diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 1f333fc..927e2da 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -11,4 +11,4 @@ install:
   - go get -v "github.com/op/go-logging"
 
 script:
-  - go test -run="TestJustToTest"
+  - go test
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c706a9d..d7c4f9e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 [![Go 1.4 Ready](https://img.shields.io/badge/Go%201.4-Ready-green.svg?style=flat)]()
 [![Go 1.5 Ready](https://img.shields.io/badge/Go%201.5-Ready-green.svg?style=flat)]()
 
-##FreeSWITCH Event Socket Library Wrapper for Go
+## FreeSWITCH Event Socket Library Wrapper for Go
 
 GoESL is a small wrapper around [FreeSWITCH](https://freeswitch.org/) [Event Socket Library](https://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/Event_Socket_Library) written in [Go](http://golang.org).
 
diff --git a/logger.go b/logger.go
index 345607a..b5e3113 100644
--- a/logger.go
+++ b/logger.go
@@ -21,10 +21,14 @@ var (
 	format = logging.MustStringFormatter(
 		"%{color}%{time:15:04:05.000} %{shortfunc} ▶ %{level:.8s}%{color:reset} %{message}",
 	)
+
+	ShouldOutputDebugMessages = true
 )
 
 func Debug(message string, args ...interface{}) {
-	log.Debugf(message, args...)
+	if ShouldOutputDebugMessages {
+		log.Debugf(message, args...)
+	}
 }
 
 func Error(message string, args ...interface{}) {
@@ -43,6 +47,10 @@ func Warning(message string, args ...interface{}) {
 	log.Warningf(message, args...)
 }
 
+func SetLogger(backendLogger logging.Backend) {
+	logging.SetBackend(backendLogger)
+}
+
 func init() {
 	backend := logging.NewLogBackend(os.Stderr, "", 0)
 	formatter := logging.NewBackendFormatter(backend, format)
diff --git a/message.go b/message.go
index 1233bd4..a6eec36 100644
--- a/message.go
+++ b/message.go
@@ -215,3 +215,7 @@ func newMessage(r *bufio.Reader, autoParse bool) (*Message, error) {
 
 	return &msg, nil
 }
+
+func NewMessage(r *bufio.Reader, autoParse bool) (*Message, error) {
+	return newMessage(r, autoParse)
+}
diff --git a/message_test.go b/message_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dde2f7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/message_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,132 @@
+package goesl
+
+import (
+	"bufio"
+	"testing"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+// build a bufio reader so we can mock esl's network reader
+func reader(s string) *bufio.Reader {
+	return bufio.NewReader(strings.NewReader(s))
+}
+
+func init () {
+	ShouldOutputDebugMessages = false
+}
+
+var (
+	// https://freeswitch.org/confluence/display/FREESWITCH/Event+List
+	ShutdownMessage = `Content-Length: 436
+Content-Type: text/event-plain
+
+Event-Info: System Shutting Down
+Event-Name: SHUTDOWN
+Core-UUID: 596ab2fd-14c5-44b5-a02b-93ffb7cd5dd6
+FreeSWITCH-Hostname: ********
+FreeSWITCH-IPv4: ********
+FreeSWITCH-IPv6: 127.0.0.1
+Event-Date-Local: 2008-01-23 13:48:13
+Event-Date-GMT: Wed,%2023%20Jan%202008%2018%3A48%3A13%20GMT
+Event-Date-timestamp: 1201114093012795
+Event-Calling-File: switch_core.c
+Event-Calling-Function: switch_core_destroy
+Event-Calling-Line-Number: 1046
+
+EOF
+`
+	EchoResponse = `Content-Type: api/response
+Content-Length: 2
+
+hi`
+
+	HeartbeatMessage = `Content-Length: 921
+Content-Type: text/event-json
+
+{"Event-Name":"HEARTBEAT","Core-UUID":"3fe1c014-0cd7-4fd8-8cfe-f97560455ddd","FreeSWITCH-Hostname":"freeswitch01","FreeSWITCH-Switchname":"freeswitch01","FreeSWITCH-IPv4":"192.168.0.1","FreeSWITCH-IPv6":"::1","Event-Date-Local":"2020-01-01 12:00:00","Event-Date-GMT":"Mon, 1 Jan 2020 12:00:00 GMT","Event-Date-Timestamp":"1578709922493848","Event-Calling-File":"switch_core.c","Event-Calling-Function":"send_heartbeat","Event-Calling-Line-Number":"74","Event-Sequence":"1759233","Event-Info":"System Ready","Up-Time":"0 years, 46 days, 1 hour, 43 minutes, 0 seconds, 121 milliseconds, 552 microseconds","FreeSWITCH-Version":"1.10~64bit","Uptime-msec":"3980580121","Session-Count":"0","Max-Sessions":"10000","Session-Per-Sec":"500","Session-Per-Sec-Last":"1","Session-Per-Sec-Max":"42","Session-Per-Sec-FiveMin":"1","Session-Since-Startup":"14960","Session-Peak-Max":"42","Session-Peak-FiveMin":"1","Idle-CPU":"96.733333"}`
+
+)
+
+// https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42035104/how-to-unit-test-go-errors
+func errorContains(out error, want string) bool {
+	if out == nil {
+		return want == ""
+	}
+	if want == "" {
+		return false
+	}
+	return strings.Contains(out.Error(), want)
+}
+
+func TestNewMessage(t *testing.T) {
+	buf := reader(HeartbeatMessage)
+	fsMsg, err := NewMessage(buf, true)
+
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Error(err)
+	}
+
+	if fsMsg.Headers["FreeSWITCH-IPv4"] != "192.168.0.1" {
+		t.Error("could not parse FreeSWITCH ip from event")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestNewMessageMissingMime(t *testing.T) {
+	heartbeatMimeless := strings.Replace(HeartbeatMessage, "Content-Type: text/event-json", "", 1)
+	buf := reader(heartbeatMimeless)
+	_, err := NewMessage(buf, true)
+
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Error("Expected error Parse EOF, got nothing")
+		return
+	}
+
+	if !errorContains(err, "Parse EOF") {
+		t.Error(err)
+		return
+	}
+}
+
+func testNewMessageServerShutdown(t *testing.T) (error, *Message) {
+	buf := reader(ShutdownMessage)
+	fsMsg, err := NewMessage(buf, true)
+
+	return err, fsMsg
+}
+
+func TestNewMessageServerShutdown(t *testing.T) {
+	err, fsMsg := testNewMessageServerShutdown(t)
+
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Error(err)
+	}
+
+	fsMsg.Headers["Content-Type"] = "text/event-plain"
+}
+
+func TestMessage_Dump(t *testing.T) {
+	err, fsMsg := testNewMessageServerShutdown(t)
+
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Error(err)
+	}
+
+	if !strings.Contains(fsMsg.Dump(), "BODY: Event-Info:") {
+		t.Error("freeswitch message dump failed")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestMessageParse(t *testing.T) {
+	buf := reader(EchoResponse)
+	fsMsg, err := NewMessage(buf, true)
+
+	if (err != nil) {
+		t.Error(err)
+	}
+
+	body := string(fsMsg.Body)
+
+	if body != "hi" {
+		t.Error("parsing freeswitch response failed")
+	}
+}