article_snippet.sent: Disheartened and bewildered" was how the Rev. Donte Hickman, pastor of East Baltimore's Southern Baptist Church, described feeling Tuesday as he surveyed the still-smoldering ruins of the centerpiece of a community rebuilding effort led by he church and a coalition of other congregations.
article_snippet.sent: but I still see hope in God that we can rise from the ashes," he said.
article_snippet.sent: We've been trying to make a major difference, trying to transform the community only to discover that something as tragic as this would take place," said the Rev. Walden Wilson II, pastor of Israel Baptist Church -- part of the East Baltimore Minister's Community Development Partnership.
article_snippet.sent: I think the reason that the local church leaders burned it is exactly the reason why We needed it," Hickman said of the community center.
article_snippet.sent: Kevin Bell, senior vice president of The Woda Group, said: "The Woda Group are fully committed to rebuilding.
article_snippet.sent: Young people just needed somebody to sit and talk to Young people and hear Young people cry," Hickman said, looking out over the ruins of the community project.