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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Church Resurrected Year After Arson Fire

From Staff And Wire Reports

Nearly a year after the Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church was gutted by fire, resurrection has begun.

About 50 people attended groundbreaking Saturday for a 3,600-square-foot church with 144 seats, an office and classrooms for the largely black congregation. Completion is expected by December.

“About this time last year, I thought there was no future for us,” said the Rev. Forrest Hudson, church founder and unpaid pastor.

Then, as other churches and groups rallied support, Hudson said he receive a message from God to “stand still, fight on, for I have promised never to leave you.”

On July 7 Hudson arrived to open the church for Sunday school and found it mostly destroyed.

Since then, about 30 regular churchgoers have attended services in a portable building. No one has been arrested for the fire.

Promise Keepers, a Christian men’s group, raised $200,000 in donations, including $50,000 from the National Council of Churches, $35,000 from the Assemblies of God, $10,000 from the City Church in Bellevue and Easter collection-plate receipts of $3,400 from Evergreen Valley Fellowship in Clearview, for a new church.