Bret Burnett - Senior Pastor

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I grew up in the country of Brazil because my parents were missionaries there.  At the age of ten I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior and Lord.  From a very young age I wanted to be an architect, but during my senior year in high school I felt the Lord calling me into ministry.  I dedicated my life to full-time Christian ministry on January 24, 1984.  Later I came to understand that was to the pastorate.

After graduating from high school in Brazil I returned to the United States and attended Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, TX, graduating with a Bachelors in Business Administration.

In August of 1988, I married the most beautiful native Brazilian woman, Claudia.  Later that month I began my Masters in Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX, graduating in December of 1991.

In April 1992, God called Claudia and me to Yuma, Arizona to start a church.  We spent the following 14 years in Yuma growing a family personally and the family of God through Oasis Church.

We have two daughters, Amanda who is 17 years old and Andrea who is 15 years old.

After 14 years in Yuma, God called us to Tucson, AZ to serve at Mountain View Baptist Church.  I began my time here at Mountain View on June 1, 2006.  I look forward to what God will do through us as we move forward together.

When not working I enjoy reading, spending time with my family, hiking, and eating Mexican food.

Ben Pate - Associate Pastor of Student Ministries

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Originally from Southern California, I grew up overseas. At the age of seven I accepted Christ as my Savior. In my last year of high school, I returned to the US where I finished up and went on to Liberty University for a year. I ended up following my family back to California and so I transferred to California Baptist University where I received my BA in History. After receiving my call to go into ministry, freshman year at Liberty, I knew I needed to go to seminary. After graduating in the fall of 2007, I went on to do my MDiv at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary's Southern California Campus.

It was as a result of one of my first classes at seminary, (Genesis, with Dr. John Sailhamer) that a desire for studying, teaching, and preaching the Old Testament was ignited within me. After finishing my MDiv in the Spring of 2010, I was accepted into the GGBTS Phd program, where I am currently studying the Old Testament.

I have held a lot of jobs but one of the coolest jobs I ever held was the one that brought me up to the San Francisco Bay Area to meet my wife Diana. Diana and I met in 2010 in Mill Valley, California and we got married in 2011. Marrying Diana was one of the clearest instances in my life where I have seen God move and lead.

While living up in Mill Valley, Diana and I received the call to move to Tucson, AZ, for me to serve as the Associate Pastor of Student Ministries at Mountain View Baptist Church. We have been here since December, 2011. We are excited to be used by God in Tucson!

Things I like:

1. Anything Old Testament related!
2. Movies - I am a huge Star Wars fan
3. Food - I like food challenges, but I hardly ever win. I do have a T-Shirt from my one win I took home from Ohio. I eat anything and everything.

Diana Mercer - Secretary

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Diana was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona.  She is a graduate of Amphitheater High School. Go Panthers!  She has been married to Jeff for 25 years.  Jeff is retired Air Force.  They have three children,  Danielle, Michaela, and Cole.  Diana has only lived one other place, Sembach West Germany.  That is where Danielle was born.   Diana and Jeff are hoping to get back there one of these days for a vacation.  Diana has a brother and a sister who both also live here in Tucson. Diana's parents are both with the Lord.  Both lost their physical battle to cancer. Her father worked at Magma/BHP Copper Mine in San Manuel and her mother worked for the Amphitheater School District in the food service area. 

Diana worked in retail after graduating from high school.  She was part of the crew that opened the Dillard's at the Tucson Mall. She has worked in almost every area of that store.  Before leaving she was the shoe manager at the Tucson Mall.  Diana had workedfor Centennial Elementary school.  She was a paraprofessional in the Title I Reading Lab, working with children that have reading problems.  She recommends volunteering at a school to everyone.

Diana has been attending Mountain View 15 years.  They were members of a small church on the west side for a number of years before moving their membership.  Diana has a heart for children.  She is currently the 3rd and 4th grade Sunday School teacher and is the Vacation Bible School director.  She also leads a Monday night Bible study for women here at the church.  Diana believes that service is one of her many gifts. 

Sally Addison - Receptionist

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Sally came to Tucson in December 2003, two years after the death of her husband of 46 years.  She joined the staff of Mountain View part-time in January '05.  Sally and her husband, Don had lived in Oklahoma for 15 years.  They were originally from Louisiana and moved to Dallas for 10 years before moving to Oklahoma.  Sally worked for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service in Shreveport and Dallas and retired in 1980.  She later received an Associate Degree in Business from Mountain View Community College in Dallas and then went back to school and received a nursing degree from Murray State College in Tishomingo, Oklahoma. While in Oklahoma, she worked as a nurse in a local nursing facility for the elderly for several years.

Sally and Don have three children.  Daughter Donna and son-in-law Walter, live in Okla.  She is an RN at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas; son Don, Jr., moved to Tucson. He is also an RN,  at Northwest Medical Center on LaCholla.  Son, Scott, a graduate of University of Texas (Arlington) in  engineering  works at Raytheon here in Tucson.  Her youngest granddaughter, Andie, daughter of son Scott and daughter-in-law Angie, lives here in Tucson.  She also has a granddaughter, Rachael, here in Tucson, two grandsons in Oklahoma and one granddaughter and a great grandson, Liam,  in Montana.

Sally joined MVBC after having visited two or three times when visiting her family here in Tucson.  When moving here, she had no doubts as to which church she would join.  Knowing God had a purpose for her in Tucson, she visited the ministry fair held at MVBC in the fall of '04 and with her love and dedication to the elderly found the ministry offered by Northwest Interfaith Center to be that purpose.  Now known as ICS (Interfaith Community Services) they offer services to the elderly, handicapped, needy and homebound in Tucson.  She has helped with driving services to grocery stores, pharmacies and doctor's appointments.  Also, being a nurse, she serves at ICS by doing evaluations in the homes of those needing additional help or community assistance. This helps elderly people to be able to stay in their homes as long as possible.  This association has been a real blessing in her life. 

Linda Groen - Bookkeeper

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Linda and her husband, Bernie, have been members of MVBC since the first Sunday of January, 1995. They had been members of another Baptist church in the east central part of Tucson for 7 years, where two of their three children graduated from the church’s Christian school. They lived in the Tucson Mountains at the time and when the children had all left home, they felt the need to find a church closer to home to use their gifts and talents in and Mountain View was a perfect fit. Linda has been the church pianist since almost the first Sunday and Bernie has been the lead sound technician since then. 
Bernie and Linda are originally from Indiana where they were grain farmers and then moved to Texas, again as grain farmers. After losing their farm in 1984, the Lord led them to Tucson. They now have ownership in the Arizona Pistachio Nursery, where they now grow trees, rather than grain – just a different commodity.
They have three children, Carmen, also a member of MVBC, who is currently the Preschool Director, and works for a software company, twin boys, Alan, who works for an engineering company in Tucson and Bruce, who owns his own IT company here in Tucson. At the present time, there are 7 grandchildren, however, that number varies on a regular basis since their son and daughter-in-law are involved in foster care. Five of those 7 have been adopted and since January of 2002, there have been a total of 45 foster/grandchildren to be loved and cared for by the whole family. It has been a real ministry with many blessings. It is a special blessing to have all three of their children right here in Tucson.
 Linda is a self-employed bookkeeper who contracts to keep the financial records for the church and has done so since 2003.