Inauguration Day!

First I'm going to start with the craziness that was at the front door in the morning.

There were busses and people and more busses and more people. All the other house guests got up early and stood out in the COLD- and it was cold- for the inauguration. I chose to hang out at the church with Alisa and watch it there.



There were probably 100 people who gathered in the basement of the church to watch the ceremony. Many were part of a large group that had bussed down the previous night from a church Alisa had worked with in Charlotte, NC prior to moving to D.C. this summer. They arrived at about 3am and slept in the church.

During, and more importantly, after the inauguration Alisa opened the church doors to anyone who needed a bathroom, a warm up, a cup of coffee, or a bowl of soup. Several members of the South Tryon Church from Charlotte as well as many members of CHUMC manned the church and served the visitors. I got the lucky job of greeting people at the door. There had to be 500+ people through that door! They were cold, many had been standing outside for 7+ hours. They were weary. One family had their 79 year old grandmother with them who'd been outside all day and had walked blocks and blocks. Some of the metro stations had closed down due to overcrowding and people falling on the tracks, leaving these visitors with no option but to keep walking. The busses weren't running on the hill and there were many chartered busses that could not get back into the city. There were two groups who sat in the sanctuary of the church until after 8pm because their busses weren't permitted back into the city. I have no idea where these people would have waited had CHUMC not been there and open. Carol, the CHUMC member who I was greeting with would throw the doors open when she saw someone with an elderly person in their party, or a child, or a person with a cane and call out to them to come warm up. There were droves of people. I talked with people from the Bahamas, Canada, North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and more... And everyone was so thankful. It was so touching to see America come together in this way. People chatted with strangers, helped people they had never met with directions and information. They shared what few cabs could be obtained late in the day. I heard multiple times, "This is what the house of the Lord should look like." It was truly an honor to serve my fellow Americans that day and see a glimpse of all sorts of people gathered in hope, peace, and joy.