Our busy "day off" in Americus, GA!

President Jimmy Carter & First Lady Rosalynn Carter with the riders  

Today was a very exciting day. We started off the morning, by going to Maranatha Baptist Church to hear President Jimmy Carter teach Sunday school. It was a great experience getting to hear him speak in person. When we got to the church, we started to go in the back door, and a secret service agent stopped us and made us go to the front to be searched before entering the church. They even had dogs in the parking lot sniffing out the cars to make sure everything was ok. After church, we had the opportunity to take a group photo with President Carter and his wife. 

After we left the Baptist Church, we headed to the Mennonite Fellowship Church for lunch. Our trip leader Ryan, who attends this church, had previously told us how great the food would be. We had a pot luck lunch with lots of pastas, salads, and vegetables. It was just as good as Ryan said it would be too. As we ate and fellowshipped, it started to rain, so we all hung out a little longer waiting on the rain to pass over.

Millard Fuller's simple burial site in Koinonia Farm

When we left from lunch, we headed to Koinonia Farm for a tour. If you don’t know what Koinonia Farm is, it was a place where blacks and whites lived together before people accepted that everyone was equal. Mr. Millard Fuller and his family lived on this farm, and he created the concept of no more shacks and ending housing poverty here. When we got to the farm, Mark Benjamin, who lives on the farm and also rode with us for a week, gave us a tour of the farm. We got to see how they collected and shelled pecans, and where and how they made many of the products they sell. They also took us on a tractor tour through the pecan orchard to show us where Mr. Millard Fuller was buried. As the tour came to an end, we went back to the gift shop to browse a little before we headed out.

Beverly

We then headed back to the Presbyterian Church to get our swim suits for a night of swimming and hanging out at Mrs. Linda Fuller’s home. We had such a great time. When we got there, we watched a sort clip from the previous night news, and some raw footage that Faith Fuller had made of our group riding into Americus. After that, we made our way outside for a night of knee boarding and tubing, or some even went for a slow canoe ride down the river. As it got dark, we had a wonderful meal prepared by Mrs. Linda. It was amazing. We all found our way back to her house for a little more time to chat and hang out. As everyone started getting tired we finally decided we should head back to the church for a good nights sleep. 

Linda Fuller took some of the riders out for a ride

written by: Kristina Farrow

photos by: Esther Hyejin Chung