Edward Allard

Edward Allard was born in Bakersfield, California, on October 29, 1937. Allard came to the Lord as a teenager. He met his wife, Amelia, at church, and they were married in 1956. Together they served as lay ministers under their pastor, I. H. Terry. In 1966, they were called to full-time ministry and went to pastor a small congregation in Petaluma, California. Six years later, in 1972, they accepted their call to the mission field of Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa.

The United Pentecostal Church Foreign Missions Division first assigned them to Ghana, West Africa. There, they worked alongside Robert Rodenbush and his family, building churches and teaching at the Bible school. The neighboring country of Cote d’Ivoire opened in 1973, and the Allards were instrumental in obtaining governmental approval for the UPCI and its constitution. Regrettably, at that time they were not allowed to be residents of Cote d’Ivoire, so they continued to serve in Ghana until 1975. Allard then accepted the invitation to go to Senegal, West Africa, in 1976.

Following a brief deputation, they were sent, along with their two sons, to language school in Albertville, France. School was challenging and stressful, but everyone graduated. After graduation, the Allards were finally ready to make the move to Senegal.

While in route to Marseilles, France, to board their ship to Senegal, the Allards were involved in a major car accident that placed the move to Senegal on hold. Another driver, trying to commit suicide, hit them head on. Edward Allard was pinned in the car, and Amelia Allard was thrown through the windshield, landing in a field. Fortunately, their two sons were in a different vehicle and took a different route to the meeting point. When their parents did not arrive after several hours of waiting, the boys began to ask questions and learned of their parents’ fate. Edward Allard lay with a broken arm in the same hospital room as the man who tried to kill himself. Amelia Allard lay in another room with a broken left knee and a broken right femur. Fortunately, Amelia did not suffer any head or facial injuries (due in part to her large Pentecostal hairstyle). They spent several months in France recovering from their injuries. After adequate healing, the Lord allowed them to continue to Senegal in late 1977.

Upon their arrival in Senegal, Allard started a Bible school to train aspiring ministers. They worked with the Senegalese government and obtained approval for the UPCI to operate in the predominately Muslim country.

While Allard spent his days teaching school and working on obtaining church properties, Amelia translated much of the early Bible school materials, books, and tracts into French. After five years in Senegal, the country of Cote d’Ivoire opened, and they accepted the challenge to fulfill their original call to that country. Allard’s vision led to building another

Bible school, this time in Cote d’Ivoire. More than forty years later, the school continues to thrive. Throughout the years, many men and women have attended and been trained to help bring greater revival to West Africa.

During Allard’s tenure in Cote d’Ivoire, he was able to obtain governmental approval to establish United Pentecostal churches in eight French speaking countries: Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Djibouti, and Gabon.

Today, Cote d’Ivoire is a flourishing, revival nation with 211 churches, 20 preaching and prayer points, more than 175 credentialed pastors, 50 credentialed evangelists, many local credentialed ministers, 4 Bible schools, and at least 40,000 Holy Ghost filled believers baptized in Jesus’ name.

Under Allard’s guidance, the revival in Cote d’Ivoire attracted the attention of many, including the regional director and the UPCI Foreign Missions Division. This led to Allard’s appointment as the regional supervisor of all seventeen French speaking West African countries. These nations have yielded a harvest of more than one hundred thousand believers, the result of Allard’s vision and leadership.

When the Allards retired from Global Missions in 2002, their ministry did not end, nor was their work finished. Upon returning to the United States, they assumed the pastorate of a church in Dinuba, California. The congregation had only seventeen people and was in heavy debt. After serving eleven years, Allard again retired, leaving a congregation of nearly one hundred people that was debt-free and had a substantial savings account.

Edward and Amelia Allard, in their eighties, moved to Delano, California, to attend the church pastored by their son, Brian. Allard frequently worked around the church and was often asked to preach. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2023, and this greatly slowed him down. During the summer of 2024, he cried because he could not help during the remodel of the church. His last job was painting the trim of the platform as he scooted in a chair around the perimeter. He was hospitalized December 1, 2024, and sent home December 23, 2024, under hospice care. He passed peacefully on January 7, 2025, leaving behind his heartbroken bride of sixty-eight years. His life was given to the service of the Lord, building, teaching, preaching, and ministering the gospel. Through it all, his heart forever beat for Africa.