Ten men from Pilgrim United Methodist Church in St. Johns, Michigan, are in Haiti, awaiting word on when they can return home.

The men were working on a church in Croix-des-Bouquets, a northern suburb of Port-au-Prince.

A text message was sent out just hours after the earthquake through the mission organization Christian Service International. It was just a few words long but enough to let people know they're alive.

Other updates have come through e-mails and Facebook messages.

"It was very frightening. You didn't have to have those team members be family members to be shaken by this experience," said Candy Pierson, church secretary. "Many of us were aware of Haiti. But for those that had never been there - we have seen their pictures, we've heard their stories - but this just sort of, I think it's made it so much more real, the need is so much clearer.

"It's touched our hearts in a way it hadn't before."

Among the men in Haiti are Shirley Rennells' husband, son, father, two brothers and nephew.

"They stayed at a clinic the night it happened. They've been busy helping out around there," she said. "I just can't imagine what they're seeing and what they're feeling right now."

Rennells, of St. Johns, has been to Haiti several times, including last summer for a vacation Bible school.

"They just aren't equipped for anything like that," she said of Haiti's infrastructure and services. "But the Haitian people ... when there's a disaster, they get up and dust their pants off and get going again."

Most of the St. Johns men were at an orphanage when the earthquake hit.

The orphanage, home to 20 Haitian girls, sustained damage and the girls had to be taken to someone's apartment.