Albert Stewart, Sr.

Albert Stewart Sr. was born to John and Mary Stewart on January 4, 1942, in Panama City, Florida. Albert, along with his five sisters and brother, were orphaned when Albert was fourteen, so he went to live with one of his sisters. He later graduated from Rosenwald High School and Twin Cities University.

Albert joined the United States Army on November 28, 1960, entering as a private. He served in the military for twenty-two years, retiring with the rank of master sergeant. Military service dramatically shaped Albert’s life in many ways, beginning with a 1963 assignment to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he met and married the love of his life, Tegeste Gabreyesus Stewart.

Albert served his country in the Vietnam War from 1967 to 1968, surviving the Tet Offensive. In 1971, looking for an active nightlife, Albert requested to be stationed in Monrovia, Liberia. However, the Lord had other plans for Albert and Tegeste. In March 1972, they were baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost during a crusade held by the United Pentecostal Church of Liberia.

Liberia is the earliest Apostolic mission field in Africa, with Apostolic Pentecostal missionaries serving there since 1924, well before the formation of the UPCI. (Aaron and Pearl Holmes, 2021 Order of the Faith inductees, were among the first to take the Oneness Pentecostal message to Liberia.) Albert and Tegeste soon became involved in ministry in that country, assisting missionaries Denzil and Evelyn Bolton. When Brother Bolton had to return to the United States, he asked the Stewarts to oversee the ministry work. God blessed the Stewarts’ efforts, and when Brother Bolton returned, he asked the couple to continue leading the work in Liberia until Albert Stewart’s military deployment was completed. Albert and Tegeste now were responsible for leading twenty churches and three mission campuses, which included schools and resident students.

In 1976, the Army transferred Albert and Tegeste back to the United States, to a base in Kentucky. This gave them an opportunity to assist Pastor David Aldridge and the church in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. In 1979, they were stationed at Stewart Air Force Base in Newburgh, New York. The closest UPCI church was more than sixty miles away in New York City. Within six months, the Stewarts planted a UPCI church on the Air Force base.

In 1982, Albert felt called to retire from the Army and return to Liberia as a missionary. He and Tegeste met with the Global Missions board and received their appointment. The Stewarts faced many challenges while serving in Liberia, especially during the horrific civil war which raged from 1989 to 2003. During that time, an estimated 250,000 people were killed and much of the country was destroyed. The Stewarts had to be evacuated multiple times and were offered the option of remaining in the US, but Albert always returned to help the Liberian believers. The Stewarts continually thanked God for the compassion of UPCI constituents who sent food and supplies to help ease the suffering.

God miraculously spared the Stewarts from many life-threatening situations during this time. At one point, their home became the front line of the war, with soldiers firing from opposite ends of the house. Machine gun fire broke every window, the walls were riddled with holes, and rocket-propelled grenades became lodged in the walls but did not explode. Albert and six of his children soon ran out of water. For seventeen days, the family survived on water from a waterbed. The Lord had miraculously provided, sparing their lives.

During the civil war, the Stewarts were robbed at gunpoint twice. Typically, the robbers would mercilessly kill the entire family, but God’s hand of protection shielded the Stewarts each time. After all of Albert’s modes of transportation had been stolen, he relied on public transportation. One day, the bus he was on was attacked with machine gun fire. The wounded and dying were all around him, and he had to disembark and run for his life. Albert heard someone calling his name and saw it was a church member who lived in the area. They took him into their tin-walled home; however, he knew he was not safe there, so the church member directed him to a nearby UPCI church with concrete walls. Albert remained in the church until the fighting subsided.

Despite these hardships and dangers, the Stewarts remained faithful to God’s call and the people of Liberia. They retired in 2014 after thirty-two years of missionary work, having seen the Liberian church grow to 30,000 members, 154 churches, 21 schools, 3 clinics, and a Bible school.

After retiring, the Stewarts settled in Tampa, Florida, to be near their family. One of their sons, Kenneth (wife Althea), had planted a church in Tampa, and it became Albert’s and Tegeste’s new spiritual home. (Kenneth Stewart now serves as promotions director for UPCI North American Missions.) Another son, Tes (wife Sheneka), was a longtime UPCI evangelist and is now the pastor of Spirit of Pentecost in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The Stewarts other children include Ted, Genet, Azib (Tyrone) Davis, Mary Rawles, Meaza (Mark) Morrison, and Albert, Jr. Their son Timothy preceded his parents in death in 2019.