Sunday School with Jimmy Carter | Why I Came
Updated 2023 | President Carter no longer leads Sunday School at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains.
It was one of those things - those bucket list things - that you had to do. I hated that exhausted phrase, but for lack of a better one, this was one of those must-do bucket list entries. I'm not sure I was traveling to Plains for me or for my mama, who had loved Jimmy Carter with every ounce of her being. At 96, my mama had read ferociously, and she always had a diverse stack of material on her reading table - books she had read and ones coming up. And in that stack, always one by Jimmy Carter.
"Good for you," I could almost hear her whispering as we made our morning drive from Americus to Plains.
With only a sliver of light breaking, we arrived at Maranatha Baptist Church around 6:30 a.m., late by most standards. After the tales of people camping out the night before and others arriving as early as 4 a.m., I wasn't going to squabble about being given media seating. A good number of cars were parked in the lot, but not the number that were floating around in my head. We drove to a grassy area shaded by oak trees and parked as directed by the lady with flashing red lights attached to her hips.
Darkness kept most people in their cars, but a few wandered from car to car, talking to others. I suspected they were as curious as we were as to why people were here. License plates from all over the US assured us of a diverse geographic crowd for the legendary 10 a.m. service. As day dawned, the remaining people began emerging from cars, stretching from sitting too long, tossing back the last of their coffee, and moving in the general direction of the sanctuary.
And it was then, we discovered stories.
Our first welcome of the morning came from Betty Godwin. Godwin (below right), Plains Mayor 'Boze's' wife, came bright and early, just as she did every Sunday. As a charter member of Maranatha (some 41 years) and friend and neighbor of Carter, Godwin knew the chemistry of this land and the man. "I come up here every Sunday to welcome everyone. This is a place of worship, and President Carter is an instrument. He knows that."
Got Carter? With red flashing hazard lights strapped to her jeans, Jill Stuckey, parking lot patrol and all-around organizer, bounced toward us, while directing cars and navigating through a crowded lot.
"She's a mess," said Godwin. "She has to be."
For Susan and John Zourzoukis from Columbia, South Carolina, this was a gift. Having the opportunity to see and hear a former president was "like a free gift to us. Most charge for this."
"I think he's going to teach us how his faith drove his presidency," said John, "the kind of person he has always been. You get a lot of that by just being downtown. Everyone talks, not like he's the president, but he's our friend Jimmy, down the street. It's important for people to realize that there's a different way that people can live with each other and enjoy life."
Susan recalled Carter's inaugural address and how he quoted his high school teacher, Julia Coleman: We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles. "Although we go through changes in the world, we still have to remain the human being God created us to be," said Susan, confirming that Carter was "absolutely the same person he was before" his presidency, and adding, "we can't forget who we are."
Were Americans like Jimmy Carter? John said the vast majority are not, and he was "doubtful in my lifetime we'll have another president like him."
A mother and child reunion. Eric Vanwinkle of Dunwoody, Georgia, would be graduating from Georgia Tech in December and wanted to spend more time with his mother "before I move somewhere else. We have both wanted to do this for a long time, and this might be the last chance we get."
With Kristy grinning from ear-to-ear at the words spoken by her son, she shared their family's August road trip. Days were spent at The Swamp (Okefenokee), traveling from east to west and seeing everything in-between, and then a loop to see his great aunt in Jacksonville. "We've really had a nice time," she concluded. "Spending this weekend with my son is the bonus."
"He's 93," Kristy say of President Carter, "and he's not going to be here much longer. He's living history. Why wouldn't we do it?"
Both agreed that this would be a religious experience, but it would be the personal connection for which they longed. "I hope we get a better sense of who he is. I hope his compassion comes through, and we get a sense of a religious experience but from a very personal level," said Kristy.
Six classmates crammed into a white SUV and drove four hours from Chattanooga to see the former president.
Evan, Jacob, Jordan, Sara, Pamela, Jenny. While the consensus was that it was just "super cool" to be in the presence of a former president, they spoke about his rare availability to the public. It's not a common presidential attribute. As students at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee, the group had been told of the experience by teachers, one even offering extra credit for the trip.
"We're listening to him give a sermon," said Pamela. "You usually don't think of a president as being religious and that's kind of neat."
"He's good for America," said Jenny, "and," she began to laugh, "I wanted to go on a road trip with my friends."
They had first had been introduced to the life of President Carter on a school field trip to Plains, Ga., where they had visited Carter's childhood home and had seen where he had attended school. The best part, they said, was going into the auditorium and playing on the stage.
Ranging from ages nine to 12, the girls came with a purpose. Carrying Bibles, in fact, the only ones we saw with Bibles that day, had little knowledge of Carter's time in the White House. Twelve-year-old Mattie Lynn said she was here to meet President Carter. "I'm excited to hear him speak at church, and I hear he does a really terrific job."
Riley Jones of Cochran echoed the excitement. "I came to get inspiration from Mr. Carter. Even though he didn't grow up with electricity, he became one of the most successful people in the world. I may not have it all, but I have a lot more than I think I do."
The joy on faces was contagious.
It was early and most had been there for many hours, but they all wore huge smiles of anticipation. Friends Camille Hall (below left) and Emily Harris made an eight-hour drive from Hickory, North Carolina, to see the president. He was the first president Harris remembered and to see he and his daughter Amy (same age as Harris) walking down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day was a indelible memory. Hall considered Jimmy Carter "a national treasure, which is what every former president should be. "He's an inspiration to me. It makes me tear up just thinking about him."
It was the final stop on a family vacation for Dan Seidner (below right) from Collegeville, Pennsylvania. With Florida in the rear view mirror, he and his wife decided that this would be an exceptional way to end the trip for them and their two children, going to Sunday School with Jimmy Carter.
"I don't think they are as excited as me and my wife are," he smiled. "I think Jimmy Carter was a great president, great man, great role model, very humble and kind, a selfless man. The fact that someone like that was president is wonderful."
Then, there was Delaina Winters. Quite by accident, we met she and her friends the night before at the Windsor Hotel in Americus where they were having dinner under the stars at Floyd's Pub. Len and I were planning and plotting as we always do before a story, and then I heard words like "president" and "Sunday School."
Putting their words and our assignment together, I knew I had to begin our story here. "Don't let me embarrass you," I announced to Len as I stood up with my phone/recorder in hand and headed toward the women.
Tomorrow would not be the first time Winters would be standing in line to see Jimmy Carter. This would be her third time waiting with strangers to see this former president.
And today, she was tired, that "beginning of the year teacher tired." Tossing the weariness aside, she and three girlfriends left for a girls weekend, celebrating Winters' birthday and doing something life-changing.
"It's kind of a birthday treat," she said. "It's a big moment for me. I grew up in a home that was anti-Jimmy Carter. [When my father found out I was coming here] he dug out an article that he wrote to a newspaper [when Carter was president] saying that he was the worst thing that had happened to America."
Through tears, she continued, "I have a lot of respect for him. If people take care of each other the way he has devoted his life to serving others, the world would be a much better place. We're living hypocritically; we say one thing and do another. I truly believe he is a man that loves God, and he loves others. He has let his life speak that very clearly.
"I want to see him in person before I have to stand in line and see a motorcade pass. I want to see him on this side before I go and say, 'Thank you so much for who you are and how you served.'"
In addition to these stories, there would be more than 350 others when the 375-seat sanctuary was filled. One would be the former governor of Alabama Jim Folsom who sat on the second row of the sanctuary. Another, a Cambodian mail-order bride who drove from Colorado with her new husband to see the president. From Japan, a group of giddy 15-year-old teenagers from Sumter County's sister city, Miyoshi City, near Hiroshima, filled the traditional choir loft. Also, a film crew from Georgia Public Television capturing footage of Carter and his church for the Saving Grace series.
By 9:30 a.m., seventy-five more had arrived and were moved into the overflow room, waiting patiently in front of a TV monitor.
For some, the religious experience drove them to this spot. For some, a moment in history. Others came because of the man, not so much as what he had done during his time in the White House, but how he had lived his life since he left. For most, the draw was to be able to sit in the same room as a former president of the United States and converse with him as if he was your neighbor, your friend, your Sunday School teacher.
Volunteers from the church were in place (sometimes as early at 4 a.m.) to coordinate what many considered a circus. Got Carter? organizer Jill Stuckey said August was the slow month.
Miss Jan (as she called herself) offered up advice to the crowd before her. "You better be here way before 5 o'clock." As you enter the parking lot, you get a number and that's your order. Not each person but each vehicle. And if you keep your numbers and want to use them next time to bump in line, "We know." A man in the crowd asked about Carter's upcoming schedule. "How long will he be doing this?" Miss Jan responded in her stern voice, "Come this year and come early."
By 8 a.m., the parking lot was full in the slow month of August.
Miss Jan gathered visitors in a circle in the parking lot, pointing and instructing them what they could do, what they couldn't do. And if you did what you shouldn't, secret service would rain down in the blink of an eye. After everyone was scanned and searched by the men and women in black and blue, the sanctuary doors were opened and seating was completed by 9 a.m., a full hour before the scheduled 10 a.m. start.
So we sat and waited. With the sanctuary and overflow room filled, everyone that arrived this August morning got a seat.
Before President Carter's lesson, his niece Jana, Billy's daughter, welcomed and instructed and shared that Uncle Jimmy had made the wooden cross hanging in the front of the church as well as the offering plates. Turn them over, she said, and you'll see his initials. She handed them to a man sitting on the front row to pass throughout the crowd. She quickly said, "I want these back." Adding, "Don't stand and clap for him; he doesn't like that."
As any good Southerner would do, she invited people to join them for Sunday dinner down at The Silo Restaurant. "It's good ol' Southern cooking," she said. "Take a right at the light. There used to be a caution light, but they took it down." She reminded people of another option; the best peanut butter ice cream could be found at Plains Peanuts in downtown. We were told it would change our lives. Research confirmed that statement.
"There's only 700 of us in Plains, and about 200 of them are dogs and cats. We have a good time."
Then, Maranatha's 24-year-old pastor Brandon Patterson filled the air with laughter and joy, answering questions thrown at him from every corner of the auditorium. He's has been at Maranatha for the last 18 months and understands, "that it's hard to be a pastor" especially given his youthful appearance. Understandably, his neon purple/pink bowtie "makes me look good," he confessed as he asked the congregation for confirmation, "Do I look good today?" Laughter erupted as he awarded all the credit to his wife because "she dressed me." When asked how he met his wife, "As I freshman in college, I prayed for my future wife and kids. That's how I met my wife."
His favorite story of Carter was when Carter won the presidential nomination. The young man smiled as he painted an portrait of Carter and his wife Rosalynn walking together, hand-in-hand. Carter turned to his wife, "Aren't you glad you didn't marry that other guy?" Without skipping a beat, Rosalynn responded, "If I did, then he'd be president."
Patterson seemed not the least bit shaken to be the lead act for a former president. He acknowledged, "It doesn't happen everyday that you have an ex-president in your congregation."
Out of the corner of my eye, my gaze caught President Carter discreetly moving into the sanctuary flanked by two secret service men. He sat patiently in a metal fold-up chair next to the wall, waiting for his cue. The pastor felt the change in the room's atmosphere as all eyes moved from his face to the man who had just entered the room.
A few more words from the young leader, and with a nod, President Carter slowly stood and walked to the podium.
Original Post | August 19, 2018
