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.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
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
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
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Well, here's the second blog that I've written in the same week, so I guess I'm starting to get better at keeping this thing up to date! Josh and I will be singing in that different type of concert tomorrow that I mentioned in my last blog, so this afternoon I will be laying down some serious guitar practice time to make sure that I'm ready!
I'm continuing to put in a lot of time calling churches and booking new concert dates, and the Lord has blessed us with a good number of new dates recently, including several more that I have not even added to our website yet (since we now have a page on the website for our schedule instead of using a blog), but right now I've got to get off line 'cause the choir class is about to start and they hold it in the same room where the college computers are!
Stephen
I'm continuing to put in a lot of time calling churches and booking new concert dates, and the Lord has blessed us with a good number of new dates recently, including several more that I have not even added to our website yet (since we now have a page on the website for our schedule instead of using a blog), but right now I've got to get off line 'cause the choir class is about to start and they hold it in the same room where the college computers are!
Stephen
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Hey everyone, by now, If you've been on our website in the last few days, you've probably noticed that some things have changed on our website. We have at long last gotten it changed so that we can at last update it ourselves. Our brother and ally in the ministry Mark Forester spent around ten hours designing a new one that would allow us to keep our old web name and at the same time be able to update it ourselves. I think it turned out great, and we'd like to salute and thank our brother for the amazing work that he did!
I'm going to try to keep this blog as fresh as i can by updating it at college, so hopefully when you check our blog for news there will be more fresh stuff to read about in the future.
Next week we will be doing an unusual type of concert compared to what we are used to doing. We will be doing a special concert at a local restaurant for a church business meeting using only my guitar. Usually we bring in our own sound system with microphones, keyboard, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, ocarina, soundtracks and some props for Josh's comedy. But this time we will be entertaining a small group of people with nothing but my guitar and Josh's personality! The pastor wants to use us again at a later date as well, but this should be a unique experience for us. Oh well, I always look forward to any chance that I get to sing and share the good news of the gospel.
Stephen
I'm going to try to keep this blog as fresh as i can by updating it at college, so hopefully when you check our blog for news there will be more fresh stuff to read about in the future.
Next week we will be doing an unusual type of concert compared to what we are used to doing. We will be doing a special concert at a local restaurant for a church business meeting using only my guitar. Usually we bring in our own sound system with microphones, keyboard, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, ocarina, soundtracks and some props for Josh's comedy. But this time we will be entertaining a small group of people with nothing but my guitar and Josh's personality! The pastor wants to use us again at a later date as well, but this should be a unique experience for us. Oh well, I always look forward to any chance that I get to sing and share the good news of the gospel.
Stephen
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Happy New Year! + news
Well, it's 2010 (or at least that's the current rumor going around!) and I must say that I couldn't be more excited about what 2010 will hold for our ministry. I fell a bit behind in my booking work because college (with class time, homework, assignments, and special events) chewed up much of my time in the latter part of the year. As a result, the cupboards seemed a little bare for our schedule at first. But things are quickly turning around. This week the Lord blessed us by allowing me to book five new concert dates, with more people who said that they wanted to have us in, but had to arrange their church schedules first. I just posted our new schedule, and as of this writing we have 17 dates booked.
2009 was a year of many happenings for our ministry and our family. In April, we made Dixie Baptist Church our new home church after almost 7 months of searching and asking God for guidance on a new home for our spiritual food when we are not on the road. It was just a little while after this that our Dad's heart problems were at last healed by God's grace. Not long after this we finished our spring semester at Midwestern Baptist College and hit the road running with lots of new dates. Shortly into May was when our Dad was sick again, this time with a mysterious illness that left the doctors confused. They thought first that it was Vertigo, then Miniers disease (which is incurable), but at last a doctor relative of ours seemed to find the problem and treat him properly. Dad had suffered for several months before he was at last relieved, and had three great months of health before suffering a bit of a relapse a few days ago.
As if the Devil hadn't hounded us enough, Mom soon developed Shingles after Dad's health had gotten better! This seems to have attacked a disk in her back and caused it to herniate, which she has had to be treated for.
But 2009 was not all bad. We had some great times with our family, settled in a great new church, and our ministry continued to grow. I recorded my second solo project that I feel turned out even better than the first, and Josh and I got to sing on local cable television in Hudsonville, Mi. The film turned out so good that the television station gave us a copy of the film with permission to edit it for sale as a DVD! We also recorded our first instrumental project together called "Instrumental Classics", which we will be releasing in the spring. I feel that we also grew closer to the Lord this year, and He allowed that to enhance our abilities to communicate with, and minister to, our audiences. I even began preaching, which is something that I swore I would never do before the spring of '09, when I finally surrendered to God's call for it.
In many ways, 2009 was an eventful year. It was both wonderful and rough, but like the song says ".....and though I've had my share of hard times, I wouldn't change them if I could. 'Cause through it all, God's been good!"
We look forward to a blessed 2010, and we hope that you readers will share it with us by coming to see us in concert. Visit our website at http://www.foresterministries.com/ to see our schedule and buy our product. our newest CDs/DVDs are still not up for sale right now, but you can order all of our product from us at any time by calling (810) 653-0089 and asking for Stephen, or e-mail us at foresterministries@yahoo.com.
Hope everyone has a great year,
Stephen
2009 was a year of many happenings for our ministry and our family. In April, we made Dixie Baptist Church our new home church after almost 7 months of searching and asking God for guidance on a new home for our spiritual food when we are not on the road. It was just a little while after this that our Dad's heart problems were at last healed by God's grace. Not long after this we finished our spring semester at Midwestern Baptist College and hit the road running with lots of new dates. Shortly into May was when our Dad was sick again, this time with a mysterious illness that left the doctors confused. They thought first that it was Vertigo, then Miniers disease (which is incurable), but at last a doctor relative of ours seemed to find the problem and treat him properly. Dad had suffered for several months before he was at last relieved, and had three great months of health before suffering a bit of a relapse a few days ago.
As if the Devil hadn't hounded us enough, Mom soon developed Shingles after Dad's health had gotten better! This seems to have attacked a disk in her back and caused it to herniate, which she has had to be treated for.
But 2009 was not all bad. We had some great times with our family, settled in a great new church, and our ministry continued to grow. I recorded my second solo project that I feel turned out even better than the first, and Josh and I got to sing on local cable television in Hudsonville, Mi. The film turned out so good that the television station gave us a copy of the film with permission to edit it for sale as a DVD! We also recorded our first instrumental project together called "Instrumental Classics", which we will be releasing in the spring. I feel that we also grew closer to the Lord this year, and He allowed that to enhance our abilities to communicate with, and minister to, our audiences. I even began preaching, which is something that I swore I would never do before the spring of '09, when I finally surrendered to God's call for it.
In many ways, 2009 was an eventful year. It was both wonderful and rough, but like the song says ".....and though I've had my share of hard times, I wouldn't change them if I could. 'Cause through it all, God's been good!"
We look forward to a blessed 2010, and we hope that you readers will share it with us by coming to see us in concert. Visit our website at http://www.foresterministries.com/ to see our schedule and buy our product. our newest CDs/DVDs are still not up for sale right now, but you can order all of our product from us at any time by calling (810) 653-0089 and asking for Stephen, or e-mail us at foresterministries@yahoo.com.
Hope everyone has a great year,
Stephen
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