Birth Of A Recording Studio

I've been working on an area of ministry that is a somewhat new to me this week. I have been recording my own soundtracks for a special concert that we are doing in March. On March 28th, we are hosting a special gospel music concert at our college, Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, MI. It will be a special night featuring quite a few students with great musical talent. We will be doing some songs with soundtracks and some with live instruments, and I'm recording the tracks at home, playing most (or on some songs all) of the instruments. Josh will be lending a big helping hand to the evening by co-hosting the event with me, playing most of the live piano (which is much better than DEAD piano!), and doing his signature stand-up comedy. I organized a men's quartet, which we dubbed the "Abiding Grace" quartet, and will be singing tenor. This a bit unusual for me, since in the college choir I usually sing bass! We've done this once before, so I'm confident that it will be great.
There will be a number of other students performing as well, with some absolutely great voices being featured as well as some instrumental solos. This is to be a student body event to raise money for our student body fund, which is used to make improvements at the college for the student's benefit and in some cases, perhaps even help with tuition. There will be no admission charge, but we will be taking a freewill offering and selling refreshments to raise support. If you are in the area we would love for you to come out to see us. In the meantime, I will be working frantically to get the recording done and practicing with the performing students at the college.
To all those who read Josh's last blog and may have been confused....No, Josh did not rob that bank. He did consider it, and he even tried to get me in on it. But I managed to change his mind by dragging him into a dark room and beating him until he lost consciousness! Once the bleeding stopped and both of his hips had popped back out of his collar bone, he saw that I was right.
Nothing like brotherly love! It's hard to believe that we were born in Philadelphia!


Have a nice day, and remember to "Love thy neighbor"!

Stephen Forester

I Wanna Rob A Bank

I went into the bank today and saw this whole wall of security cameras...... did you ever get the feeling you were being watched? I got to thinking: I would love to go into a bank with a ski mask on. Then, just when the people start to panic, take off the mask and say: "Whoo, is it cold outside!" Before I took the mask off, though, I'd like to walk up to a teller and say, "I'd like to make a withdrawal, please."
Okay, that would definitely get me arrested, but it would be fun if I could get away with it. I could just see the faces of those angry cops though. "You were what?....A joke?.... Whatever, watch your head gettin' into the car."

Don't forget to check us out at www.foresterministries.com to see our CDs and future bookings. We're still accepting dates for 2009. But sorry, we can't fit in anymore dates for 2008....

-Joshua

Riddle me this: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Answer: He'd cut a cord of Cedar, if you gave him a quarter for every cord that he cut.

You are probably thinking "What on Earth does that have to do with your ministry?" The answer is .....absolutely nothing, I just thought that you might get a blessing out of an old, stupid tongue twister with an ending that you may not have heard before!

Wow! Your right, that was dumb. Anyway, Josh and I are very excited about this new year already. We have already logged more dates in the book for the year than we did for all of 2008!
The newest dates should be posted soon, with more on the way shortly.
Our big brother Mark and his wife Andrea have hit the road for Florida. They will be down there 'till about the third week of April, and we wish them a happy,safe, rewarding trip (Although Mom's so jealous that she's thinking of burning down his house in Michigan).
When he returns in April, Josh and I will hopefully begin work on our new CDs as quickly as possible. We'd like to get them out by sometime in the late spring/early summer time.

Our services on Jan. 25th went well. We were at Victory Baptist Church for Sunday school and their morning service. They were an excellent crowd! They laughed at pretty much everything that we said, and they seemed to enjoy the music and message.
That night we traveled with our college choir to Grace Baptist Church in Coeman, Mi. for a revival that they were hosting that week. You can read Josh's last blog for some funny stuff on that.
This coming Sunday we will be in Brown City,Mi. in the morning, and traveling with the choir again that afternoon for Tri-City Baptist church in Saginaw that night.
The Lord's been so good to us already this year, and we are eagerly anticipating what He has for us in the future for our ministry.


In Christ,
Stephen Forester

p.s. My birthday is this Saturday.........Just thought you'd like to know!

College Choir Blues

Well, yesterday my brother and I did a meeting Sunday morning, then went to sing with our college choir that Sunday evening. The catch: our director was not with us. Where is she? Well, while we're here turning ourselves into human ice sculptures, she's on vacation in Cancun. A part of me wants to ask God to send a hurricane to Cancun out of jealousy, but that would not be the Christian thing to do. Anyway, we had to do a concert without a director.....that's like leaving a blind person without their seeing-eye dog! Anyway, we got to the concert and saw that there was an evangelist there who used to be my pastor! When he got up to preach, he admitted that the tie we gave him when we were little was atrociously hideous! I didn't cry....... but I wanted to.

Anyway, we hope that you will see us in concert near you. To find out all about us, check out our website, www.foresterministries.com, where you can see our info, check our upcoming concert dates, and purchase our CDs! Thanks for viewing!

-Joshua

Fear Not.... I Live

I apologize for not making any recent posts, but things have been busy with the holidays, the new year, and going back to college..... yes, they took me back! Anyway, Happy New Year!

Well, something interesting that's happened.... something interesting.... something.... I may need a new toaster! Okay, I'll testify of my own stupidity. This past Saturday, my two nephews were spending the weekend with us and we took them sledding on what my parents affectionately call Dead Man's Hill. (It makes black diamond hills look like they're for Pebbles Flinstone) Anyway, I like to go down on my back (with a sled) because I go faster. Unfortunately, I hit a bump and the edge of the sled came up under my shoulder blade and.......... injured me. This is where the dumb part comes in. My nephews and I found a back path that had two ramps on it for sledding. Did I sit on the sidelines like an intelligent idiot? No. I went down a couple of times and was fine. It was the time I went down again on my back that I decided I'd rather have a hernia. To make matters worse, we received a Wii for Christmas (I hope there is at least one jealous reader). Did I refrain from playing boxing and baseball like a smart peanut? No. Now I'd rather give birth.

As far as our ministry goes, we have received several new bookings and we are eagerly looking forward through the new year to see what God will do with us in 2009. We still have empty dates that we would be glad to fill, so stop by our website at www.foresterministries.com and take a look at us!

-Joshua

Merry Christmas!

This week my brother and I are finding up the last week of our first semester at Midwestern Baptist College. We've made a lot of new friends there and are planning to return again next semester. We've enjoyed it all immensely and we believe that this is where the Lord wants us to be.
Last Tuesday night, I had an interesting experience: I had to preach for the first time in front of my class. THAT'S what you call in need of a sedative! Anyway, matters were made worse by the fact that somebody else preached on my very same topic! He preached on forgiveness just as I had planned to do, though at the moment forgiveness was then the FURTHEST thing from my mind! (I wanted to kill him.....in Christian love, of course) Luckily I had two sermons so everything was okay.

Don't forget, stop by http://www.foresterministries.com/ and check out our website! Merry Christmas to all! And to all, a jubilous St. Patrick's day!

-Joshua

Weird Country Names

Have you ever stopped and thought about some of the names that belong to countries? Try using some of these weird ones in a sentence: "Oh, I think I'm coming down with Bulgaria!" "I'm sorry, but you'll just have to Kuwait. I'm making Madagascar-and-cheese right now." "Iran, you ran, he ran, she, we, they ran."..... Sorry, my dain bramage came out a little there.

Don't forget to check us out on the web at www.foresterministries.com for CDs, booking info, and our schedule! We are accepting dates (concert times) for 2009 (cause 2020 is too far away right now).

-Joshua