Mountain View Conference

Story by Valerie Morikone

The Mountain View Conference (MVC) camp meeting at Valley Vista in Parkersburg, W.Va., has impacted hundreds of individuals through the years. This year was no different for those attending in person or viewing online.

Conference leaders believe that everyone needs to be involved in sharing Jesus with others; it should be a coveted desire, not an option, to reach out to others with the good news of Jesus Christ and His wonderful love. That’s why, for the next few years, “Tell Somebody About Jesus ... Go Tell It on the Mountains” will be MVC’s theme.

The Mountain View Conference thanks retirees Rick Cutright, Daniel Morikone, Donna Nicholas and Jane Browning for their many years of ministry.

Story by Valerie Morikone

Rick Cutright, who retired in mid-June, was an underground coal miner for 22 years before accepting a call to pastoral ministry in 1997. He began pastoring Mountain View Conference’s (MVC) Buckhannon (W.Va.) church and later added the Glenville (W.Va.) and Braxton (W.Va.) churches. During Cutright’s tenure, his wife, Bonnie, taught at the Brushy Fork Adventist School in Buckhannon for more than 10 years.

“For with God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27, KJV).

My husband and I received a call to be Bible workers in Florida. We rented a moving trailer and car carrier for our trip. On our moving day, it started to rain, and because our car sat low to the ground, we had trouble getting it onto the carrier. The moving company upgraded the carrier so that the whole car could go on top instead of just the front wheels.

For a half hour, the church’s head elder and I watched under an umbrella as my husband tried to drive the car onto the carrier. Seeing this, the gentleman from the moving company said, “It is impossible; you will never get the car on the carrier.”

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“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22–23, KJV).

I believe that a Christian must have the fruit of the spirit. If all Christians would read and take to heart these verses daily, along with Philippians 4:8, which tells us to think on whatsoever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report, we would not have the problems in church we are faced with today. But the only way to attain, retain and maintain that fruit is by steadily focusing on Jesus; to “think on” Him continuously.

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“For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:24, NIV).

Demanding and receiving his inheritance while his dad is still alive, Jack packs his convertible and leaves home for the West Coast. There, he quickly makes friends, rents a great apartment and parties hard until he runs out of money. Deserted by his friends, he is evicted from his apartment and is forced to sell his car to buy food and lodging. In desperation, he takes the only job he can—a pig slaughtering factory.

Reflecting on his situation, he realizes that even the housekeepers at home live better than he does, so he decides to return home, practicing his speech on the long walk back.