For nearly 30 years, a dark cloud has hung over Miracle Valley.
The area near Sierra Vista - for decades, a place of Pentecostal worship - was the site of bloodshed on Oct. 23, 1982, when a Cochise County sheriff's deputy shot and killed two members of the all-black Christ Miracle Healing Center and Church congregation during a confrontation.
Today, Gilles and Diane Langevin, Pentecostal missionaries from Quebec, are hoping to clear the skies above Miracle Valley.
Saying they've been called by God to do so, the Langevins have purchased the land and plan to restore the area to its former glory.
They live with their adult son, Michael Jeffrey Snow (his Christian-musician stage name) at a ranch house near the land.
The family has traveled the country doing missionary work but settled in the home in 2007 with the goal of raising enough money to resurrect Miracle Valley, making it the headquarters of a self-sustaining operation called Miracle Valley Arizona Ministries.
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They're buying the property - south of Highway 92 southeast of Sierra Vista - from the state, which seized it after the previous owner failed to fulfill the terms of the formal purchase.
The Langevins put $30,000 in escrow and must pay the full balance of $600,000 by May 31.
Diane said a businessman she declined to identify has pledged $1 million toward the restoration of Miracle Valley. He plans on moving his operation nearby.
"I think with it being a new beginning of Miracle Valley, we're focusing on our vision of the community around here," she said. "There needs to be a healing. We've already started bringing restoration to some of the people who live in the community."
Diane said the first goal is to get the cafeteria, where Gilles will hold church services, up and running. Within the year, the Langevins want to restore the tabernacle. The Langevins currently raise farm eggs and distribute them to the community.
"We've been very well-received," she said. "We talked with the sheriff and have met with the Border Patrol."
Diane envisions Miracle Valley as a beacon of fellowship and healing.
"Miracle Valley is going to be a place of retreat. It will be self-sufficient," she said. "We'll do some farming, grow vegetables and plant peach trees. Eventually we'll have solar power."
The Langevins came to the United States in 1988. For a time, Diane worked as a traveling nurse, and Gilles did construction. The family became born-again Christians in 1995, got into missionary work and lived in an RV for seven years before stopping in Tucson.
"The first time we came here, God put it in our hearts to purchase the property, restore it and establish a ministry," Diane said.
Currently the ministry includes about 30 people. The group is staging a revival, set to last through Monday, that starts nightly at 6 and ends about 9:30 in a field in front of the couple's ranch house, at 9040 E. Highway 92.
"It's not going to be a business," Diane said. "It will be truly a place of ministry, to help people in need. "One of our buildings will be for missionaries who come back and don't have a place to live. They can come and live there. … It will be a temporary residence designated as places for families in need."
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DID YOU KNOW?
The melee in Miracle Valley erupted when Cochise County deputies tried to serve traffic-related search warrants on three church members.
The violence culminated more than two years of tensions between the fundamentalist church that had moved to Miracle Valley from Chicago and lawmen of the rural country.
Source: Star archives
TIMELINE
• Jan. 1, 1958 -Pentecostal televangelist A.A. Allen's ministry receives a gift from a convert of 1,280 acres to serve as a headquarters for A.A. Allen Revivals Inc. The area is named Miracle Valley and becomes home to Miracle Valley Bible College, a domed church, an administrative complex and a residential neighborhood.
• June 11, 1970 - Allen dies in San Francisco of liver failure brought on by alcohol abuse. He's buried at Miracle Valley.
• 1970 - The Rev. Don Stewart assumes control of Allen's organization. It eventually becomes the Don Stewart Association.
• 1975 - Having moved his organization to Phoenix, Stewart closes Miracle Valley Bible College, leasing the campus to Hispanic Assemblies, which reopens it as Southern Arizona Bible College.
• 1978 - Christ Miracle Healing Center and Church, a black religious group led by Frances Thomas - who was ordained by A.A. Allen at Miracle Valley in the 1960s and moved to Miracle Valley in 1980 - relocates to Miracle Valley, coming mostly from Chicago. Members of the group say they face prejudice and vandalism that authorities ignore. There are racially charged incidents with neighbors and authorities.
• September 1982 - Miracle Valley administrative building and warehouse are destroyed by arson. Stewart takes a cash-out option in his insurance policy rather than rebuilding. He turns 80 acres and Miracle Valley buildings over to Assemblies of God.
• Oct. 23, 1982 - While attempting to serve warrants, Cochise County sheriff's Deputy Ray Thatcher shoots and kills two members of Thomas' congregation (William Thomas Jr. - Frances Thomas' son - and Arguster Tate) during a confrontation between 37 deputies and about half of the 300 members of the Christ Miracle Healing Center and Church congregation near Miracle Valley. Thomas' group returns to Chicago within weeks. All criminal charges related to the incident are eventually dropped.
• Nov. 11, 1982 - Jesse Jackson tours the area with civil-rights leaders, conducting a fact-finding mission and urging peace.
• Sept. 26, 1983 -Deputy Jeffrey C. Brown dies of injuries suffered in the riot.
• 1992 - Cochise County settles a civil suit stemming from the riot for $1.38 million.
• 1995 - Assemblies of God closes Southern Arizona Bible College and attempts to sell the property.
• 1999 - Melvin Harter buys the college and re-establishes it as Miracle Valley Bible College & Seminary.
• January 2009 - A Phoenix-based mortgage firm forecloses on the property, which has fallen into disrepair.
• Oct. 31, 2011 - Gilles and Diane Langevin pay a deposit to buy Miracle Valley, now 54 acres, and take control of the area and its dilapidated buildings.
Source: Star archives
"I think with it being a new beginning of Miracle Valley, we're focusing on our vision of the community around here. There needs to be a healing. We've already started bringing restoration to some of the people who live in the community."
Diane Langevin, Pentecostal missionary from Quebec
