--- title: Jimmy Carter Does Double Duty at Sunday School After Sharing Cancer News description: Former President taught a second class due to overwhelming demand in Plains, Ga. canonical: https://time.com/4007544/jimmy-carter-sunday-school-cancer/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-23T21:19:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:22:21.610Z article:section: Politics og:title: Jimmy Carter Does Double Duty at Sunday School og:description: Just days after sharing news that his cancer has spread og:url: https://time.com/4007544/jimmy-carter-sunday-school-cancer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fca2df3a7c6cdc7/69886086196cf424fb037b0b/jimmy-carter-school.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Former President Jimmy Carter opens up a Bible while teaching Sunday School class at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015, in Plains, Ga. The 90-year-old Carter gave one lesson to about 300 people filling the small Baptist churc og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jimmy Carter Does Double Duty at Sunday School twitter:description: Just days after sharing news that his cancer has spread twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fca2df3a7c6cdc7/69886086196cf424fb037b0b/jimmy-carter-school.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jimmy Carter Does Double Duty at Sunday School After Sharing Cancer News by [Sara Hammell / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Sara Hammell / People Aug 23, 2015 9:19 PM UTC  Former President Jimmy Carter opens up a Bible while teaching Sunday School class at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown Plains, Ga., on Aug. 23, 2015. Former President Jimmy Carter opens up a Bible while teaching Sunday School class at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown Plains, Ga., on Aug. 23, 2015.David Goldman—AP by [Sara Hammell / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Sara Hammell / People Aug 23, 2015 9:19 PM UTC More than 800 people lined up in the wee hours outside the tiny Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga. on Sunday to hear Jimmy Carter teach his 689th Sunday School lesson, with the crowds eventually filling the sanctuary and an overflow room, before the former president volunteered to do double-duty and teach an unprecedented second class. Days after he shared the grim news that the cancer found in his liver is melanoma and has spread to four “very small” spots in his brain, the much-loved humanitarian seemed in high spirits. He was energetic enough, in fact, that when he learned hundreds of people would have to be turned away, he volunteered to teach another class at the local Plains high school for the first time ever… [Read more at People.com](http://www.people.com/article/jimmy-carter-sunday-school-lesson-georgia) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4007544/jimmy-carter-sunday-school-cancer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4007544/jimmy-carter-sunday-school-cancer/"},"headline":"Jimmy Carter Does Double Duty at Sunday School After Sharing Cancer News","datePublished":"2015-08-23T21:19:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:22:21.610Z","description":"Former President taught a second class due to overwhelming demand in Plains, Ga.","url":"https://time.com/4007544/jimmy-carter-sunday-school-cancer/","keywords":["White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fca2df3a7c6cdc7/69886086196cf424fb037b0b/jimmy-carter-school.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sara Hammell / People"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fca2df3a7c6cdc7/69886086196cf424fb037b0b/jimmy-carter-school.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Former President Jimmy Carter opens up a Bible while teaching Sunday School class at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015, in Plains, Ga. 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