Act Your Faith

“Do you have fruit?” Pastor Kyle Toomire asked. “Does our church have fruit? Do we matter in our community?” These are questions that he asked in a sermon that he gave on the last Sunday before he shut down the Journey United Methodist church in Buda/Kyle Texas for a Sunday of not “just going to church but coming and being the church.” This was a chance for the congregation to act out its faith.


According to Pastor Kyle, fruit is generated by God in a Christian and a congregation that follows the example of Jesus. He says that it is because of a person’s faith that he or she has works. Faith without works is dead. Works without faith is dead. The two must intertwine to perform the will of God.


On Sunday, November 13, 2011, the church members went into the community to help where they could; to make a difference in the lives of community members.


The actual action began the day before when some of the members helped members of the First United Methodist Church in Kyle, Texas to build ramps for someone in a wheelchair.


Then, on Sunday, the participants gathered at the Journey, which meets at The Painted Horse Pavilion building and had a quick, tasty breakfast before breaking into groups to go out into the community for service.


Rachel Toomire led the children in worship through bouncing in a bouncy house and making manna bags to make a difference in the lives of the homeless. Then she led these youngest Journey Partners in prayer over these bags. 

Trish Cramer led a group of members going door-to-door in the community collecting food donations for the Hays/Caldwell women’s shelter.

One women’s hedges were trimmed by a group. A HEB gift card was donated to someone needing groceries.

Church Partners enjoy organizing clothes for the clothes closet at Chapa Middle School

Dedicated group after working hard.

One group began with ten people and ended with over twenty. That group worked on the yard of a lady who had been unable to tend to her yard for months. They had a lot to do, and got it done in a big way.

Children worked hard to beautify garden.

Debbie Sparks said that her favorite part of the installation of 2 gardens for a cancer patient who had recently moved into a new home was watching the children digging and planting in a garden.

Prayer is the best way to start any job.

One group cleaned windows, worked on baseboards, replaced siding and painted the front porch of a family.

All of these projects were discussed at the next Sunday service. After the slide show, Pastor Kyle reminded his congregation that the work was not over. “God is still calling us to be the church all year long.” He said that later in the same week, he received an email from a member of the Missions Team that started, “ I know we just finished doing our local mission project, but could we……”


Before the celebration lunch, Pastor Kyle shared with his congregation that Billy Graham said that the association between faith and works is like this: “faith is taking the gospel in and works is taking the gospel out.” The two go together.


Services for the Journey UMC are held every Sunday at The Painted Horse Pavilion on FM 1626 in Buda, Texas at 10:30 am.

copyright 2011 by Kathy Robbins

Stress Relief Idea #17 and More

Ask questions. Taking a few moments to repeat back directions, what someone expects of you, etc., can save hours. (The old "the hurrieder I go, the behinder I get," idea)
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Congratulations to Julie Moore of Durham, North Carolina is the winner of the robbinswrites' book giveaway. Congratulations to Julie! She won Love You More by Jennifer Grant.
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I want to give a shout out to my readers in the United States, Russia, England, Germany, France, Canada, Netherlands, South Korea, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Venezuela, Dominica and Latvia who have visited this blog in the last week. Thank you for reading and please return.
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I am happy to report that we received an abundance of rain over the past weekend in Central Texas. We are so thankful for the life in the rain. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. 


For those local to Buda, Texas, the Budafest community celebration was postponed until the coming weekend. Please join this celebration and be sure to stop by the Buda United Methodist Church's baked potato booth to grab some great food. While you are there, stop by the Youth soda booth and quench your thirst.

Copyright 2011 by Kathy Robbins

Catholics, Methodists,and Baptists--Oh My

Rev. Kirby Garner, Rev. Jim Sweet, Rev. Lori Ruge-Jones, Rev. Roy Erdahl, Rev. Jennifer Brooke-Davison, Rev. Nancy Day, Rev. Buddy Johnson .  Photo by David DiCarlo of Sunday Child's Snapshots

Not all communities have spiritual leadership; but Buda, Texas does. This is provided by The Buda Ministerial Alliance who sponsored the Second Annual Thanksgiving worship service at the Santa Cruz Catholic Church on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011.


Rev. Jim Sweet who is currently the alliance chairperson and Associate Pastor of Buda United Methodist Church began the alliance with then Sr. Pastor Teresa Welborn about one a half years ago. It has since grown to include twelve pastors from seven different denominations, sponsored a community Thanksgiving service and a monthly service at Arveda Alzheimer’s Family Care facility. The alliance is also available to provide spiritual guidance in the event of community emergency situations like the fire disaster that occurred in Bastrop, Texas earlier this year.

According to Rev. Sweet, the idea of the Thanksgiving service was selected as an opportunity for the community to have an all-inclusive worship service in which the denominational commonalities could be embraced rather than focusing on the denominational differences.

The Living Word Story Tellers
Rebekah Wieting, Brian Neidig, Luisa Ruge-Jones, Luke Ruge-Jones, Eric Mendelman, and Phil Ruge-Jones

Rev. Lori Ruge-Jones tells a story.

More storytelling from Eric Mendelman

Rev. Kirby Garner opened the service with welcoming comments, followed by singing and prayers before The Living Word Lutheran Church presented the message, presenting classic bible stories from six different books of the bible in dramatic storytelling. Rev. Lori Ruge-Jones explained that bible story telling is an important spiritual discipline that proclaims the word of God. They are available to present these stories to other churches as well.

Community choir

Community choir

A twenty-five member choir provided leadership in song and special music. When Rev. Garner discussed the choir at the start of the service, he pointed out that it was comprised of Catholics, Methodists and Baptists when the Choir Director and Pianist said, “Catholics, Methodists and Baptists--Oh My!”. 


Mayor Sarah Mangham attended the service, which was an opportunity for the food banks to collect donations of non-perishable food items from the community,

Participating in the worship service were Buda United Methodist Church, Santa Cruz Catholic Church, First Baptist Church of Buda, The Living Word Lutheran Church, Antioch Community Church, and St. Elizabeth Episcopal Church.

Rev. Jim Sweet

Rev. Sweet indicated that the next meeting of The Buda Ministerial Alliance will be held on January 19, 2012 at 9am in the fellowship hall of the Buda United Methodist Church. All area pastors are invited to attend. 

Rev. Nancy Day

copyright 2011 by Kathy Robbins