The name True Love Sanctuary Christ Holy Sanctified Church is fitting for Roderick and Montae Samuel. 

It’s the church where the Fort Worth couple got married and have attended services for five years. Roderick serves as a deacon for the church, while Montae is on the women’s ministry team. 

Over the last four months, congregants like the Samuels have dedicated even more time to the church — this time, to rebuild it. 

True Love Sanctuary, located at 1911 Yuma Ave. east of Interstate 35, sustained heavy fire and water damage May 30 after a downed powerline landed on the metal roof and ignited an attic fire. The building is one of several North Texas churches damaged by fires this summer, including a Gateway Church campus in North Richland Hills. 

Local churches, faith-based nonprofits and city officials banded together over the summer to help restore True Love Sanctuary. After months of labor, on Sept. 22, their efforts paid off. 

True Love Sanctuary congregants and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gathered Sunday evening to celebrate the newly remodeled space with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and worship service. 

The service capped an “emotional rollercoaster” for Roderick Samuel and his congregation. 

“It’s kind of indescribable simply because we went through a lot,” he said, describing Sunday’s ceremony. “We’re so thankful to God.” 

With less than 100 members, the congregation is known in the Hillside neighborhood as the “little church doing big things for God.” For the past two decades, the church has provided food and clothing to families in need, serving over 4,000 families during its Thanksgiving giveaway in 2023. 

Now, it’s True Love Sanctuary that has been on the receiving end of assistance from Fort Worth’s faith community.

During the ceremony, Bishop Michael E. Williams thanked Brandon Ellison, Fort Worth stake president for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and other members of the church for organizing donations and labor to rebuild the church. 

From the pulpit, Ellison told attendees that it was “no question” for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to help True Love Sanctuary. The seeds of caring for southeast Fort Worth were planted long ago when he attended elementary school in the southern part of the city, Ellison said. 

“This is a friendship and an alliance and a brotherhood and a community that we need to foster. So it was never up to me, because God wanted it to happen,” Ellison said. “We are grateful that our church could help, contribute in a small way, but from the beginning, it was not even a question.” 

Throughout the service people gave different testimonies, recounting their memories rebuilding the church, worshiping in tents outside or standing on the concrete foundation inside the worship room. 

Sparkling chandeliers light up the refurbished church. People can sit on red fabric chairs or sing and dance on the carpet. 

No matter what the church looked like, True Love Sanctuary Bishop Michael E. Williams said, the congregation never lost their faith. 

“We come from ashes,” Williams said. “We didn’t have a ceiling, we didn’t have walls, we didn’t have carpet, but we still had praise.” 

Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org or @marissaygreene. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.