“Having compassion for someone is different than feeling sorry for them. Compassion leads to action.”
According to Laura Walton, associate professor of communication at Mississippi State University, this quote summarizes her past year embarking on multiple missions to the small island country of Haiti.
Sitting behind a desk in casual business attire, framed by numerous degrees and a Ph.D., one might be shocked to realize Walton finds her passion in a remote Caribbean island an ocean away.
Walton said her heart for Haiti began three years ago when she tuned in to the coverage flooding American news outlets on the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010.
“I was about nine months pregnant at the time the earthquake hit, and I was emotional anyways, but it was the first time that a natural disaster in which I just couldn’t turn away from it. I would watch the hours of coverage and just cry; it was just awful,” Walton said. “There was just something about it that was different than any other natural disaster for me, personally. I feel like God was putting a call in my life to serve in Haiti.”
Due to the birth of her second child, Walton would not be able to physically make it to Haiti until over two years later; however, Walton said it was impossible to sit in American stagnation over the situation mounting in Haiti without contributing in some way.
“Our Sunday school class at my church basically committed to sending school kit bags. Somewhere in the information about the project, we learned it was going to Haiti. I taught myself to sew. It was kind of one of those where I couldn’t go, so I was trying to find ways to give and to contribute and feel like I was helping until I could go,” Walton said.
The opportunity to travel to Haiti was finally granted to Walton in the summer of 2012 when she was met with a chance case of serendipity.
“In the spring of 2012, a lady in our Sunday school class mentioned she had a cousin who was going with Fairview Baptist in Columbus to Haiti and asked if anybody was interested in going,” Walton said. “It was uncontrollable, it was like, ‘Me!’ I couldn’t get there fast enough to tell her I wanted more information and to go.”
The initial mission trip consisted of a group of about 40 people coming together to perform medical and construction work in Anse-a-Pitre, Haiti. The mission was part of a project known as the Promise Land Project put on by Hispaniola Mountain Missions, in Jackson, Miss. The project encompasses plans to construct schoolhouses, a church and a medical clinic serving a local community in Haiti. The current medical care is given from within a portable tent, and Walton said the church consists of little more than sticks and woven material forming a makeshift enclosure.
Walton was able to travel back to Haiti this past February.
“We worked in a different area. It was Recif, but it was great to be in Anse-a-Pitre where we worked in June and to see the school finished and the kids going to school there, and just to know that we were a part of hopefully making things better for those kids,” Walton said. “It was really cool. We got to be there on Monday morning to see their opening exercises in the courtyard, and it was just really awesome to see that.”
Back in the United States, Walton has worked alongside the MSU chapter of Public Relations Student Society of America to organize a 5k in Research Park, Glo4Haiti, to raise additional funds for the missions trip Walton is leading back to Haiti in May. Walton cites the amazing support of her family and work as a huge factor in her ability to travel to and from Haiti.
“I just feel like it’s been a process of finding the way to serve that fits that point in my life, and also that meets the greatest need. That’s what I’ve tried to do,” Walton said. “When I went in June, it completely changed my life, and I couldn’t come back and be still and be complacent knowing what I had seen and not try to raise awareness and be a part of it.”
Even with all the passion Walton exhibits, she said there were times fear and doubt made her second guess her decision to keep returning to Haiti.
“It would have been easy to be like, ‘I’m just going to help from here. I’m just going to do this race. I’m not actually going to go. I’m just going to give you the money to go,'” Walton said. “I feel like there are times God calls us to go ourselves, and there are times that God calls us to support those that do go, and so right now I feel he’s called me to do both, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
For those interested in giving to or supporting the Haiti missions, Glo4Haiti will take place at Research Park on March 26, and additional information on the run and what it benefits visit http://www.glo4haiti.com.