Hudson on mission to help

A single moment pierced his heart.
It was January of 2008, and Barry Hudson was in Ethiopia, sweltering in the heat as the East African sun hammered down without mercy.
“A little girl came up,” Hudson remembers. “I asked her if she would like some water, and she shook her head no.”
Hudson couldn’t accept the answer.
He gave the 11-year-old his bottle of water. “She drinks dirty water every day,” says Hudson. “And she has to fetch it from far away.”
It was the first bottle of clean water the girl had held in her life.
As Hudson watched, something happened.
“Before she takes a drink, she shares it with her friend,” he says. “Seeing sights like that will change your heart.”
For Hudson and his family, the transformation was from biblical tourists to full engagement with a country and a people in need.
That first trip in 2008 by Hudson, his wife Elizabeth, and their daughter Mary was followed in 2009 with a return by Hudson and his son Aaron.
Hudson returned to Ethiopia twice last year, once in January then again in September when he set in motion plans to build a school on the outskirts of Axum.
Why Ethiopia?
It’s a question Hudson himself has asked.
“I was at a First Merchants Bank board meeting and one of the directors from Lafayette told me he’d just been to Ethiopia,” he recalls. “And I said, ‘Why would anyone go to Ethiopia?’”
The answer is the Ark of the Covenant, which is said to be housed in a church in Axum, a city that legend says was once the home of the Queen of Sheba.
“Aaron and I went to a Promisekeepers meeting and met Bob Cornuke, who is an ark searcher,” says Hudson.
Cornuke is the founder of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration Institute and leads groups of biblically-oriented tourists to sites including those in Ethiopia.
“I thought that would be a good religious experience (for the family),” says Hudson. “So it started out as a religious search.”
It became much more. After a week with Cornuke’s group, the Hudsons split off for a week on their own with a driver.
The sights were amazing, but it was the people — like the little girl who shared the first clean bottle of water in her life — that made the greatest impression.“They are a very caring, sharing, Christian people that you need to see to understand,” says Hudson.
Along the way, the family moved out of the sheltered bubble of tourism and into the lives of the Ethiopians.
“The friends I’ve made have dirt floors, no running water. They cook in open fires,” says Hudson.
The Hudsons weren’t the only Americans touched by what they encountered. Their paths crossed with Lillian Johnson, minister of a small church in West Virginia. She was on her second trip when the Hudsons were on their first, and she had decided to stay on in Axum by herself for awhile to see if she could have an impact.
“I thought she was absolutely nuts,” laughs Hudson, knowing that he has followed the same path.
“I’m not there as a tourist (anymore),” he says.
Johnson has gone on to found an orphanage in Axum and to organize a series of small shops that help provide a livelihood to women afflicted with AIDS.
“The great thing is, most people who go come back feeling the Ethiopians will help each other, work, and share,” says Hudson. “They want to improve, and they also see how important education is.”
Both Johnson and the Hudsons have relied upon two young men who worked with Cornuke’s biblical tourism organization.
Dawit Tesfay and Semere Beyene have helped steer financial support through the church to assist individuals the Hudsons are trying to help.
“We’ve got a family over there,” says Hudson. “It’s the little girl who shared the water. That’s our family.”
The girl, named Sanyat,  and her mother have also taken in a homeless, orphaned, 14-year-old girl named Wudisie, who is confined to a wheelchair.
Hudson encountered Wudisie on his most recent visit.“The last visit was to see how we can possibly build a school,” says Hudson, adding with a laugh, “I don’t even know who ‘we’ is.”
Hudson was methodical in his September visit, watching and learning and listening.
“The purpose of this trip was to bring me closer to God, which it did,” he says.
His request to visit a local school led to a two-hour hike through rough terrain — each way. The school was humble, but it was providing an education to two shifts of students each day.
“There were no chairs,” says Hudson. “A dirt floor. But yet the kids are happy and smiling and they walk to school.”
With the help of Semere and Dawit, the idea of building a school began to take shape.
Hudson visited other schools and looked at some bare ground.
“We finally came up with where we want to build,” he says of a spot on the outskirts of Axum. “We’ve been given the official stamp to build one block of classrooms.”
Plans call for eight classrooms in two buildings that will officially be part of Haweiti Primary School. The 5,500-square-foot building is expected to cost $80,000 to construct. With two shifts of students per day, 800 kids will benefit.
Donations for school construction may be made to Project RELIEF, a non-profit organized by Jay Schools superintendent Tim Long. “His vision is changing the world one school house at a time,” Hudson says of Long.
“We can also gather funds through Asbury (United Methodist Church),” he adds. “We want people to see that it’s Christians helping Christians, and it’s built by the church.”
Beyond the school, it’s not clear what else lies on the horizon for the family’s involvement.
Aaron Hudson is interested in returning to Ethiopia next summer for work on a new project.
“You have to have — as Bob Cornuke says — your heart pierced,” says Hudson. “You have to see it and live it. You can mean so much to so many.”[[In-content Ad]]