Prior to the early morning hours on April 25, 2019, longtime Ruston residents would tell you that the town was tornado proof. Through countless thunderstorms, watches, and warnings over the years, Ruston always seemed to be just outside the path of devastation.
That all changed with an EF-3 tornado tore through the town in the dark of night, taking the precious lives of Kendra Butler and her son Remington, and less importantly, destroying property all over the city and Louisiana Tech university’s campus.
Perhaps hit the hardest was the University Hills neighborhood near Maple Street and Cypress Springs Elementary. And less than a mile away, a fledgling church committed to multi-generational, multi-cultural, and multi-ethnic ministry had just opened its doors a couple of weeks earlier seeking to serve the community.
George Lee, IV, is the pastor of The Springs. He recalls how chaotic that week became, especially as the church was still being remodeled.
“It was overwhelming, to be honest,” Lee said. “We were still working on construction in the sanctuary, but we were able to bring people in and be a location where people could meet and strategize how to best serve the area.”
Christian Smith, now an instructor at Louisiana Tech, was an intern for The Springs at the time. Before the sun rose, Smith made his way to the church to assess for any damage.
“I drove down Tech Drive before anyone else was on the road,” Smith said. “There was debris from the baseball field, all in the middle of the road. I just kind of keep swerving around this, all this debris, there is no traffic on the road or anything like that. I get to the church to make sure everything was okay, and thankfully, the building was good.”
Shortly after the sun rose, Smith said that a large group of police officers came and gathered in the parking lot to assess where to start working as large swaths of the neighborhood was unreachable due to the downed trees.
“I originally was going to just make them some coffee,” Smith said. “But after that, we all realized that this was a great meeting place for people to come work together.”
From there, The Springs became a central hub for disaster workers and aid. Over the following days, in partnership with Rolling Hills Ministries, The Springs was able to make sure 6,000 meals were able to be given out to families in the neighborhood.
“You know, what we were able to accomplish, through God’s help in in our church, considering the size of our church was nothing short of miraculous,” Lee said. “We helped organize volunteers into serving lines and made sure people were able to get what they needed.”
Not lost on Lee or Smith was that the Springs never lost power, despite the fact that the rest of the neighborhood and much of the town would be in the dark for an extended period of time.
“We went door to door in the neighborhood to let people know that the church had power,” Lee said. “People started to gather in any room with an outlet and they were so grateful. It didn’t matter that we were still under construction. People were so grateful.”
The Springs is a church plant associated with Temple Baptist Church of Ruston. Service is every Sunday at 5 p.m. at 1601 South Barnett Springs St.
