Arising early, most of the choir dined at the motel buffet for breakfast (with a few making their way to the Waffle House next door). Piling onto the bus after packing up the hotel rooms, we departed Americus and headed for Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, GA. When we got there, a line had already formed for people waiting to get in. After a bit of confusion about which door the Secret Service wanted us to use, the choir members eventually formed their own line at the front door. We received a variety of instructions even before entering the church: "Don't zip up your robes until you've gone through security"; "You may take books in but NOT books by President Carter"; "Once you go in, you cannot come back out"; "No pocket knives or knitting needles." Once we held our arms out for "the wand," we passed through the security checkpoint and were warmly greeted by pastor Jeff Summers.
The choir quickly got into place and ran through the morning's music - with Doris and Martha running through the planned solo for the first time! Though we expected a lot of down time after the rehearsal and before the Sunday school class began, everything moved very quickly. Following our abbreviated rehearsal, they opened the doors and started seating visitors. Two sections of the sanctuary were reserved for their own members, but the rest of the sanctuary filled quickly and they used their fellowship hall (equipped with a monitor) for overflow.Miz Jan and Her Husband
"Miz" Jan Williams, who was our host for the morning, gave us detailed instructions on how we were to act, what we were to say (and not to say) and what we needed to do for pictures with the Carters after the service. Some examples of Jan's instructions:* "When President Carter enters the room, no one is to applaud or stand, EXCEPT uniformed military personnel (as President Carter was their Commander in Chief)."
* "President Carter will ask, 'Are there any visitors this morning?' and you are to laugh as he thinks it's funny."
* "President Carter will ask what states are represented. Once a state has been mentioned, you don't need to mention it again. (And for those of you who don't know, Atlanta is NOT a state.)"
* "While going through the states, this is the only time you will be allowed to take photographs of President Carter. If you take a photo after this, your camera will be borrowed by an usher for the next two hours."
* "Then President Carter will recognize ministers and missionaries asking their denomination and residence."
President Carter Looks Over The Crowd
Once all the instructions were given (and there were a good many of them), they passed out the Sunday school curriculum (Uniform Lesson Plans), and before we knew it, President Carter and Mrs. Carter entered from opposite doors. President Carter took a quick look around without having heard the choir sing a note looked at us and said, "What a beautiful choir."After the introductions, President Carter began the lesson and spoke about many thing including evolution, intelligent design, stem cell research, the psalms in general, and Psalm 139 (the focus of the lesson) in particular.
About halfway through the lesson, we learned (via a note from the Pastor) that the Carters needed to leave early and to accommodate the people who were expecting to have their picture taken, the service needed to be shortened, including the solo that Doris and Martha were planning. When the Sunday school class was over (at about 10:45am), we quickly made some adjustments to the upcoming worship service by shortening a lesson, moving a solo before the service, rearranging the order of worship and preparing to start a few minutes earlier than planned.
The choir began with the choral prelude: Mark Hayes' arrangement of Day by Day (Daniel Elder, soloist) and followed that wil Doris and Martha presenting the arrangement of Amazing Grace. We're not sure when, exactly, the Carters reentered the sanctuary, but it was President Carter who began the applause after Amazing Grace.
The service was less formal than ours and proceeded at a casual pace, but due to the time constraint, it kept moving. Our choir provided the three readers of the morning: Greg Price, Meg Granum and John Tsao. The choir also sang the offertory and the anthem. In fact, the title of the offertory is Offertory - a setting of Micah 6:6-8, which was the text President Carter used for his inaugural address. Then, for the anthem, the choir left their folders on their seats, stood and sang from memory: Gilbert Martin's exciting setting of Which I Survey the Wondrous Cross. It is a thrilling arrangement of what many hymnologists consider the finest hymn text in the English language. When the choir released the final "Amen," there was an audible positive reaction from the congregation.
Following the sermon, the pastor, Jeff Summers, surprised Tom by asking him to do the closing prayer. Tom (who will tell you that he's not an experienced extemporaneous leader of prayer and was a bit taken aback) made his way to the pulpit and blessed us all with a beautiful and heart-felt prayer.
Once the service was over, we packed up our music and made our way outside for a photo session with the Carters. We were encouraged to be the last group photographed with the Carters and the other sessions moved very quickly. After photos with the (non-robed) groupies (above) and with our choir (below), President Carter (who didn't have a lot of time for conversation) smiled and told us, "You are welcome to come back every Sunday."
Packing up our robes and loading up the buses, we did a quick drive around Plains (to the fenced "compound" where the Carters live and then out to see the "boyhood home" from the road), headed to Americus for a bit of lunch and returned to Athens (with an unintentional detour to Jackson, Georgia).
