From a Mill Town to Cyberspace

Joyce told her mother that her Sunday school lessons should be published. Not knowing how or when, she made it her goal to share them with others.

“My mother taught Sunday School it seems all my life until she entered assisted living,” said Nannie Mae’s daughter, Joyce Carter. “She taught children, then teens, then college students and was asked to be the teacher of a class of 125 women. She taught that class of adult women more than 25 years.”

Nannie Mae prepared her Bible lesson each week, reading and researching dictionaries and commentaries, handwriting the verses, quotes and insights onto 4-inch x 6-inch index cards. Then, she recorded what she had written on the cards using a handheld tape recorder.

As she listened, she prepared meals, cleaned house and washed laundry during the workweek. By Sunday morning, she knew it! She had prayerfully hidden God’s word in her heart, in order to teach with excellence on Sunday mornings, and relied on the Holy Spirit to strengthen her. After church, she put a rubber band around the little, dog-eared stack of truth and tucked that week’s lesson inside a plastic tub under her bed. Every Monday morning, she started the whole process again, year after year, for a quarter of a century.

In 2006, Nannie Mae moved from her home of nearly 70 years to an assisted living facility. Her three children helped care for her over the next four years. Her children slowly downsized Nannie Mae’s belongings.

“I saw storage containers under a bed. They were full of her lessons,” Joyce said. “We are excited to share them here on this site in many languages with the world.”