Posted on Apr 16, 2010 | by Staff

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (BP)--Laura Silsby, the last remaining Baptist volunteer still in a Haiti prison, entered her 77th straight day in jail Friday.

Last week, one of Silsby's team members, Paul Thompson, released a statement urging concerned citizens to pray for Silsby and also to contact their senators, the State Department and the White House and urge them to work for her release. Senators' numbers are available through Senate.gov. The State Department switchboard number is 202-647-4000, and the White House comment line is 202-456-1111.

Silsby, Thompson and eight others were arrested Jan. 30 in Haiti on charges of child kidnapping because they allegedly did not have the proper documentation to cross into the Dominican Republic, where they were taking 33 children to an orphanage that was being started. The 10 contend they were innocent and were simply trying to help children and that they had the paperwork Haiti officials told them to have.

Thompson and the others have been released and are back in the United States.

"She is a sister in the Lord, ready to return home to her family, yet satisfied to minister to the people God has placed her with. I invite you to live Hebrews 13:3 with me and 'Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them,'" Thompson, pastor of Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, told Baptist Press.

Silsby is a member of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho.
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To read the entire Thompson statement visit http://bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=32657.