DETROIT — Five of the 17 missionaries kidnapped by a gang in Haiti over the weekend are from Michigan's Oceana County, including four children, their pastor told The Detroit News.
They are members of Hart Dunkard Brethren Church, minister Ron Marks said Monday.
The local missionaries went as a family, one parent and four children, in early October, said Marks, who declined to identify them. The youngest child is under age 10, he added.
"Our primary focus is on God and his providence to bring us through this," Marks said.
The missionaries were taken Saturday as they left an orphanage outside Port-au-Prince in the community of Ganthier. The group included six men, six women and five children — all Americans except for one Canadian, according to their sponsoring organization, the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries.
"Join us in prayer that God's grace would sustain the men, women and children who are being held hostage," the group said in a Monday statement.
A spokeswoman from Christian Aid Ministries declined Monday to provide more information about the kidnapping.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday afternoon that President Joe Biden has been briefed and is receiving regular updates on what the State Department and the FBI are doing to bring those kidnapped home safely.
"The FBI is part of a coordinated U.S. effort to get the U.S. citizens involved to safety," Psaki said. "Due to operational considerations, we're not going to go into too much detail on that but can confirm their engagement."
She added the U.S. Embassy in Haiti is also involved and coordinating with local authorities and working with the individuals' families.
Hatian police have blamed the kidnapping on the 400 Mawozo gang, which controls the area where the attack took place, according to wire reports.
Hart Dunkard Brethren Church emphasizes missionary work, Marks said. Members go to places including Haiti, Africa and the southwest United States to do humanitarian and teaching work.
The church did not sponsor its members' trip to Haiti, but it is common for members to go on mission trips with other groups like Christian Aid Ministries, Marks said.
Congregants at home have held special prayer meetings for their counterparts in Haiti since they left in early October. News that the family had been abducted was hard on the close-knit group, Marks said.
The State Department is part of a small team dispatched to Haiti from the U.S. to work closely with Haitian authorities on the kidnapping case, spokesman Ned Price said Monday.
"This is something that we have treated as with the utmost priority since Saturday," Price said. "Our teams across the building have been working closely with our interagency partners and ... with our partners on the ground in Haiti to do all we can to seek a quick resolution to this."
Price would not say whether the U.S. has been in touch with the 400 Mawozo gang.
The nonprofit Christian Aid Ministries, based in Millersburg, Ohio, was founded in 1981 and works with Amish, Mennonite and other conservative Anabaptist groups to " minister to physical and spiritual needs around the world."
Its work in Haiti has included medicine distribution and a sponsor a child program, according to a recent financial filing.
