Hundreds show up for Carter Sunday school

Associated Press

PLAINS, Ga.

The Sunday school lesson was familiar: When your burden grows heavy, ask God for strength. But the message carried a more powerful and personal meaning than usual because of who delivered it: Jimmy Carter.

The 90-year-old former president taught Sunday school in his hometown for the first time since he disclosed Thursday that his cancer had spread to his brain.

With easygoing humor and his usual toothy smile, Carter gave two back-to-back Bible lessons to unusually large crowds totaling more than 700 people – some of whom had traveled hundreds of miles – just three days after undergoing radiation treatment.

He spent less than five minutes recapping his illness before saying, “That’s enough of that subject” and beginning the lesson.

He encouraged his listeners to consider God a partner in their lives.

“Any time, we can just bow our heads and say, ‘God, I’m really troubled. I ask you to give me the strength to bear whatever is on my shoulders and to bear whatever comes to me,”’ Carter said.

The former peanut farmer and Georgia governor has been teaching Sunday school for more than three decades at his small church, which has about 40 regular members. His appearance this time drew the biggest crowd members could recall, with about 460 people packed inside.

The turnout was so big that Carter gave a second lesson at the high school for about 250 people, and about 70 others had to be turned away.