Anxious parishioners got some good news Wednesday night about the 11 people sent by their Ottawa church on a mission trip to Haiti — they're safe, following a massive earthquake in the Caribbean nation.

"They're all alive, the missionaries!" shouted Claire-Lise Jean-Louis in French as she ran back into the evening prayer service at Église Évangelique Baptiste d'Ottawa.

"We thank the Lord for that," Jean-Louis added later.

The news was just what Jean-Louis had hoped for when she went to pick up the phone ringing in the church office. She was one of a few dozen people who had gathered at the church in Ottawa's Lowertown neighbourhood to pray for Haiti and share information about missing friends and relatives.

Tuesday's earthquake destroyed thousands of buildings in Haiti, including the National Palace, and may have killed 100,000 people, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has estimated.

Franky Narcisse, one of the pastors of the church, had taken a group to Haiti last week.

His son, Patrick Narcisse, said he'll be much more relieved when his father is back on Canadian soil. Meanwhile, he is still waiting to hear from other relatives in Haiti.

"All we can do is pray and wait by the phone all day," he said.

"Even when they say they're OK, we know they're not really OK, 'cause their houses are collapsed and everything," he said. "So we're waiting to hear what are they doing next — where are they going to find shelter? Where are they going to find food?"

But Narcisse added that Haitians, who have so little, always seem to have faith.

A fundraiser for victims of the earthquake in Haiti is being held in Ottawa Thursday night at the Babylon nightclub on Bank Street. It will collect donations for CARE Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Québec and Save the Children Canada.