Day 7: Fallon to Elko

Photos are back! Pictures will be inserted into older entries as I have time.

After spending the night in Fallon we boarded the bus and resumed our journey to our next stop, Grace-St. Francis church in Lovelock, a tidy agricultural town in Pershing County. When we pulled up outside the pretty clapboard church all of us immediately piled out to take pictures, but The Reverend Reporter noticed that the church was locked up tight and that there was no one to greet us. Our Moderator whipped out her cell phone and soon announced that the church building we were standing in front of was no longer in use, so we all got back on the bus and rode the short distance to the local Methodist church, where the congregation of St. Francis now worshipped.



Once inside the church we met several members of this small congregation, including it's oldest and youngest members. There was no formal question and answer period scheduled, so the candidates and their spouses chatted over cake and coffee for about an hour. The Reverend Reporter, who is a youth minister when not acting as a road blogger, was delighted to find that this church helped to support a youth minister, and I immediately got out my trusty yellow pad and wrote down all the pertinent information. John and Blake, if you're reading this expect to hear from me soon!

Soon it was time to get back on the bus and begin the long ride to Winnemucca. We were deep in cattle and mining country now, as the grazing herds by the road and the mine tailings began to multiply. As we settled in for the long ride The Reverend Reporter thought of the scriptures in Isaiah equating the good news of the coming Messiah with springs in the desert. The parched land surrounding us on all sides was a vivid example of what Isaiah must have been gazing upon such a long time ago.

We finally came to Winnemucca and met with members of St. Mary's Episcopal Church at a local Basque restaurant. The Basque cultural influence is strong in Nevada and The Reverend Reporter was pleased that our candidates would get a taste of a Basque family-style dinner, which consists of mountains of food served in many courses over many hours. We didn't have the time nor the stomach space for the full treatment, so we enjoyed a modified version for our lunch. The congregation of St. Mary's no longer have their own building, and the candidates listened intently to the issues and concerns raised by the parishioners and Peg Fuller, their priest. After too short a time we had to say our goodbyes, but we all noted that we had just visited yet another frontier congregation which desperately needs the help and support of the rest of us in the diocese of Nevada. In The Reverend Reporter's humble opinion, the candidates for our next bishop will need to spend a lot of time out here in the Cow Counties in order to even begin to put things right.

The last leg of this long stretch of road brought us to St. Paul's church in Elko, but alas, the bus awaits. I will report in later on our time at St. Paul's, along with our experiences on this last day of touring the diocese.

Blessings,
RR+