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
Thursday, December 31, 2009
HappyNewYearAndWhateverElseInTheWorldYouFeelLikeSayingInOneBreath!
Hey, everybody! Just thought I'd wish you all a Happy New Year and ask that one question that everybody has on their mind: what do penguins dream about? Come on, you know you want to know! No? Oh well, Ask a silly question... man, I wish I knew how the rest of that went... Anyway, this afternoon we're headed to Grand Rapids to arrive early at our New Year's Eve concert so we can set up before everybody else gets there. It's us and three other groups tonight, so we want to get our stuff set up before the others get there and we all get in a crowded rush.
Well, the instrumental CD that I and my brother recently finished is being mastered and having the fine-tuning done to it, and we're looking to release it sometime next spring. And if you think that's good news, wait'll you hear this: I have officially lost the last of my baby teeth! Hurray! (Does that mean I have to grow up now?)
Check out our website, http://www.foresterministries.com/ to see our latest whatever!
-Joshua
Well, the instrumental CD that I and my brother recently finished is being mastered and having the fine-tuning done to it, and we're looking to release it sometime next spring. And if you think that's good news, wait'll you hear this: I have officially lost the last of my baby teeth! Hurray! (Does that mean I have to grow up now?)
Check out our website, http://www.foresterministries.com/ to see our latest whatever!
-Joshua
Monday, December 28, 2009
Apologies......and new CD info
I feel like I aught to apologize (again!) for going over a month with no blog updates and news, but I've run out of lies that I can use as excuses! Josh and I had a terrible time recently finding the moments needed to keep our readers updated while we were in college this last semester. And it seemed that when we did have some free time, we would either forget or would remember something more pressing at that moment that needed doing. The holidays haven't been much better because our mother has been very sick with Shingles and a herniated disk in her back that came about from complications with the disease. Since she was in a lot of pain and had almost no energy, Josh and I had to step up to the plate and clean the house and do all of those homey chores that most of us only do around Thanksgiving and Christmas so she could focus what little strength she had on cooking.
But I'm hoping that I have found a way to fix this problem when we start school again next semester. I will be taking day classes, and also night classes on one night during the week as I have during my previous semesters. During these days with day and night college, I usually have a lot of free space in the afternoon, so I'm going to start doing my updates from the college library computer (which is what I should have been doing all along!). This should hopefully help to keep our news fresh and interesting.
Anyway, we've had a great year. We sang at a few more meetings sing our last update, and they all went very well. We will be singing over near Kalamazoo, Mi. for New Year's Eve this year, and we are anticipating a great night. Check our schedule page at www.foresterministries.com for more info.
Speaking of our schedule, I will be putting up our 2010 schedule in the next day or two so everyone can see where we will be singing in the coming year. We still have quite a few openings right now since I've had a hard time actively pursuing new bookings with our time constraints lately. I will be working to correct this very soon during my time off from college and whenever I can get a free minute, but this also means that the lines are open if anyone wants to give us a call!
Lastly, Josh and I are pleased to announce a new addition to the family.......NO, we are NOT expecting a baby, but our new instrumental CD has just been finished! We just wrapped up recording it in the studio today, and it really sounds AWESOME! It features a collection of great old hymns and gospel songs that are easily recognized to most people done in Forester Bros. styles! Some of the songs are simply piano solos while others are recorded with a full band sound backing them up. It will now be going in for mixing, mastering, artwork, and finally be released sometime in either February or March. We'll keep you updated.
Have a happy New Year!
Stephen Forester
But I'm hoping that I have found a way to fix this problem when we start school again next semester. I will be taking day classes, and also night classes on one night during the week as I have during my previous semesters. During these days with day and night college, I usually have a lot of free space in the afternoon, so I'm going to start doing my updates from the college library computer (which is what I should have been doing all along!). This should hopefully help to keep our news fresh and interesting.
Anyway, we've had a great year. We sang at a few more meetings sing our last update, and they all went very well. We will be singing over near Kalamazoo, Mi. for New Year's Eve this year, and we are anticipating a great night. Check our schedule page at www.foresterministries.com for more info.
Speaking of our schedule, I will be putting up our 2010 schedule in the next day or two so everyone can see where we will be singing in the coming year. We still have quite a few openings right now since I've had a hard time actively pursuing new bookings with our time constraints lately. I will be working to correct this very soon during my time off from college and whenever I can get a free minute, but this also means that the lines are open if anyone wants to give us a call!
Lastly, Josh and I are pleased to announce a new addition to the family.......NO, we are NOT expecting a baby, but our new instrumental CD has just been finished! We just wrapped up recording it in the studio today, and it really sounds AWESOME! It features a collection of great old hymns and gospel songs that are easily recognized to most people done in Forester Bros. styles! Some of the songs are simply piano solos while others are recorded with a full band sound backing them up. It will now be going in for mixing, mastering, artwork, and finally be released sometime in either February or March. We'll keep you updated.
Have a happy New Year!
Stephen Forester
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