Both were born in 1926 and grew up in Louisiana.  Pat’s parents were James A. Carter, a mercenary sailor, and Marie Montielh, the daughter of a wealthy cotton plantation owner in Southern Louisiana, who fell in love and eloped together. Pat’s father became a country Baptist pastor during the Great Depression. Growing up, times were hard and money was scarce. 

Evelyn mostly grew up in Minden. She and Pat met and fell in love at Louisiana College. At the time, he was in the Pre-med program. Then, while serving as a medic on a war ship during WWII, Pat answered God’s call to ministry. Evelyn’s grandfather was a prosperous family doctor, and she had been looking forward to being a doctor’s wife, but she too embraced this shift as God’s plan. They married in 1946. 

In the early 1950s, Pat was pursuing a doctorate in theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, when he felt God’s call to continue his studies at Golden Gate Seminary in San Franciso, California.  This involved moving almost 2000 miles away with two toddlers, with no plan in place once they arrived. But God had spoken. Their first Sunday in San Francisco, they attended a church they “randomly” found, unaware the church was looking for a new pastor. They invited Pat to preach that night and soon after, he was called to be their pastor. During the following four years, the church grew exponentially, and a new and enlarged sanctuary was built, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.  

They then returned to Texas and settled in Palestine, where Pat became pastor of Southside Baptist Church. While Evelyn cared for their household, Pat traveled back and forth every week to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. One morning, during a Chapel Service with a foreign mission emphasis one morning, Pat once again heard from God—calling him to be a missionary. He didn’t hesitate, “Yes, Lord, I’m willing,” he responded. 

However, when he shared the news with Evelyn, she answered with a resounding no. She had already followed him forth across the country a couple of times and was finally putting roots down in Palestine.  “You can go, but I’m staying with the children here,” she said.  Pat decided he must have heard wrong, and they continued life as usual. 

A couple of years later, his doctorate studies almost completed, Pat once again was in the Chapel Service during the seminary’s annual mission emphasis week. And once again, he heard God call him to foreign missions. This time there was no denying it.

He traveled home and nervously told Evelyn he felt the call again to foreign missions and explained he could not deny the call. Instead of resisting, she asked, “At What time did this happen?” “At about 11:30 this morning,” he answered. 

Her eyes filled with tears, and she said: “At 11:30 this morning, I was studying my Sunday School lesson, when suddenly, the room became very bright.  I looked around to see if someone had turned on the light.  There was no one.  I found myself trembling, and I began to cry.”  She continued, “Pat, I can’t doubt it.  God spoke to me at the same time He spoke to you.  It scares me, but God has spoken and that settles it.”

Soon after, they were appointed by the Foreign Mission Board (now the IMB). After a year of Spanish language school in Costa Rica, they moved to Mexico in 1960.

For the next 30 years, they impacted thousands of lives, both directly and indirectly. They first served at the Mexican Southern Baptist Seminary in Torreon (1960-63), where Pat was a professor.  Evelyn took time out of her primary role as a homemaker to teach English and help out in the library. They also served in a small local church.

Torreon is surrounded by small farm villages, known as “ejidos,” and Pat felt a particular pull toward one of them, Albia, every time he drove past it. He felt God calling them to start a Bible study there. 

The Carter family prepared100 paper bags containing fruit, candy, and religious tracts and headed to Albia to distribute the gifts at Christmas.  As they walked the dusty streets from adobe hut to abode hut, everyone was happy to receive the gifts. Yet when Pat and 12-year-old David returned the following Sunday to find a family willing to let them start and evangelistic Bible study in their home, everyone closed their door.

Discouraged, they were driving out of the village when they saw two young men standing on the side of the road, wanting to hitch a ride into Torreon. Pat would normally never pick up hitchhikers, especially with one of his children in the car, but he decided to pick these two men up and perhaps make a final pitch.

As he talked to them and explained what he was trying to do in Albia, they said, “You need to go see Sr. Román.  He is not in town today, but he has one of the bigger ranches.”

Encouraged, but perhaps a little skeptical, they went back the next Sunday to try and find Sr. Román. As they walked through his gate towards his house, a man came running out of his home waving a Bible in is hand saying “Welcome, I have been waiting for you for three years!”

He shared that a man had come to his home three years earlier and led him to Christ with the promise that someone would come to follow up and build up a community of believers in his small town.  Finally, the fulfillment of that promise had come!

So, every Sunday for the next few years the family would travel to Albia where, with help from seminary students, they taught the Bible and sang hymns, with Evelyn pumping away on a small manual organ. A small church was eventually built on the property, people came to Christ, and one of Mr. Roman’s sons attended the seminary.

Interestingly, they never saw the two young men again, and no one was able to tell them who they were.

In the summer of 1963, once again Pat and Evelyn said yes to yet another call from God. They left their newly built home in Torreon in northern Mexico and moved to Merida, Yucatan, near the southern tip of the country. For the next two and a half years, Pat served as a field missionary, traveling to many small villages in several southern states, sharing the gospel and encouraging churches. He always enjoyed serving alongside, teaching, and interacting with local pastors and leaders. 

Then another surprise—during their furlough, Pat was named director of the seminary in Torreon. Soon after he began serving, God spoke to him again: He wanted the seminary to move to the Mexico City area, where they would have much greater reach and impact.

This move proved to be one of Pat’s greatest challenges on the mission field, as he faced great resistance from almost everyone. He almost gave up, thinking once again that he had misunderstood God. Then, during a church service, God spoke to him again and gave him a vision of all that would be achieved if the seminary moved. Pat must not disobey His will. It continued to be an uphill battle for a season, but finally, the plan was embraced by most. Land was purchased, buildings were built, and the seminary opened its doors in the city in the fall of 1974.

Pat loved teaching, discipling, and encouraging the many young men and women who came to the seminary. Physical fitness was also important to him, and one of his requirements for first-year seminary students was to get up early in the morning to go out and run with him several times a week. Besides working in the library, Evelyn greatly enjoyed entertaining people —from all walks and seasons of life—in their home.  

After eighteen years serving at the seminary, Pat and Evelyn shifted their focus to another call and dream—planting a church, Anastasis, in an affluent section in Mexico City. Pat also received a second doctorate, a PHD in counseling, and opened up a professional office in this same area, where he counseled and led a number of people to the Lord, including several of great influence.  

Upon retirement from the Mission Board, (1990) he became an associate pastor, teacher and head of counseling for many years at First Baptist Church, Kingwood, Texas, also a very rewarding season for them. 

He and Evelyn moved to the Fort Worth Area in 2011 to be closer to family.  

Pat also wrote 15 books. Most were fictional, based on either Bible characters or his own life story. The books reflected his love for God, His deep faith, a vast biblical knowledge, and creative mind. 

Evelyn went to be with the Lord on December 2, 2019. Pat joined her on December 4, 2025. Their three children, David, Linda, and Carol, and their families have continued their legacy of loving and serving the Lord.  

Throughout Mexico and several other countries, pastors of churches of all sizes, as well as leaders of different areas and levels of influence, are a testimony of the impact Pat and Evelyn made in their lives.