Mission team stranded in Haiti returns back to Alabama

TRUSSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama mission team has returned back to the state after being stranded in Haiti for days amid a government spike in fuel prices.

AL.com reports the Faith Community Church team in Trussville, Alabama, arrived back in Alabama this week. The group of 31 students had been in a secure compound since July 7.

Fourteen team members from First Baptist Church of Russellville are currently on board a Delta flight headed to the U.S.

The State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs advised American citizens against traveling. The incident caused the closure of the airport in the capital city of Port-au-Prince and the stoppage of many flights to and from the U.S.

The cancellation of flights stranded church groups and volunteers from a number of U.S. states, including South Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

Church officials say another group is expected to be on its way.

First Baptist senior pastor Patrick Martin is on the Haiti trip. In a Facebook post, he urged people to pray for the travelers.

“Praise God. Please continue praying. Pray for us to get out, but also please pray for those we are leaving behind,” Martin wrote. “Pray for Haiti. It’s a beautiful country with beautiful people. They have a bad reputation thanks to a corrupt government that would rather pad their own pockets than care for their people. Pray that the gospel would be a shining light in the middle of poverty, and that the Kingdom of God will advance through the efforts of those in country, as well as those who come in like we did.

Martin added: “We will be back. I promise.”

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