MaustsOnToast » church

Trampoline and Cupcakes

Emily — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:07:18 +0000

On June 25th we said goodbye to some of our bestest friends from church. The party was hosted at the home of the Aucoin’s, some very good friends who also hosted our home fellowship group this past year. They had a big trampoline in their back yard and Poppy just had a whale of a time!

After all the jumping, we went inside and sang Happy Birthday and ate cupcakes to celebrate Poppy’s 2nd Birthday.

It was a lovely evening spending time with very good friends and really sad to say goodbye. We will always treasure these memories.

Carolina Beach

Drew — Wed, 25 May 2011 13:11:34 +0000

Over the weekend we traveled to Fayetteville, NC, to speak about the amazing things God is doing through Bible translation and share with Trinity church how they might be involved through their prayers and giving. We count it a great joy to share our passion with churches who may have never heard of Wycliffe or the many millions who still don’t have a Bible translation.

Since Fayetteville is somewhat on the way toward the coast we decided to take the Monday after to relax on the beach one last time before we leave North Carolina. We visited Carolina Beach on what was mostly an overcast day. That didn’t keep our skin from getting a little toasted though (even with SPF 50). Poppy had a great time splashing in the waves until she was overcome with fatigue and desperately needed her nap. We thought about bringing our pack-n-play out onto the beach, but didn’t want to go to all the effort not assured thatPoppy would actually nap. We eventually got her to lie still on a beach towel long enough to fall asleep. She was that tired! Mummy couldn’t resist having a snooze either. I ended up going for a swim and reading while this beauties rested on the beach.

Later, after everyone had recharged, we walked on the pier and had ice cream that wasn’t nearly frozen enough.

Stripes of Shame

Drew — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 19:54:50 +0000

Breakfast this morning was normal as any other: oatmeal, apple, and milk. But then right before leaving for church somebody wanted a snack. So, add a packet of fruit snacks to the list. I don’t know what it was–perhaps that additional vitamin C in the fruit snacks–but as we were rolling up to church (Mummy was at work today), Poppy throw up…all over her Sunday best. Worst part is we were about to be on time for once! We came back home and after taking an Elmo break, Poppy headed outside in her stripes of shame to clean off her car seat. I know, Daddies are notoriously terrible at outfit selection, but these clashing stripes were purposeful, stripes of shame for making us miss church and ride thirty minutes home in an unfreshner. Is that wrong of me?

Mummy and Bump Go to Church

Drew — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:35:28 +0000

Extreme Soccer Camp

Drew — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:57:05 +0000

This week I’ve been hanging out at Union View Baptist Church in Franklinton and helping out with a free soccer camp put on by the church and some of my (new) friends. This picture is of my squad, the green dots. Myself and coach Lindsey (far right) led this team of 6 and 7 year olds through drills, trials, mini-games and full-blown matches every night this past week in the church’s field. You can check out tons more pictures courtesy of Lindsey.

By far the highlight of the week was sharing Jesus with the kids. We told them of Jesus’ great love for us and that he’s always with us. “When you’re happy, you can sing to Jesus. When you’re sad, you can cry to Jesus. He’s always with you.” May these youngins grow into kickin’ soccer players and radical followers of Christ!

16 December, Sunday – Epping Forest Community Church, Hillsong and Wok in a Box

Drew — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Epping Forest Community Church in the morning for church and then we headed off to Tottenham Court Road to catch the Hillsong London Christmas program. The show at Hillsong could easily rival any show that one would pay for in a proper theater as a proper “production.” Lights, smoke machines, live music, video, huge screens, Santa passing out Lindt chocolates (yes, please) and Simon. Simon helps out at Hillsong and had been down there the whole day when we caught up with him.

After the program, it was off to the Hillsongers’ bar for some mulled wine and good company. We (me, Emily, Sally and Simon) met people we hadn’t seen in a while (shout out to Jay) and made some new friends as well (shout out to our new Austrailian friend Louise should she find our website!). Overall a cheery evening; but things really got awesome when I spotted a little to-go/take away “restaurant” across the street from the bar, called Wok in a Box. Pick two items from the wok, they throw them in a little, typical Chinese to-go box, and you pay £4.50 for a scrumptious meal. Rocked my world. I woke up this morning still thinking about it and made up motions to celebrate. Emily knows the dance now, too. Thanks, Wok in a Box!

Home Fellowship

Drew — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 22:57:44 +0000

Considering our church is in Durham (about a 30 minute drive), we were well-pleased to find out that there was a Sunday night home fellowship meeting right here in Wake Forest. Tonight was our first night and what a super smack your knee time we did have at a member’s beautiful home in the Forest. We’re studying D. A. Carson’s book A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers [Amazon]. The topic tonight centered around prayer in light of 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12:

“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

It’s important when attending a larger church like First Baptist Durham to be connected in home fellowships wherein one can get to know members that live and work in your community–and, of course, nobody complains if there’s good food on hand as was the occasion tonight.

When it’s our turn to bring a dish, you better believe the raspberry fluff recipe will show up in full force commending it’s tangy but gentle texture to the taste buds of the dessert deprived.

In other news, you’ll want to be sure to check out Shrock Family Happenings. I don’t know where you’ve been getting your Shrock Family news until now, but indubitably it’s inferior to the blog kept by my cousin Jessica at the link above. Heart-warming stories are garnished with carefully snapped and selected photographs to furnish the reader with the most pleasant happenings of Joey, Jessica, Dylan and Lauren Shrock to be found anywhere on the interwebnet.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, Rule the Waves

Drew — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

We joined First Baptist Durham this morning. The congregation voted after the service, and we are pleased to announce that the ayes have it. We are very excited about getting involved at First Baptist. We’ve been attending a Spanish-speaking Sunday School class on Sunday mornings. Emily’s joined the choir and we are helping with a youth retreat this weekend. Check out the church website. Though it’s a bit dated, you can download this Sunday’s sermon and hear what we heard. And if you do so, you will hear in the sermon today that Pastor Andy referenced the British Empire. And I, for one, learned a new British anthem that I hadn’t heard before: Rule, Britannia!

Emily was able to recite the chorus of the anthem as the pastor read it. Once we got home, I snooped around on the Internet to see what all I could learn and find out about this glorious maritime hymn. Below is an mp3 of the 1994 BBC recording of the song at Last Night of the Proms, something British that was new to me today as well.

When Britain first at Heav’n's command
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sang this strain:

Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never shall be slaves.

(The mp3 is from the Wikipedia article: Rule, Britannia!. Download here. Interesting note: the article says that the third verse in the above mp3 is in Welsh.)

The Handshake That Missed

Drew — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I would like to share an event with you all that has changed my life. At our church (First Baptist Durham) every morning before the service starts, everyone in attendance is instructed to stand and greet those seated around you. The last couple Sundays Emily and I have been sitting in the balcony because of our laziness and tardiness. While in the balcony two Sundays ago, upon standing to greet, I turned to face a handsome, stout gentlemen–whose name I later learned is Allen because his wife, Suhmer, works at The Olde English Tea Room alongside Emily. Allen and I stood and faced one another. Thenceforth we extended hands to meet, grasp, and shake as is the custom among males. Much to our stupification our hands missed. Yeh, we went to shake hands and missed. For some reason this has changed my life. For me, it shows how cavalier we (but mostly I) can be about meeting new people, just going through the motions. “Hi, my name is Drew. Nice to meet you.” And then that’s it.

I saw Allen yesterday at church. He remembered missing hands. We both laughed.

Anybody out there wanna psychoanalyze why missing hands while trying to shake hands has so impacted me?

I would like to point out various degrees of interest in shaking people’s hands from most interested to most disinterested:

Most interested: firm grasp, firm shake, eye contact, warm smile, conveys love
Somewhat interested: medium grip, light shake, brief contact, perhaps no smile
Going through the motions: light grasp, with brief shake or not, very brief contact, no smile, sometimes misses altogether
Dead fish (severe going through the motions): hand feels like a dead fish, limp, light and cold (most common among elderly women)

What kind of shaker are you? I vehemently refuse to be a dead fish; but I got pretty close by missing my friend Allen’s hand.

U.S. Reception

Drew — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 04:00:00 +0000

Wow, it has been almost a month since our last update. We’ve been a little bit busy. Last week was WVU’s Spring Break and Emily and I went with the Baptist group here on campus, WVUMCM, down to Charleston, WV, for the week. We stayed at West Charleston Baptist Church and ministered alongside them to the homeless, hungry, and helpless. It was an eye-opening experience not in the sense that we saw people in conditions unimaginable but…

…it was eye-opening in seeing the amazing ministry that this church is doing in Charleston. That church is very much the hands and feet of Christ in that city, ministering in every and any way possible that they might win some. We had a wonderful week down there. You can go to the WVUMCM website and browse to the Picture Gallery where you will find pictures and several videos of us during the week.

Many people have been wondering and inquiring about Emily’s journey to a WV driver’s license. Well, as of about two weeks ago, Emily has her learner’s permit (you can find pictures of her with it and the car in the downloads section under pictures). She studied like crazy for the learner’s test, and it has paid off. One problem we are experiencing is that with the Learner’s Permit, Emily must be accompanied by someone 21 years of age and older, and I, unfortunately and until April 1, am only 20! So, for the large part, Emily hasn’t been able to do as much driving as she would like. The good news is that she will be able to go at the beginning of April to get her “proper” driver’s license (a license has to have the permit for 1 month).

What else is going on with us?! I’m glad you asked. My parents and church have planned a “domestic” reception and celebration for this Saturday, March 25, at Calvary Baptist Church starting at noon. A very short service in the sanctuary will be followed by a Powerpoint presentation by Emily, and then food and fellowship in the church hall. Everyone and anyone is invited to come celebrate with my family this Saturday at Calvary; and if you’re family, it’s obligatory!