An anxious wait for word from N.J. missionaries

After a tense, sleepless night, the relatives and friends of 20 New Jersey church members in earthquake-stricken Haiti went to the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville yesterday, seeking word of their loved ones.

The mission group had arrived at Port-au-Prince at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, just hours before the quake hit, and planned to take buses along narrow roads to the tiny mountain village of Thoman.

The group members were expected to reach the remote village, where they would be providing food and medical treatment, by nightfall.

But did they make it? Was everyone OK? No one in New Jersey had any news of them - despite frantic calls to the State Department and politicians.

In normal times, Thoman, which is 21/2 hours northeast of the quake's epicenter, has no electricity. And now phone lines and power were out all over Haiti. Photographs of the devastation and suffering were filling TV screens.

"A church becomes a church at this time," said the Rev. Jeffrey Vamos of the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville, as he tried to reassure a group gathered for a news conference on the basketball court of a gym at the church. Parishioners had been praying in the sanctuary since early morning, he said.

The church has been sending missionaries to Haiti for 20 years.

"We know it's risky; it always has been," Vamos said.

Most of the mission members belong to the Presbyterian church. Others are from the Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton and Kingdom Church of Ewing.

Relatives of the missionaries attended the news conference. It had been a torturous night for Craig Pasko, of Lawrenceville, fretting over the fate of his daughters, Jessica, 31, and Alicia, 28.

Jessica Pasko is a pediatric resident and is one of the three doctors among the mission members. Alicia Pasko recently returned from a Peace Corps assignment in Africa.

"Awful," said Craig Pasko, who attends the Lawrenceville church. "All you can do is pray."

The Rev. Archie McBride of Shiloh Baptist Church had faith that God would bring the church members through the disaster.

"We are prayerful," he said. "We believe in a God that will make a way out of no way."

As the news conference was ending, Camille Crichton-Sumners received a brief text message from her sister-in-law, a member of the mission group:

"I'm OK. Can't call. I'm OK. Start the list."

Crichton-Sumners handed her phone to Vamos, who considered the message an instruction to notify other family members on an emergency contact list that the missionaries were safe.

The comforting message triggered sighs of relief from family and friends and phone calls to other church members.

Pasko hugged his wife, Liz.

"This is fantastic!" he said. "They're going to be fine. They're training to help people. Maybe there will be a few days of agony" until their scheduled return Sunday.

But some, such as Brian Lewin of the Lawrenceville church, wanted more information than the brief text message. His ex-wife, Anne Lewin, had made the trip to Haiti.

"This is great news," he said. "But I still want to hear more about the rest of the folks."