Minuteman Bible College.com

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Dear Minutemen Friends,

As you know, Miracle Valley Bible College has very small and limited funds. We have done our best with the legal system, but the Appeals Court on February 12, 2008 decided against us and in favor of Cochise County.

We must now pay $9,655 fine within 30 days or a $50 per day late fee will be added until it is paid in full. The late fee accumulates into $1,500 per month.

In addition, Cochise County has also placed this fine against me personally. Friends, you that know my wife and I will know that we receive very little from the Bible College. In fact, everything we get, we put most of it back into the restoration of our campus.

We do not have these funds. We have spent all of our money on attorney and legal fees. We have even had to recently file Chapter 11 for reorganization in order to save the Bible College. And we are not out of the woods yet.

The Minuteman needed a unified place to meet as well as someplace where the Minutemen could come without costing them "an arm and a leg."

Cochise County initially gave us their approval, which at such time I contacted Mr. Jim Gilchrist and informed him that we had been given the "green light" from the county to proceed.

However, a few days later, the Planning & Zoning Dept changed their minds and denied the Bible College the right to permit the Minutemen to come.

As most of you know, I am a Christian and I always do my best to maintain my Christian integrity.

Once I was notified by the County that I was not permitted to allow you (the Minutemen) on our campus, I felt compelled by that I should hold to my convictions regarding what the Holy Bible says, and that is "a man should always honor his word, even if it is to his own harm."

Well, I have honored my word to the Minutemen and it has brought us great harm. We have incurred several thousands of dollars in legal fees, and are now faced with this large fine.

I really need your help. If you can do anything to help us, it would be greatly appreciated. If we are unable to pay this fine, it could very well put our Bible College totally out of operation.

Will you help us? Whatever amount you can donate would be greatly appreciated.

We will keep you informed on this web site as to exactly how much money the Minutemen have donated to help us toward this endeavor.

Please, don't forget those who have helped you. Especially when they are penalized by zoning departments for doing so.

Now whether you are a Christian or not is not the issue here. Whether you believe in God Almighty or the Holy Bible has God's divine Word is not the issue.

The issue is simply that a small, struggling Bible College went out of its way to help the Minutemen by providing lodging for them during their first venture of watching the US - Mexico border in April 2005. In doing so, the Bible College has suffered opposition and financial setbacks.

Please consider making a special donation today to help us. We are a 501(c)3 non-profit incorporation and your donation is tax deductable with the IRS.

You can make a donation by clicking the DONATION BUTTON. You can put your donation on a credit card or your bank card.

Thank you and May God bless you,

Dr. Melvin E. Harter
President - Miracle Valley Bible College
9210 E Miracle Valley Loop
Miracle Valley, AZ 85615
(520) 366-1000

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Dear Minuteman Friends,

As you know, we lost our case with the Cochise County Zoning Dept. for allowing you to stay at our campus for the month of April 2005.

We have spent nearly $12,000 in legal fees (includes our costs involved in our appeal to the State of Arizona).

Now we are fined $9,655 plus $50 per day until the fine is paid in full. That means that every month that goes by, our fine is increased $1,500. (The Appeals Court grants us only 15 days and not the usual 30 days before the fine takes effect.)

We do not have any funds to pay this fine. I know that you are under no obligation to help us, but I thought if perhaps everyone could make at least a small donation by clicking the DONATION BUTTON, it would be a great blessing to us.

I permitted the Minuteman Project to come to our Bible College because the County initially gave us the approval (verbal) and that was when I telephoned Jim Gilchrist and our good friend Will Marriott to inform them that we were given the "GREEN LIGHT."

As a minister of the Gospel, I did what the Holy Bible says we are to do. We are to honor our word "even if it is to our own harm."

When we were later notified that Mr. Vlahovich changed his mind and denied us, I continued to "hold to my word that I gave to the Minuteman Project, regardless whether or not Mr. Vlahovich held to his word, which he did not do."

In addition, I believe in what the Minutemen were doing and everyone here was delighted that the Minutemen came to our campus and local community.

I am not against individuals coming into our country; in fact, I welcome them. However, I am against individuals crossing the border illegally to get into the United States. I could understand it more so if the illegals came here due to oppression in their own country, but we know that is not the case here.

If our President wishes for those of other nations to come into the United States, then he should seek to change the immigration laws so they can come. That way, we will know exactly who is coming into America.

However, I live on the border. There is hardly a day that goes by that we are not dealing with illegals. Last week, they were in our church sanctuary. On a previous occasion, 23 illegals broke into one of our buildings that was locked. This is not right.

We continually offer water and food to everyone, including illegals who come to our campus because this is the Christian thing to do.

However, it is not always individuals who are seeking to better a better life.

On numerous occasions, we have actually discover many illegals carrying drugs into our area from Mexico.

Each incident has compelled us to do everything we can to eliminate this type of activity; however, as a Bible College, we should not be forced to deal with these issues.

Our governmental leaders are sworn to protect us from this type of daily activity.

Our USA border needs to be secured. Our nation has the power to stop illegals from crossing our borders. Why they do not do something about it is beyond me.

We appreciated the Minuteman Project for coming into our area in April 2005. For the very first time, our borders were secured. Thank God for the Minutemen.

But now we face the consequences from the Cochise County Zoning Department.

We did not get a fair hearing because the Hearing Officer, Mr. Jack Chapman, refused to excuse himself when we requested a different Hearing Officer. Of course, we know that this was just a "set-up."

Jack Chapman has proved himself to be against Miracle Valley Bible College on two separate previous occasions. By all rights, we won our Hearing Case; however, Jack Chapman cited against us because we believe he was prejudice. If he was not prejudice, why then did he not step aside and allow us to have someone else as a Hearing Officer.

And then Mr. James Vlahovich, the Director of the Zoning Department - Cochise County, AZ at the time, basically makes the rules as he goes. If need be, I can cite several instances where he has done this. Today, Mr. Vlahovich serves as the Assisted County Administrator for Cochise County and receives a salary of about $135,000 per year.

And although this is illegal to do, Lt. Al Tomlinson who is with the Cochise County Sheriff's Department, (Lt. Tomlinson is seen in a picture on this blog standing with Sheriff Devers and me) actually worked for the Cochise County Planning & Zoning Dept under James Vlahovich by "spying on the activities conducted on our college campus."

I appreciate Sheriff Larry Devers for sending one of his men to my office to inform me that Tomlinson was not authorized by the Sheriff's Office to be involved in any activity for the Zoning Department.

The only thing we can do is to pay the fine that has been accessed against me. Nevertheless, county elections will be held this fall, and one thing is for sure, we are going to do our best to vote these type of people out of office.

Again, if you can make a donation to help us, we would greatly appreciate it very much.

God bless everyone of you, and GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Dr. Melvin Harter