SHARON -- A lot of people, of all colors and certainly blacks, want to go to Barack Obama's inauguration Jan. 20. Included in that hope were more than 30 from St. John Baptist Church in the small western York County town of Sharon.
A small problem hushed hope. No bus. Rental buses cost too much. And seemingly every bus east of the Mississippi was already chartered for that inaugural trip.
The Rev. John T. Brown, senior pastor at St. John, did not tell his congregation of black people -- so proud of this election, of their country and of the people of all colors who made it happen -- that hope was lost.
Brown did not quit. The members did not stop praying for a miracle.
St. John Minister Jerri Dye and her sister, church administrative assistant Debra Dye, both pass a church on a hill on S.C. 49 every day as they travel from York to Sharon. Jerri's twin sister, Minister Terri Dye, saw it many times, too.
"Hillcrest Baptist has a bus sitting right there," Debra Dye told Brown.
Sure enough, it was a commercial bus with bathrooms and blue seats with the blue words "Hillcrest Baptist Church, York, S.C." on the sides and back.
Brown on Friday called the pastor of Hillcrest, the Rev. Kerry Ohiser, a man so easygoing he is called "Pastor Kerry," or "Preacher Kerry."
The men have held Easter and Thanksgiving events together before. Ohiser is a serious man of all people -- color means not a thing to him.
By Saturday, Ohiser had everything set up.
"We wanted our bus to be used, and here was a chance to serve God and our fellow people of this area,” said Ohiser.
All he had to do was bring the idea before his own small church of about 150 on Sunday in the middle of the services. Ohiser, from the pulpit, asked for a vote of his parishioners.
Now Ohiser is a cut-up, and he cracked that, “getting a bunch of Baptists to vote ‘Yes’ on anything can be tough.”
But in rural South Carolina, between Sharon and York, every white arm raised to vote “Yes!” to help black neighbors with this bus.
“It was an awesome thing to see,” said Ohiser.
By Monday, the 33 people from St. John who wanted to go knew they had a bus to ride. And the cheers and arms rose in that church, too.
On that bus will be the Rev. Dennis Wilson and his 11-year-old son, John Wesley, who can now do dispatches for the Clover Middle School news. The three sisters, Terri, Jerri and Debra, will be on the front seats. Even a 5-year-old smiler named DyeTavious Killian, lacking front teeth, who calls the man he will see inaugurated “Rockobama!”
There are a few particulars to work out, including finding a driver. The closest hotel rooms the St. John members could find are in Richmond, Va. And buses will only be allowed so close to Washington, so the group will likely have to take some other transport into D.C.
The weather will be cold. It will be crowded.
Nobody cares.
Small problems, compared to not having a bus.
On Wednesday afternoon, the St. John pastoral team looked over the bus. Terri Dye looked at Ohiser. They had never met before, yet were now inches apart instead of worlds.
She stated words that shall live forever on S.C. 49 in Sharon to the smiling Ohiser: “I do not know how to thank you. You did not have to do this. But the people of your church did this. They did it for us. We attend different churches. We look different. Yet the God we all serve is the same God.”
