KTKA

Topeka — Thirty-four-year-old Drew Culberth is a full-time Topeka fireman and a part-time youth pastor at Bethel Baptist Church.

"He has a heart for people," says Rev. James Keller of Bethel Baptist. "He loves people. I think that's why he chose the career he's in, because he wants to help people."

Culberth heard about a team headed to Haiti, and that's all it took.

"You see the devastation on TV and think, I'd like to do something," said Keller. "And then the opportunity comes to go and it's like 'can I go?' That's the kind of guy he is."

But Saturday, Culberth and nine other team members were arrested, accused of trying to illegally take children out of Haiti and into the Dominican Republic.

"We were shocked initially," said Keller. "Why would they be arrested? Then bits and pieces started coming out and we wondered "Wow, why would they accuse them of that?"

Another Topeka minister, Max Manning has traveled to Haiti for the past 47 years. He says there are government has reason to question any child being taken out of their country - even after a devastating earthquake.

"I feel strongly about it because I have people come to me and say, do you know how I can find my children," he said.

Manning doesn't question legal adoptions like the O'Byrnes in Holton, which took four years. But he says well-meaning Americans can also get involved in questionable adoptions.

"They mean well and on this side their innocent," said Manning. "But on the other side, children are actually being sold."

At Bethel Baptist, Pastor Keller says he still doesn't believe that's anything his youth pastor is involved with.

"What do I know, 'cause I don't know the circumstances, but from everything I hear, that's what comes across," he said. "And knowing people's hearts."

Manning speculates the ten Americans are not being held in the notorious Port au Prince prison, since it, too, was destroyed in the quake.

A Haitian official says the hearing for the Americans will resume Tuesday morning.