MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) - When Russian troops invaded the Republic of Georgia this month, two little girls from New Jersey visiting their grandparents there were stranded behind a series of checkpoints.

Two weeks later, Chris Smith, the congressman from their home district worked with officials from several nations - including the French ambassador to Georgia - to reunite the girls with their father at the U.S embassy.

Tea-h Evans of Howell said her young daughters wouldn't be on their way home if it wasn't for Smith's diplomatic efforts.

"That man, what he did is a miracle," said Evans, a chef who was born in Georgia who came to the U.S. about a decade ago.

For Smith, a Republican, that kind of diplomacy is a big part of being a congressman. He has championed global human rights during most of his 28-year congressional career.

"I've never experienced a member of Congress who is pushing me to come up with more things he can do to advance human rights," said Elisa Massimino, the Washington director of Human Rights First. "It's usually the other way around."

Smith has made several trips to international hot spots trying to help Americans, dissidents and the vulnerable.

For instance, in 1998, he flew to Bangkok to broker the release of 18 activists - including a college student from New Jersey - who were arrested for promoting democracy in Myanmar. He's worked on similar issues over the years in Northern Ireland, the former Soviet Union, China, Vietnam and Romania, among other countries.

Smith was a 27-year-old businessman when he won his first election in 1980 when the incumbent Democrat was under indictment and as Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan was energizing his party.

He was known largely as an opponent of abortion, and is still is among the staunchest in Congress. Josh Zeitz, the Democrat running for his seat in November, faults Smith's views on that and other issues - and says he does not do enough for the economy. But Zeitz's campaign had no criticism of the work Smith does overseas.

After Smith was elected to Congress, he was inspired by his religious beliefs and books such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" to focus on issues he saw as related to his core value of respecting life: Getting basic rights for people who were being deprived of them, wherever they may be.

"I really like to take up the individual case," Smith said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. "They lead to the big cases and they lead to legislation, very often."

It was the case of 7-year-old Ashley and 3-year-old Sophia Evans that took him to Georgia on a hastily scheduled trip last week.

Other members of Congress have also been in Georgia since the invasion, but their missions were more focused on the bigger picture. U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham met last week with Georgian officials in a show of solidarity with the country, a U.S. ally.

Like them, Smith met with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and other high-ranking politicians. His focus, though, was on getting the two girls out of the region safely. Eric Fournier, the French ambassador to Georgia, agreed to help.

With a car full of aid workers, he reached the girls' grandparents' farm to pick up them and their uncle, Beso Tsutskiridze, who had managed to reach the farm by foot.

The ride back to Tbilisi was treacherous, with about 10 Russian checkpoints along the way.

At one, in Gori, they were initially not allowed to leave. For three hours, Fournier called contacts until he finally got permission from a Russian general to keep traveling.

The girls were greeted at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi with McDonald's Happy Meals and cake.

Their father, Joseph Evans, was there waiting with Smith, and planned to bring them back to their home in Howell within the next few days.