The Graze

Saturday Night from 5:30 to 7:30 your whole family is invited to Redeemer’s Mission Conference. We’ll here from Tat Stewart as he talks on Open Hearts, Closed Lands. Tat is the Director of Persian Ministries for World Witness. More Info on Tat Stewart below.

Tat, as he prefers to be called, was born in 1946 in Philadelphia Pa.  When he was only one year old, his parents Dr. and Mrs. Ashton Stewart heard the mission call and served the Lord as medical missionaries in Iran where Tat lived until 1964, where he became fluent in Persian and Azari.  Tat returned to the US for his senior year of high school, and then attended Lincoln University, PA, graduating in 1969 with a BA in history.  He attended Princeton Theological Seminary and graduated in 1973 with a Masters of Divinity.  He served as the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Carteret, NJ for six years.  He then received a call in 1979 from the Evangelical Church of Iran to pastor the Community Church of Tehran, assisting in the youth ministry of the Synod of the Evangelical Churn of Iran.  He served the Lord faithfully during the Iran hostage crisis, however was asked to leave Iran in 1980 due to the deterioration political situation.  He was one of the last American missionaries to leave Iran.

Upon returning to America, he was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church of the Atonement, (American Reformed Presbyterian, ARP) where he served for twelve year as senior pastor.  Tat has served on the Board of Foreign Mission of the ARP church, World Witness, and has been the moderator of Virginia Presbyter and Northeast Presbytery. He has led retreats for missionaries in Pakistan, Turkey, Mexico, Austria Canada, Sweden, Holland and Azerbaijan and Canada.  He is a regular speaker at Iranian conferences worldwide.

He is married to Patricia Murray Stewart, herself the daughter of Presbyterian medial mission to Iran. They have been beloved partners in minster for over 35 year.  They have two children, Timothy, thirty and Emily twenty-nine.  In the mid 80’s Patty and Tat together have by God’s grace started a Persian congregation in the Washington DC area.  Patty led the music ministry and Tat preached and provided leadership.  As Director of Persian Ministries for ARP Church, Tat directs a leadership development ministry among Persian speakers called TALIM Ministries.  He travels extensively to Iranian communities around the world for discipleship training.  He produces a leadership magazine in Persian for Iranian leaders as well as serves as a mentor to many Iranian Christian leaders.

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