'We still love you:' Faith leaders have message for Baltimore church vandals

BALTIMORE -- Ark Church, a historic church in Baltimore, was damaged in a spray-painting spree.

Now, faith leaders are working to restore its house of worship after vandals targeted the church with red spray paint.

"It's extremely disheartening," said Kellie Felder, the church's office manager.

Symbols of disorder covered the church and some parking signage. Even a mailbox couldn't escape their attention.

"I checked our cameras and saw, yes indeed, someone had put graffiti on our church, and to me, it's very upsetting because we serve our community," Felder said. "We love our community."

Adding to the disappointment, Felder said this is not the first time the historic church has been targeted.

"We have been victim to Molotov cocktails thrown at the front of our church just a couple years ago," Felder said.

While police work to determine the identity of the spray-painting vandal, Felder said there is no explanation for the trail of property damage and loss of money.

"We have to reach back, this of course takes money we could be putting into our neighborhood, out of our pockets, so we have to recover from this," Felder said. "It's a blow."

Even so, Felder said she is choosing to be optimistic in the face of hate.

"To whoever did this, we still love you with the love of Christ," Felder said. "We are still reaching out to you with the love of Christ."