The 33 children on the bus have been temporarily placed in an orphanage on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince that is run by SOS Children’s Villages, an organization based in Austria. On its Web site Sunday, SOS said at least one of the children, an 8-year-old girl, told workers, “I am not an orphan” and that she believed that her mother had arranged a short vacation for her.

In an earlier posting, SOS said that the children were destined for adoption and that a group associated with the 10 Baptists, New Life Children’s Refuge, advertised adoptions for Americans. But Laura Silsby, 40, who was among those detained, said that New Life Children’s Refuge had paid no money for the children and learned about them from a Haitian pastor, Jean Sanbil of the Sharing Jesus Ministries.

Ms. Silsby also said that her group, which also included members from Texas and Kansas, planned to take the children to a 45-room hotel in Cabarete, Dominican Republic, which it had converted into a temporary orphanage until it builds a permanent one.

The church group also includes worshipers at Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho.

A Web site belonging to the East Side Baptist Church contains an informational attachment for New Life, describing it as “a nonprofit Christian ministry dedicated to rescuing, loving and caring for orphaned, abandoned and impoverished Haitian and Dominican children, demonstrating God’s love and helping each child find healing, hope, joy and new life in Christ.”

Since the Jan. 12 earthquake, Haiti’s government has halted all adoptions unless they were in motion before the disaster. Officials fear that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to being kidnapped and sold. Prime Minister Max Bellerive’s personal authorization is now required for the departure of any child.

“The instinct to swoop in and rescue children may be a natural impulse, but it cannot be the solution for the tens of thousands of children left vulnerable by the Haiti earthquake,” Deb Barry, a protection expert at Save the Children, told The Associated Press on Sunday. Her group wants a moratorium on new adoptions. “The possibility of a child being scooped up and mistakenly labeled an orphan in the chaotic aftermath of the disaster is incredibly high.”

Still, some parents in Haiti have openly said that they would consider parting with their children if it meant a better life elsewhere. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and while the country is in need of help, many citizens have mixed feelings toward Christian groups and their missions in Haiti.

“Some parents I know have already given their children to foreigners,” Adonis Helman, 44, told The A.P. “I’ve been thinking how I will choose which one I may give  probably my youngest.”