Written By MADISON HOGAN
Photos by ROBIN RAYNE
thy neighbor
HOW RUNNING AND FAITH BROUGHT
A COMMUNITY TOGETHER TO SAVE A LIFE
Ask anyone at Summit Baptist Church about
Executive Pastor Jimmy Slick, and they’ll likely
have a story about how he went above and beyond
for his fellow neighbor. Between running a Sunday
School class at the church, leading the choir and being
the grandfather of five, Slick, who is also an avid runner,
is always on the move. To date, the 65-year-old has run
19 marathons. He’s even gone so far as to get a tattoo for
his grandson, after he promised to get commemorative
ink if his grandson hit his first homerun. But now, the
Acworth minister has accomplished his biggest challenge
in health, faith and running: donating a kidney to his
friend, fellow runner and parish member, Jack Abbott.
Abbott, and his wife, Sandra Abbott, joined the
Summit church community about 16 years ago. When
Slick found out the couple were runners like himself, he
and Jack Abbott developed a bond that has grown over
the years. Aside from running together, Slick has also
mentored the Abbotts in their Sunday School class and
even sang at their wedding.
“We’ve been connected with Jimmy now for a long,
long time,” Jack Abbott said. “Twenty years now.”
But that bond was going to go even deeper, through
flesh and bone. They would become “kidney brothers,” as
some members at the church liked to call them.
“I can’t even wrap my head around what is
happening, that Jimmy has offered up one of his
kidneys,” Abbott said, just two days before the surgery.
The prayer
Abbott, the former director of the Peachtree Road Race,
has been running for 47 years. A retiree from Lockheed
Martin, Abbott even met his wife, Sandra, at a running
event hosted by his former employer. Running always
made him feel on top of the world and in supreme health.
He took care of his body with exercise and didn’t feel the
need to attend regular checkups for decades.
“I was a runner,” he said. “I was invincible.”
Until 12 years ago, when Abbott walked into a
doctor’s office for the first time in years and received
some unsettling news: his kidneys were only functioning
at 30 percent.
48 COBB LIFE | NOVEMBER 2021