It takes more than a little dehydration to slow Jimmy Carter down. After helping to complete the building project in Winnipeg on Friday, Carter returned home to Plains, GA Saturday and was up bright and early to teach “Sunday school” at Marinatha Baptist Church. As he left Winnipeg, Habitat for Humanity announced that the 2018 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project will be in September in Mishawaka, Indiana. It is anticipated that many at nearby Notre Dame University will assist the Carters and other Habitat for Humanity volunteers. Early this week, Carter will be teaching at Emory University in Atlanta.
For those that have never been, this is what a typical “Sunday school” with Jimmy Carter is all about. Carter generally teaches about 3 of every 4 Sundays. Marinatha Baptist Church is on the outskirts of Plains, pop. 683. About 5:30 am cars start arriving in the parking lot. It is likly that you will be greated by Mr. Williams who will assign you a number. The number will determine your place in line.
Until sometime close to 8:00 am people in the parking lot doze off in thier cars, but more share coffee and doughnuts. As many as 25 states and 15 foreign countries are represented. Some are dressed in thier Sunday best, others just a little neater than for the beach. Almost everyone swats away the gnats and other small insects that abound here. A small Secret Service detail, usually with a dog, sets up a magnatometer near the entrance. Nobody is really in charge till “Miss Jan” arrives. Miss Jan once taught Amy in the White House.
Miss Jan is a bundle of energy as she directs people to line up and listen. There are rules here! Turn off your cell phone, don’t take flash pictures after the first minute or so when Jimmy enters, Rule. 1 is to listen attentively to Miss Jan and everybody follows it! Miss Jan is a true sweetheart in the persona of a Marine drill sergeant. Her goal is to manage the crowd and ensure that after the service, everyone can have thier picture made with Jimmy and Rosalynn.
At precisely 10:00 am the modest church is standing room only and Jimmy Carter comes in. Almost everyone takes a picture but Miss Jan has made sure that the phones and cameras are lowered after about a minute. President Carter asks many in the crowd where they are from and then asks a visitor, usually a minister of some sort, to lead a prayer. For 10 minutes or so Carter comments on current events or his recent activities. Then for perhaps 40 minutes Carter engages the congregation about just several sentences in a Bible verse or Psalm. Carter easily relates the Bible to modern day controversies including how some distort the Bible to denegrate the status of women or those of different races, religions or sexual orientations.
After a 10 minute break, the regular church service begins. It is a friendy Baptist service just like thousands of others across Georgia that morning. Many in the crowd stay till the end in order to line up to have pictures made. By noon or so the crowd begins to depart and many speed to the only restaurant in Plains, Miss Mimmies Diner. Southern and vegetarian fare is the speciality. Everyone has come from church where the fellowship extends to the meal. Occasionally the Carters drop by.