Former President Jimmy Carter's Sunday school lesson offered wisdom, bucket-list memory

When it comes to bucket-list aspirations, it seems like a longshot.

Meeting a former president. Telling him how much his accomplishments meant to you, how much it meant to cast your long ago first vote in a presidential election for him, even though he didn’t win.

Yet that’s the kind of thing that used to happen on a regular basis at Maranatha Baptist Church in tiny Plains, Georgia, where Jimmy Carter, the nation’s 39th president, used to teach Sunday school. I know because it happened to me.

Memories of that Sunday morning experience with a former president in September 2017 resurfaced this week in the wake of news that Carter, the longest-lived American president, had decided to enter home hospice care at age 98.

In case you missed it:Former President Jimmy Carter enters hospice care at 98, charity says

Carter's humanitarian work loomed large for many church visitors

Why did so many flock to those Sunday school lessons?

After a one-term presidency often regarded as ineffectual, Carter redefined his legacy with a post-presidency devoted to service of others.

A tireless advocate for Habitat for Humanity

For more than 35 years, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, worked alongside nearly 103,000 volunteers in 14 countries to build, renovate and repair 4,331 homes, according to Habitat For Humanity’s website.

The organization credits the Carters with transforming it into an internationally recognized force for decent and affordable housing.

The Carter Center: Pursuing peace

Founded in partnership with Emory University, the organization seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts worldwide, enhance freedom and democracy and improve healthcare worldwide through a fundamental commitment to human rights and the alleviation of human suffering.

Accomplishments include observing 113 elections in 39 countries to help establish and strengthen democracies and leading a coalition that has reduced incidence of Guinea worm disease by 99.99%, making it likely to be the first human disease since smallpox to be eradicated, according to the organization’s website.

Sunday lessons

Although Carter stopped teaching Sunday school in 2020, due to a combination of pandemic restrictions and his own health issues, his lessons had attracted capacity crowds in the tiny country church for years.

That was the case on my visit, an impromptu road trip with a former newspaper colleague, Austin Fuller. Some 30 years younger than I am, he knew about Carter’s presidency from history books. It was more personal for me.

We arrived before dawn in a church parking lot already filling with cars, received a slip of paper with a number assuring our entrance into the sanctuary. Inside, there was a security checkpoint and a list of rules about behavior during the service and afterward, when the Carters would be available for pictures, but not for conversation.

“This is not your special day with the president,” a church leader stressed to visitors.

The lesson that morning was about giving, about not waiting to do something for others, not waiting to become what you want to be. Offering was collected in wooden plates that Carter had made for the church where he also used to cut the grass and handle other odd jobs.

After we shuffled through the long line for the post-service photo op, I bent the rules by quickly telling the former president about my admiration for his life of service and my long-ago first vote  — for him. He offered a smile and a nod.

It was a special day, even if it wasn’t supposed to be.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Former President Jimmy Carter's Sunday school lessons attracted thousands