Stranded church groups return home from Haiti

A number of U.S. church mission groups stranded in Haiti amid violent protests have returned home as the capital city slowly returns to normalcy. Riots broke out over the weekend in Port-au-Prince as the government proposed increasing gas prices by as much as 51 percent. Haitian authorities later retracted the plan, but the unrest continued.

Cornerstone United Methodist Church in Bear, Del., said a group of 15 teenagers and five adults arrived Wednesday night to cheering family members at Philadelphia International Airport. Kensington Church in Troy, Mich., which sent several mission teams to Haiti this summer, including a group of high schoolers, posted on its Facebook page Thursday morning that all had returned safely. Other churches from across the country reported that their mission teams had returned or were on their way home, while a church in Vermontville, Mich., canceled a planned mission trip for its members after the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory for Haiti.

“We decided that it would be in our best interest to maybe try and find a different place to go or at least keep ourselves out of harm’s way,” Joseph Benedict, pastor of Vermontville Bible Church, told WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids. “We know that God has a special plan for us. That is secure. But how are we going to get to that point? And that’s why we daily walk with Christ: to figure that out.”

Voice of America reported that calm had started to return to Port-au-Prince this week as businesses reopened and cars retuned to the streets.