The stress of the past week showed on the Rev. Clint Henry's face Sunday as he faced the congregation of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian.

"I have been as low as a man can be this week and found that even there, Jesus was waiting," Henry told his audience.

Henry and other church leaders are still hoping for the speedy release of the five Central Valley Baptist members and five other American Baptists - including three more Idahoans - held in Haiti on suspicion of kidnapping and criminal association. They're accused of taking 33 Haitian children to the Dominican border without permission as part of their plan to give the children new homes after Haiti's Jan. 12 earthquake.

At a news conference later Sunday, Henry said the crisis has brought together people who didn't know each other before and caused congregations to lean on each other more.

"It has caused us to turn our attention once again to the words of Jesus Christ, for there is where we truly find our comfort," he said.

While the arrests have caused anxiety among the detainees' family and friends, the pastoral team at Central Valley Baptist has been affected, too. Henry did not deliver the sermon at Sunday's early service, relying instead on a friend, the Rev. Dan Robinson. In the church program, the pastors asked members of the congregation to include the pastors in their prayers.

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