Philip Maher of World Vision in Port-au-Prince told the Associated Press that traveling to the organization's 80 projects, which serve some 300,000 Haitians, has been difficult during the country's most recent strife.

Armed men block capital streets, and marauding looters ransack banks, stores, police stations and government buildings.

Another group, Mission Aviation Fellowship, evacuated their pilots' dependents first, followed shortly by the remaining staff and aircraft that had supported missionaries working in the interior of Haiti. The aircraft were ferried to Florida. Mission officials are watching the situation and working on a re-entry plan once the political situation stabilizes.

Denis Fulton, spokesperson for the Mission, said the indigenous Christian leadership is left behind in the melee. "There's some very capable leadership within the national church," Fulton said. "Just pray that they will be able to be the witness that God will give them the opportunity to be."

Compassion International assists more than 30,000 children in Haiti, where more than 80 percent of the population lives in abject poverty. The recent violence and instability has forced most of Compassion International's student centers to temporarily shut their doors.

Compassion's area director, Edouard Lassegue, said the fighting is terrorizing the needy children served by the mission.

"On both ends you are a victim of groups of people who are mad and who do not hesitate to use violence to accomplish their ends," Lassegue said. "Fear is how I would characterize the reaction of the children at this point."