Journey into Eternity

Abstract This chapter relates how, at the age of eight-six, Carter went with The Elders to Gaza, the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Israel in his unending search for peace in the Holy Land. He would not rest, he said, until Israel and Egypt were reconciled and the last guinea worm was exterminated. But he and Rosalynn traveled less, and he was more often found in Plains on Sunday mornings teaching a Sunday School class at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, which attracted visitors from across the country and around the world who wanted to hear him related a biblically based message to his history and to current events. He and Rosalynn wrote Op-ed pieces, occasionally gave speeches, and he published a moving autobiography, A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety. When Rosalynn was recovering from a life-threatening surgery, he wrote Faith: A Journey for All. Although age, health issues, a pandemic, the waxing of conservative US politics, forced his and Rosalynn’s retreat to their home in Plains, he made his voice known with brief public statements and occasional cameo appearance at his home. He and Rosalynn celebrated their seventy-fifth wedding anniversary on July 7, 2021, and in 2022 their Carter Center that waged peace, fought disease, and promoted democracy around the world was a living institution that sealed their reputations as giants among peacemakers and humanitarians.