Bradenton church group has made it back to the U.S.

A local church's mission group stranded in Haiti over the weekend safely made it to the Port-au-Prince airport Monday and has landed in the U.S., according to officials.

MyLIFEspeaks officials told the Bradenton Herald in a Facebook message Monday the team from Woodland Community Church in Bradenton had arrived safely at the airport in Haiti.

Jill Kramer, whose 15-year-old daughter Katie is on the trip, said the group was scheduled to take off from Haiti around 2 p.m. to Miami.

At 6 p.m., Kramer said the group had made it to Miami. From there, some of the members flew to Tampa, while others had to go to Orlando.

Executive pastor Dewayne McFarlin was with the group that flew to Orlando and said they landed just before 9 p.m. He said the Tampa flight left a few minutes after them.

MyLIFEspeaks, a nonprofit, hosted the Woodland Community Church group in its facility about an hour and 30 minutes from the Haiti airport, in the town of Neply.

"MyLIFEspeaks has been amazing, so that has been such a blessing and a calmness to us that they have that organization so well put together and run that we didn’t have to worry about anything," Kramer said.

On June 30, Wooodland Community Church sent 28 people, including many teenagers in the church's youth group, on a mission trip to Haiti. The group was scheduled to leave Saturday, but their route to the airport was blocked by protests in the streets.

The protests, many violent, started after the Haitian government Friday announced a rise in fuel prices. Flights were canceled and some roads were impassable as a result of the protests.

The group encountered two groups of unarmed protesters Saturday after being on the main road toward the airport for just half a mile before deciding to turn around and stay in the village until it was safe to pass.

Saturday, Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant announced a temporary stop to the price increases.

In a Facebook post Saturday, Jeff McCauley wrote the group was "safe, secure and honestly joyful to have a few more days with our new Haitian family." Attached to the Woodland Community Church's Facebook post was a video of a "spontaneous worship gathering" in the village.

The delay in their return home hasn't been much of a bother to Katie, who is "doing great," Kramer said.

"She thinks we're all overreacting at everything so that’s a blessing. That means the adults in her group have been keeping the level of severity out of their minds and focused on the mission, serving, playing, just being kids."

"She wants to go back. This experience has been life-changing for her so it hasn’t deterred her any from wanting to do this again," Kramer said.

This story was originally published July 9, 2018 at 11:10 AM.