DEVILS LAKE, N.D. -- Four missionaries from Devils Lake who were freed over the weekend after four days in Venezuelan custody will return Tuesday to North Dakota.
They’re scheduled to land at 10 a.m. at Hector International Airport in Fargo, where they will meet family members and then travel back to Devils Lake.
The missionaries - three men and one woman from Bethel Evangelical Free Church in Devils Lake - were taken last Wednesday from Ocumare de la Costa, a small coastal community where they had been working to establish a church, according to the Rev. Bruce Dick, Bethel pastor.
Dick declined Monday to identify the four.
“They’re safe and everything,” he said. “They are all from Devils Lake and all have been in Venezuela before. I think that helped a lot, too.”
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Bethel has had a mission partnership with the community since 2002, according to Dick.
Church missionaries normally travel to Venezuela twice a year - the winter trip designed to provide medical, dental or other physical care.
All four members of the recent group are married and have have families in Devils Lake. One is a medical doctor.
“He’s been there the most, eight to 10 times,” Dick said.
The missionaries were questioned for several days before being deported Saturday, reportedly for not possessing proper visas, according to Don Canton, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
They then traveled from Venezuela to Aruba, where they have been staying until they return to North Dakota.
Dick said he does not know details of their detention, other than to say they were questioned by authorities for several days, but that they were treated well.
There said there are no immediate plans for a public homecoming.
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“We just want to get them home to their families and get them rest,” he said.
