evanforester.com

Thanks for coming back! Have you subscribed to the feed yet? Do so by Clicking here. ----------------------------------------------

Today is day number 3 of video week. This video is the sermon I taught on Sunday for TrueNorth, our High School Ministry. I taught on the mission God has called us too and our choice in playing a role in His mission. I was a little short on time, so there were some details I wish I could have embellished on, but overall I thought God really gave me some good things to say to the students. I’m don’t think I am the best speaker in the world, but I hope you enjoy it.

Share on Facebook

All last week I was on a cruise to the Western Caribbean with my awesome wife Morgan and her family. We had an amazing time hanging out together with lots of great weather and saw some really cool things (such as the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich and the Coral Reefs at Tabyana Beach). I noticed a few things while on this cruise, however, that are worth noting.

1) There is an inverse relation to the number of days the cruise has lasted and the number of people in the fitness room: On the first day at sea, you could barely move without bumping into someone and there was no escaping the B.O. smell. By the final day of the cruise, everyone was so loaded down with endless buffets that the workout room was entirely neglected. Not necessarily by choice, but simply because once someone sat down, they were incapable of standing again.

2) People go crazy over beads: One night they had a party on the pool deck and the staff was throwing out beads for more than an hour. People were jumping up and down screaming for beads the entire time. Just to be clear, these beads were plastic and not special in any way, but something about beads demands our attention.

3) People are addicted to the internet. It is an epidemic. On the last day of our cruise, the internet cafe (called the Fun Hub) was packed with people checking facebook. The internet cost $20 for 1 hour, and they couldn’t even make it one more day! I myself refused to even touch it (thus the lack of a blog post in almost 2 weeks), but part of the reason may be the lack of $20.

4) Speaking of $20, I have decided that all-inclusive does not describe cruises. The food is included, the lemonade is included, and the cool towel animals are included, but other than that you need to have your wallet ready. They constantly push shopping (lots of great deals!), they “conveniently” took $140 to tip everyone out of my account, and they charge out the wazoo for excursions. Of course, you know all this at the beginning of the trip, but I am cheap!

5) The Karaoke gatherings are worse than American Idol auditions: People on cruises tend to think that karaoke is the place for them to display their long hidden talent to the world. Unfortunately, they must have hid their talent so well that they themselves lost it. I myself sang Ain’t no Mountain High Enough with Morgan, but at least we knew we were terrible singers. We don’t have a lot of talent, but we’ve got a lot of heart baby!

6) It is so good to relax: We live in a constantly moving culture filled with noise. It was so nice to just sit on top of the boat at night and listen to the wind and the waves or hang out on a beach with no particular goals. I am not very good at relaxing, but it is definitely a valuable and important thing to recharge and I was able to have a great time taking it easy with Morgan, her family, and the Lord.

Share on Facebook

I graduated college more than a year ago now and have learned a thing or two since. For instance, there are certain things you can get away with in college, things that are even glorified on a University Campus, that would simply be a terrible idea now.

Skipping Class: During my sophomore year, I skipped two classes for over 3 straight months and only attended their labs. I studied outside of class and managed to get one A and one B. If I tried to skip work now I could maybe get away with it for a day or two (although it would require lying), but after that I would simply be going on permanent vacation.

All-Nighters: Staying up all night in college is one of the most popular things to do. Many students choose to stay up all night to finish studying or writing a paper. Some of the more refined students choose to stay up all night for Lord of the Rings marathons. The beauty of College is you can go an entire night without sleep and somehow manage to get to class the next day. If I tried to pull an all-nighter now I wouldn’t last 12 seconds at work, and that is supposing I even made it there awake.

Dress like its the Eighties: This was a pretty popular date night in college. If I asked Morgan on a date and walked into the living room dressed like one of these goobers, she would call me crazy and would not walk out the door. I speak from similar experiences.

Asking My Parents for Money: I was not a huge moocher in college. Most of the money I spent on “fun” was from summer jobs. My awesome parents did take care of rent and food for me, which was huge and therefore I never wanted to ask them for more than that. Occasionally, however, I needed gas to get back to school and it was not a humungous deal when I asked. If I told them I did not have gas money now they would either think I am financially incompetent or that I decided to try and skip 3 straight months of work and it backfired.

Eat Trash: My freshmen year of college I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and I think I lost weight. While I still have trouble gaining weight (good thing that will go away shortly too) if I eat trash my stomach will feel like a tornado’s aftermath for days.

Dress like trash: I wore a dress shirt once a week in college: when I went to church. I started dating Morgan and this number increased in direct relation to the number of “nice” dates we went on. One day after dinner at a dining hall, my roommate dubbed me the garbage man because my shirt was stained, my shorts had holes in them, and I was wearing flip flops with socks. I just thought it was comfortable, but apparently it looked like I crawled out of a garbage can. If I dressed for comfort today I would be frowned upon because of a lack of “professionalism.”

You people are all smarter than me, so does anyone else have some good things you could do in college, but would be a bad idea now?

Share on Facebook

Today was a great day for me. I checked off an item on the Old Bucket List. I am a huge Braves fan, and I always have been. They now sell tickets to go onto the field for batting practice where you stand behind home plate and watch the players hit. Normally it’s about $50-$60, but thanks to a ticket package I bought Morgan and I got to go for free.

I must admit, it was fairly awkward standing around watching the players practice. A group of us stood there taking pictures of men working. It made me wonder what it would be like for a group of people to stand and take pictures of me while I video edit or some fans to watch Morgan teach from the back of the classroom. But, despite the awkwardness, I still thought it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

Now, even though we were on the field, we were restricted from being on the grass. But that didn’t stop me from checking another item off the bucket list: touching the grass at Turner Field!

I also got a few autographs which was cool, my favorite was Martin Prado. All in all it was a very fun day with my lovely wife. Not only did I get to be on Turner Field, but the Braves won the game and I had great company the whole time. We had great weather too, which was amazing considering it was July.

Go Braves!

Share on Facebook

A few months ago I posted a couple of testimony videos that I have been working on for Grace. Well I am still making them for our website and I wanted to post some cool new ones.

The first is from Mark Messler. I like his because even though he is a lawyer (and a good one) he still says the most important thing he does is youth ministry. This video explains it all…

This second video is from Joe Pinson. He did a great job because he had no prep time. He just happened to be at the church and I had an opening so I asked him if he wanted to do his testimony and he nailed it. Pretty cool. His story is powerful too…

If you want to see the whole collection it is here: http://vimeo.com/channels/109997
I will be adding some more as I finish editing them.

Share on Facebook

Imagine you have been saving up for years to go to Europe. You finally make the trip and spend a day in Zurich, Germany. You have heard that the financial district has some cool buildings and decide to check it out. While walking around you turn the corner to see…..

An Elephant on the loose!

It seems as if the circus is having more and more trouble keeping their animals at bay. A few months ago, a zebra escaped in Atlanta and ran around on the interstate causing traffic for miles (read here). Now the land of chocolate has fallen prey to a crazy elephant who decided peanuts were no longer good enough as a paycheck. No word yet if she is part of a union.

Rumor has it that someone could hear the following song being sung, “I’ve seen just about everything, but I ain’t never seen an elephant fly,” but no one could identify the singer.

Share on Facebook

Morgan and I went to the World of Coca-Cola today (more on that in later posts), but if you have ever been there you know the best part is the room where you can sample all of the drinks from around the world. I took it upon myself to create a “Suicide” with all of the sodas from Europe. Here is the video of it:

Share on Facebook

Here are a few videos I have come across that are worth watching:

1) The Muppets + Lost = Amazing

2) In light of recent celebrity exploits (Read previous post here) it is nice to see a young one who is at least a good guy:

Here’s an oldie that I will never grow tired of:

And from Tripp and Tyler, High Five Etiquette:

Share on Facebook

I am beginning to realize more and more memorable things are not usually easy. For instance, I can make a cheap, funny video in about 90 seconds, but it won’t be truly memorable unless I take the time to do lighting, mic everyone, stage it properly, and edit well.

Life is like that too. There are so many times where I am tempted to just lay on the couch instead of going out and doing something exciting. Yes, laying on the couch can be nice, but it is not memorable at all. When I look back on life, I want to have some good memories! But being memorable is hard. You have to think of something to do, you may have to spend money, you may have to get tired, and you will definitely have to get off the couch.

In my experience, however, it is always worth it to get off the couch. Those times when I followed a whim and went out and played frisbee or played in the rain or went for a drive were some of the most fun things I have ever done. Every week Morgan and I try and go on a date, but sometimes we consider having our date being just a movie night in. These are OK, and sometimes we need that, but for the most part we have both agreed that it is important for us to go out and do something. Even if that something ends up being lame, it is more memorable than another night in front of a tv screen.

I think it is helpful to come up with memorable ideas. That way, you’ll be ready when the moment arrises.

- Strawberry Picking- We just did this the other week. It was a lot of fun, we picked 2 gallons of berries. Funny how we are now paying to do things that other people did to survive 100 years ago.

- Whiffle Ball- Easily one of the best games of our youth, whiffle ball still holds true. Call up 65-7 other people and make it happen. Throw in a cookout and you have one of the best days of your life.

- Playing in the rain- This can’t be beat when it comes to being memorable. Every time it rains I think how annoying it will be to get wet, but when I start hitting mudslides I realize how wrong I really was.

- Go downtown- I live in the Atlanta area. Only problem is, it takes 40 minutes to get to Atlanta. However there are plenty of memorable things down there: Aquarium, Centennial Olympic Park, unique restaurants, and of course the Braves.

- Make a video- Get some people together and make a funny video. It is quite enjoyable.

- Go Hiking- The outdoors are awesome.

- Disney World- This has been a long time goal of mine. Drive all night to Orlando, sleep a few hours in a Wal-Mart parking lot, spend the day at Disney, sleep a few more hours in Wal-Mart, and drive home. Crazy? Yes. Memorable? Without a doubt. The journey is half the adventure.

I need comments here. What are some other memorable ideas people have out there?

Share on Facebook

Hey everyone, we are releasing our newest sketch comedy video and this is our best yet. If you enjoy it, please share it with everyone you know! It’s pretty funny (I think) and a good commentary on how serious some people can take facebook. Hope you enjoy…

Special thanks to everyone involved in this project!

Share on Facebook