SOUTH POINT — It was his father’s funeral that kept Marshall University tackle Ed Carter from playing East Carolina on Nov. 14, 1970.

Within days of that service Carter would attend many more funerals as the worst sports-related tragedy claimed the lives of his teammates when the plane carrying the Marshall football team crashed into a Huntington hillside killing all aboard.

Now an independent Baptist evangelist, Carter will speak at a special men’s and young men’s meeting at Tri-State Baptist Temple in South Point.

“That was something our community still holds deeply,” Tri-State Baptist pastor Tim Jenkins said. “It touched his life and set the course of his life.”

Jenkins knew of Carter’s ministry when the two were serving congregations in Tennessee.

“I have been able to know about him and his ties to the community,” Jenkins said. “When I moved back here, I wanted him to speak.”

The meeting is open to all men from the Tri-State and so far the church’s youth group has distributed more than 1,000 flyers about the event at area schools. Jenkins has a particular reason for wanting to reach schools’ football players.

“As a young man I played athletics and you live for that ball game,” the pastor said. “Those young (Marshall) men played a ball game and two hours later they were in eternity. He lived through that and realized life is not a game. Be prepared for what comes beyond those days on the playing field.”

Carter will speak at 6 p.m. Saturday at the church for the service for men and twice on Sunday, at 9:30 a.m. for Sunday school adult and teen classes and 10:30 a.m. for the regular service.

All events are free and open to the public.