Healing and Revival

"Heritage in Pentecost and Healing"

Alfred Clarence Valdez was born on March 15, 1916 in Santa Ana, California to Adolpho Clarence and Charlotte May (Gage) Valdez. Although their names were not exactly the same, both Alfred and his father would use their initials "A.C." In the 1950s they would be referred to as A.C. Valdez Sr. and Jr. Alfred came from a very unusual family. Their history traced back to Eugenio Valdez, a Spanish soldier who was converted under Junipero Serra a spirit-filled Franciscan priest. They experienced the power of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues for over 150 years. Alfred's father Adolpho and his parents were involved with the Azusa Street revival attended the famous Arroyo Seco, California Camp meeting, which was led by Maria Woodworth-Etter . He saw people saved, filled, and miraculously healed. The younger Valdez was brought up knowing the presence of God and the power of the Spirit.

Being Pentecostal was very unpopular when the Spirit first broke out across the country. Adolpho was attacked while preaching and was even in jail when his son Alfred was born. Then when Alfred was eight years old an amazing thing happened. A woman knocked on his parent's door and prophesied he was called to Australia to preach. She even prophesied the name of the ship the family would sail on. Within a few days finances were miraculously supplied and the family headed to Australia. The family traveled to Australia with a stop in New Zealand. In New Zealand Adolpho was asked to preach and they ended up staying for 6 months sharing the gospel and the need for the work of the Holy Spirit. They saw large meetings and many miracles. After that the family once again headed for Australia. The Vadezs stayed for about 2 years. Adolpho worked with the Southern Evangelical Mission and Sunshine Gospel Hall. This led to the formation of the Pentecostal Church of Australia. The family headed back to the United States, once again via New Zealand. At 10 years old Alfred had seen his father preach the gospel in 3 nations and seen the miracles of God. It was an amazing heritage.

God called the Valdez family back to the US and took care of them through the difficult depression years. Adolpho had gotten to know the Shakarian family through Azusa Street. Now the elder Isaac Shakarian helped him set up tents and Demos Shakarian became the business manager for some of the Valdez meetings. One of the things that Adolpho would do to draw people to meetings was to fly an airplane over a town where a meeting was being held. He was known as the Flying Evangelist. He would toss out leaflets or soft rubber balls with meeting information on them. As time went on his son Alfred (usually referred to as A. C. Valdez Jr.) traveled with his father and took an increasingly vital role in their meetings.

In 1935 the family established Trinity Tabernacle, a modest Pentecostal church in Phoenix, Arizona. By 1940 three other churches would eventually come under the Trinity Tabernacle Association. Alfred helped his father and in 1939 was ordained as a minister at the age of 23. Alfred had grown up in the church and the ministry. It was a natural step for him to take on a pastoral role. At the age of 25 he married Montie Greer. The couple would go on to have two children. Once Alfred was on staff his father had freedom to hold evangelistic meetings in other cities. Alfred would lead the church in his absence, often for weeks at a time.

Then a spiritual tsunami hit the Pentecostal movement starting in 1948. The Healing Movement broke out. Alfred Valdez had a supernatural visitation when God called him into the healing ministry. He held healing meetings in Tucson, Arizona as early as April 1948, as well as holding local revival meetings in his Phoenix church. Part of the visitation from God was the call to go into international ministry. Alfred left his local church and began to hold healing evangelistic meetings. By December of 1949 the Voice of Healing magazine published a picture of healing meetings in a large auditorium in Atlanta. They recognized Alfred was a rising evangelist. By mid-1950 Alfred had purchased a large tent and took his ministry on the road. It was a heady time for many healing evangelists. Although costs were very high turnout for the events was often in the thousands.

Alfred Valdez remained as an independent minister until June 1951. At that time he became an associate minister with the Voice of Healing organization and his meetings became regularly reported on in the national magazine. He reported thousands of healings in his many meetings. The next few years he was constantly traveling and holding meetings. Alfred ran into trouble during a campaign in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The press was extremely negative and ran stories on people who had claimed they were healed but were not. Then, horrifically, a couple who attended the meetings killed their foster daughter on the belief that she needed deliverance and that Jesus' return was imminent. Valdez was blamed for these in the media and attendance dropped precipitously. He ended up closing the meetings unable to pay for the costs of the campaign. Alfred pressed on and opened meetings in Toronto.

From the Fall of 1952 through April 1953 Alfred ministered across England. He traveled to Hawaii, Nebraska, Idaho, Montana, Australia, the Philippines, and even spent approximately 6 months in England holding meetings. He was on the road almost constantly. Then in October 1953 Alfred held meetings in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for three weeks. They were such a rousing success that people asked him to start a church there. After traveling almost continuously since 1949 the offer seemed like a good thing to the Valdez family. Although Alfred ministered in India for two months of 1954 Alfred's focus was on establishing the church in Milwaukee. Alfred had big visions and purchased an extravagant movie theater for the church building and spent a significant amount to refurbish it. Although the congregation initially had around 1300 attendees, the costs would later come to haunt Alfred after the revival wound down.

Alfred settled into being a pastor in Milwaukee. He had a larger than life style. At one point he even emulated his father by having an airplane fly over Milwaukee trailing banners with church advertisements. The Healing Revival was beginning to fracture. Many of the evangelists who had been raised up under the Voice of Healing organization struck out on their own. The perceived financial abuses and character issues by evangelists caused a break with the Assembly of God denomination. The movement lost its dynamism.

This change impacted Alfred's church. What has been a dynamic thriving congregation began to slowly dwindle. Although fellow evangelist R. W. Culpepper joined the staff in 1970 to try and help, it was simply too late. By 1971 the church was down to two or three hundred attendees. Alfred's health was also poor. He declared bankruptcy for the church in July 1971 and resigned from the curch. Alfred announced he was going to go on the road to hold healing meetings once more. His health, however, failed and he died of a heart attack October 29, 1971. R. W. Culpepper and Adolpho Valdez attempted to keep the church afloat for a while after Alfred's death but it closed within a few years.

Alfred C. Valdez wrote many articles for the Voice of Healing magazine. He was included with other Voice of Healing evangelists in the book called "Men Who Heard From God." He wrote pamphlets for selling at his healing meetings called "Divine Health In The Light Of God's Word." His greatest influence was in the 1949 to 1954 years when he was constantly traveling and holding meetings. He taught people that God was a healing God and wanted to bless His people.

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