Jimmy Carter on his journey of "Faith"

At age 93, former President Jimmy Carter has been out of office for more than 37 years -- plenty of time to reflect on his life, his mortality, and on his religious faith ... reflections he recently shared with Jane Pauley:

You don't often see crowds lining up for Sunday School lessons, but not many churches have a U.S. president doing the teaching.

Former President Jimmy Carter came to Maranatha Baptist Church in 1981, on the very first Sunday after he left the White House. He teaches whenever he can, and when he does, the crowd comes from far and wide.

"If President Trump wanted to send you to North Korea, you'd go?" she asked.

"I would, if he asked me to."

The constant in President Carter's life is his wife of 71 years, Rosalynn, who recently underwent intestinal surgery made more all the more risky by her advanced age. He'd been serene in the face of his own mortality -- but he says the prospect of losing her terrified him.

"I was much more concerned, and I prayed all night," he said. "And the doctor who was going to do the surgery knew how old Rosalynn was, and said, 'Mr. President, if she was 60 years old, I would tell you not to worry. But she's 90 and been acting like 60, but when she gets on the operating table she's gonna be 90. So, real concerned about it. But we'll do the best we can.' So, she came in and told me at 5:00 that Rosalynn was gonna live.

"That was a happy day," he said.

And now, with Rosalynn on the mend and his cancer scare behind him, Mr. Carter says he'll take things a bit easier -- for whatever time he has left.

Pauley asked, "How do you assess the life you've lived?"

"First of all, I would say fortunate, blessed," he said. "I've had an almost perfect wife. I've got a large and growing family. I'm perfectly at ease in just spending the final years of my life, whatever they might be, or the final months, whatever, in Plains, Georgia, more close to home."

Pauley then asked the former president to complete the phrase: "Jimmy Carter was a ________ man."

"Well, I would say as far as public service is concerned, I was a champion of peace and human rights. I sought to carve out for myself a productive and I hope useful and certainly a gratifying life. I've been very lucky."

READ AN EXCERPT: Jimmy Carter's "Faith: A Journey for All"

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story stated that Mr. Carter was the only U.S. President to visit North Korea; President Bill Clinton actually visited Pyongyang in 2009.

     For more info:

"Faith: A Journey For All" by Jimmy Carter (Simon & Schuster); Available via AmazonThe Carter Center, AtlantaThe Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, Atlanta

Jimmy Carter's Sunday School Class at Maranatha Baptist Church, Plains, Ga.

     Story produced by John D'Amelio.

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