Chapter 15

Going Home

Rain poured down on the Carters when they reached Plains. Even so, more than three thousand neighbors, friends, and supporters gathered to welcome them home with a potluck supper. They called it, “The world’s largest covered-dish dinner.” A band played, and friends cheered as Jimmy and Rosalynn danced a waltz. Then Jimmy and Rosalynn walked to their house. A few hours later, Jimmy boarded a plane for Germany where he greeted the newly released hostages. When he finally returned to Plains, he slept for nearly twenty-four hours.

After months of exhausting work and campaigning, Jimmy and Rosalynn needed a vacation. They went to a national park in the Virgin Islands for ten days. They spent time reading and sleeping, and when their energy returned, they went swimming, fishing, sailing, and hiking. They even learned to windsurf. But the Carters did not intend to spend the rest of their lives on vacation. They had work to do.

They unpacked and got Amy settled in school. Jimmy and Rosalynn found life in Plains relaxing and enjoyable after the busy years in politics. President Carter set up a woodworking shop in his garage. The equipment was a gift from his Washington staff, and it was perfect. Once everything was set up, he climbed into a limousine surrounded by Secret Service agents and set off for a lumber store to buy wood. His first project was to install a new wooden floor in the attic. He took up woodworking with the same enthusiasm he poured into other favorite activities like fishing and hunting.

Rosalynn began baking bread. Together, Jimmy and Rosalynn planted a garden. Homegrown vegetables overflowed the kitchen shelves. So did the wild plums, blackberries, and persimmons that Jimmy and Rosalynn gathered during their walks in the nearby woods. They became experts at canning, freezing, and preserving vegetables and fruits. Not only did they taste delicious, but they were healthy too. The Carters hiked and biked through the countryside. They’ve always valued exercise and a healthy diet.

The Carters were surrounded by friends and family. They even had important overseas visitors. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and his wife visited the Carters in Plains. Rosalynn made them lunch, and Jimmy introduced the Egyptian leaders to his friends and neighbors. President Sadat even joined the Carters at church.

Soon after Sadat left, Jimmy and Rosalynn traveled to China and Japan. Chinese newspapers printed front-page pictures of Jimmy jogging along China’s Great Wall. Chinese leaders honored Jimmy as a peacemaker, as did the people of Japan.

No sooner had Jimmy and Rosalynn returned to Plains than Israel’s Prime Minister Begin arrived for a friendly visit. So did the former president of France, Giscard d’Estaing and several of the men who had been held hostage in Iran. They shared tales of their capture and release. These visits and trips lifted Jimmy’s spirits. He was enjoying life in Plains, and he began to think about the future in exciting new ways.

Jimmy and Rosalynn spent time discussing their years in Washington. Jimmy began work on a book called Keeping Faith about his years as president. “There is no doubt I could have done some things better,” he wrote, but he was proud that his administration had passed an amazing number of new laws and programs. There was the energy program, the Panama Canal Treaty, and the Camp David Accords. His most satisfying accomplishments had to do with human rights and peace. As he now says:

I not only kept my own country at peace, but I was one of the few presidents in history that never dropped a bomb or never launched a missile, never fired a bullet . . . and we also brought peace to other people.

The first building project

When Jimmy left Washington, all his presidential papers had come with him. They filled twenty-four moving trucks! Jimmy knew that building a permanent home for the presidential papers was his job. But he wasn’t excited about the project — at least not until he came up with a new idea. He wanted to create “a place to resolve conflicts,” he told Rosalynn, a place that would recreate the atmosphere at Camp David where he had helped create an agreement between Egypt and Israel. “There is no place like that now,” he said. He also wanted to provide help to nations like the Sudan and Ethiopia where thousands of people were dying in civil wars or from hunger and disease. So Jimmy brought his energy and enthusiasm to a new project. The Carter Center would be not only a presidential library. It would be a one-of-a-kind peace-making and problem-solving center. The Carter Center became Jimmy Carter’s gift to the world.

The United States has thirteen presidential libraries. They are not like regular libraries. They are more like museums and research centers. They house the papers and records created during a president’s time in office, photographs of the president and his family, and gifts the president received from foreign governments. Historians and writers use the libraries for research.

Sunday school

The Carters joined Maranatha Baptist Church, a new church that formed while they were in Washington. Jimmy took his turn mowing the church lawn, and he offered to teach Sunday school. At first, church members were pleased. Then tourists flooded the church, eager for a glimpse of the former president and first lady. “People were standing up to take pictures. They were talking. It was not worship; it was entertainment,” church member Jan Williams said. “We had members going home because there was not room to sit.”

Today Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school in Plains.

Church members realized that they had a special opportunity to share their faith with others, but they had to develop a plan. They set aside a section of seats for church members. They greeted visitors at the door and explained how they expected visitors to behave. For example, they allow visitors to take a few quick photos of President Carter when he greets them, but then they must put the cameras away and sit quietly for the lesson and the worship service that follows.

For the past thirty years, Jimmy Carter has taught Sunday school whenever he is home. He begins by asking, “Do we have any visitors?” The answer is always yes. Over the years, people from every US state and many continents have attended the class. There are always a few Baptists, but people come from many different churches. Some have never been to church before — anywhere.

After Sunday school, President and Mrs. Carter attend the worship service. A Secret Service agent stands quietly nearby. When he returned to Plains, Jimmy Carter lived the words he had spoken during his last Sunday school class in Washington, DC. He intended to serve God by serving others — both at church and in the larger community.