, and made it in by unanimous vote! We hope to do more to help them in their work in 2011.
7. We finished college!
There were times this year when I was not sure if I could make it through certain struggles (the main one being Algebra, Latin word for "Voodoo"!), but we managed to pass all of our classes, and worked things out so that we would not have to come back for more school in January. We just have to go back in May to get ordained, and get our double degrees in Bible and Music!
8. We are now on Facebook!
It is now easier than ever to stay up to date with what we are doing in ministry. Our Facebook ministry page is linked to our website. Go to our home page, click on the Facebook logo, and you can instantly see all of our latest news with exclusive pictures from our lives and recent concerts!
Be sure that you check our website, blog, and Facebook pages often!
We have a lot of big plans for 2011, and will be posting the latest happenings at these places. Between the three, you can: See our concert schedule (which receives new additions often), buy our new CDs, see new pictures, read our latest concert news, updates, 2011 ministry goals, and prayer requests! (Whew! That was a lot!)
God's been good! He's treated us better than we deserve! We can hardly wait to get this new year underway!
-Stephen
I'm sure many of you who read this will be making some fine New Year's resolutions. Some resolutions that you could make for God could include:
1. Lose xxx number of pounds. (God would like that!)
2. Read through your Bible this year.
3. Win more souls for Christ.
4. Stop going to Mark & Andrea Forester's Concerts! (Just kidding on that one.....maybe!)
5. (If you are a pastor) Book The Forester Brothers in your church this year!
Some great things that happened this year included:
1.We got to see many people saved. We don't know of an exact number, and there are always those who may accept Jesus and not tell us, but I do know of a couple of meetings this in particular where people told us. In February, I sang in the morning for a baptist church and preached, and two or three kids came foreword to pray for their salvation.
We also sang for a revival in May, doing both the music and kid's show material, and know of at least one that trusted Christ in the kid's programs!
And then, there is Riverwalk Baptist Church, where we have gone three years in a row to entertain in their family carnival event, and give the audience the gospel four times. God richly blessed there, and we saw a large number of kids and adults trust Christ as their Saviour!
2. Our parents health improved!
We had a number of scary health-related events happen in our family in 2009 and 2010. Some things that Mom and Dad have suffered through between them include: Shingles; severe ear infections that caused hospitalizations, and led to the discovery that Dad could no longer process salt very well (hello low-sodium diets!); a herniated back disk; heart troubles; and many other problems related to the ones already mentioned.
But, by late 2010, these problems seemed to have cleared up well! Dad is not completely out of the woods in some things , and mom has been dealing with a mysterious swelling infection on the left side of her face for a few days and could use prayer. However, we are glad that God has helped us through some pretty dark and difficult days, and made us stronger through them!
3. We released our first instrumental CD.
It turned out beautifully, has been selling well, and the songs have been getting great reactions in concert!
4. We returned to the Charles Novell School of Music.
For the first time since 2007, Josh and I returned to this wonderful week-long school event to hone our skills and learn many new things in gospel music and ministry. We had a wonderful time, learned new things in piano, theory, performance, and stuff from other classes offered as well. We also reconnected with old friends and made new ones!
5. Our number of concert dates went up.
In 2009, we sang for 52 different dates. In 2010, it went up to 63.....and that's with several cancellations, and having a limited amount of time to pursue booking due to college work! By God's grace, we hope to double that number next year!
6. We joined the MGMA.
The Michigan Gospel Music Association is a great place for gospel singers to get together and share good times, laugh, and put on concerts together to promote gospel music and each other's ministries. We joined them in November this year, and made it in by unanimous vote! We hope to do more to help them in their work in 2011.
7. We finished college!
There were times this year when I was not sure if I could make it through certain struggles (the main one being Algebra, Latin word for "Voodoo"!), but we managed to pass all of our classes, and worked things out so that we would not have to come back for more school in January. We just have to go back in May to get ordained, and get our double degrees in Bible and Music!
8. We are now on Facebook!
It is now easier than ever to stay up to date with what we are doing in ministry. Our Facebook ministry page is linked to our website. Go to our home page, click on the Facebook logo, and you can instantly see all of our latest news with exclusive pictures from our lives and recent concerts!
Be sure that you check our website, blog, and Facebook pages often!
We have a lot of big plans for 2011, and will be posting the latest happenings at these places. Between the three, you can: See our concert schedule (which receives new additions often), buy our new CDs, see new pictures, read our latest concert news, updates, 2011 ministry goals, and prayer requests! (Whew! That was a lot!)
God's been good! He's treated us better than we deserve! We can hardly wait to get this new year underway!
-Stephen
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