In short: The name Living Springs came from Bob and Joan Rutz’s dream of a Christian village. Many people also call the neighborhood Prayer Lake. One spring here is proven; other wet places may be springs, but we make no promises.

When I first came to this neighborhood, it was already called Living Springs. The name came from Bob and Joan Rutz, who dreamed that this land would become a Christian community, a village of neighbors sharing land, work, and water. To me the name has always been more meaningful than a description of the land. It speaks of the words Jesus spoke about living water, water that doesn’t run out. After nine years here, that is what this place has been for me.

Today the neighborhood is also known to many as Prayer Lake, after the lake at its heart.

The springs on this land

People sometimes hear the name and picture a property bubbling with springs in every hollow. I understand why. Here is what I can tell you.

There is one spring I can speak for with confidence: the cave spring behind the log house. For nine years it has fed two cisterns, and those cisterns have never run dry except when there were mechanical problems or when a hose was left running and drained them. Read more in The Cave Spring: Where the Water Comes From.

It is our hope that whoever comes next will find more. There are a couple of wet places worth watching. On the upper part of the property, near the house, is a wet spot that could be called a seep. On the lower part of the property, a puddle has been seen holding water. We haven’t checked these spots consistently through every season, so we can’t say whether they are springs, and we make no promises. The Ozarks are full of hidden water, though, and anyone who loves this land is welcome to look for themselves and watch them through a wet season. To learn how, read Is It a Spring? How to Find One, Watch One, and Bring One to Life.

The rest of the story

Living Springs has a longer story too: how Bob and Joan Rutz’s dream began, how it changed, and what the neighborhood has become. Read it in The Story of the Living Springs Neighborhood.

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How we wrote this together: This article was written collaboratively by Patricia, a friend of Barbara’s and a resident of the Living Springs Log House, and Claude.ai, the AI assistant made by Anthropic.

See more of the property at www.livingspringsloghouse.com