DOB: 7/25/1963 Age: 57 Married to: Arthur Russell (Russ) Asson since 2004

By the Rev'd Marla Wright Asson

I was born and raised in Alabama.  My family was not active in church, so most of my early exposure was through attending Southern Baptist or Church of Christ services with friends as a teenager; churches in the Bible Belt invest heavily in youth ministry.  My first exposure to the Episcopal Church was through marriage, as that was the church my first husband's family attended.  I married at 22, divorced at 35, and married again at 41. 

 

During the years my children were growing up, I worked in my profession as a laboratory scientist and volunteered at church mostly in outreach and some youth activities. I was a substitute youth minister briefly, during a stint after our previous YM was terminated and before another could be hired, on the strength of knowing the kids from chaperoning their summer mission trip.  (Trust me -- I am now too old to take 17 kids to Chicago and sleep on concrete floors for a week!)  My passion, however, was Outreach ministry.

 

In 2009 I entered the diaconal school in Alabama (the diocese of Alabama trains deacons in 'classes') and in 2011, after the two-year training, I was ordained a vocational deacon and assigned to Holy Cross/St. Christopher's Church in Huntsville.  This congregation is situated at the edge of a historically black campus, and the parish is very intentional about being racially mixed and working toward racial reconciliation. In that parish we did outreach; I assisted with pastoral care and I preached every other weekend.  Beans-and-rice ministries are a fairly common outreach in Alabama, as are meal-pack ministries and backpack ministries.

 

In 2013, my laboratory career (and my Los Angeles-native husband) brought me to Nevada. He was winding up a 40-year career with the Department of the Army, as a division chief in the Army Missile Command. I was tired of pursuing my career in the lowest-paying region of the country and ready to try something new.  I was accepted at St. Paul's Church in Elko as a deacon; at the time, the church already had one deacon and two priests that shared duties. Over the course of the next 5 years, the other three clergy all left due various family needs.  Bishop Dan Edwards and I discussed the possibility of ordainment to the priesthood, and after training for another 2 years through CSDP and with Canon Catherine Gregg, I was ordained to the priesthood in August 2018.

 

My move to Reno was entirely due to the opportunity to become lab director for Renown Regional Hospital; this is sort of a career-capping dream job. I still love St. Paul's and left on good terms.  My reason for stepping down as their rector was simply that I cannot be in Elko during the week, and it is not uncommon for a congregation to need their priest during the week. It was an honor to have served as their rector for 18 months, and I would be honored to serve them in any capacity, at any time.  The hardest thing about moving to Reno is how much I miss my church family.

 

In my ministry, I have served prison inmates, worked with hospice in skilled nursing facilities, served as a chaplain to the hospital and to the Sheriff's department (primarily intended for the deputies, not the inmates, although I am fine with both),  and been both deacon and rector to a congregation.  

I believe that the church should be out talking to people in the street, in their daily life. The old saying is true: the church primarily exists for the sake of people who don't belong to the church.  We are the only evidence of God that some people can see, so if we're not out doing God's work He remains invisible and unnoticed.  It seems to me that one of the abiding illnesses of our culture is that there are so many people who are lonely, and that the church is called to befriend those who believe they have no friends.

	July 2020		YTD July 2020
Income:	$10,978		$110,750
Operating Expenses:	$14,044		$114,015
Net Income:	- $3,066		- $3,265

1. Please contact parishioner Kris McCain at kmccain59@gmail.com or 615-483-4678 to schedule one of the above dates and receive potential recipes to choose from (or choose your own).
2. Once a recipe is selected, please email a copy of the recipe to Beth Osborne at bosborne@bbbsnn.org. She will have it translated and pass it along to The Community Food Pantry for them to check on which ingredients they are able to provide.
3. By the Friday prior to your selected date (or sooner), Beth will let you know which ingredients will be available at the Food Pantry that week. You will be responsible for purchasing the remaining ingredients for 15 families. Please keep all receipts to turn into St. Catherine's for reimbursement. It is important that we document all expenditures. If you wish to donate, please do so separately, by writing a check to St. Catherine's and noting that it is for the Jump Start Kitchen ministry.  
4. Certain ingredients like spices may be able to be purchased in bulk and broken down into smaller sizes according to the recipe. Feel free to contact Kris with any questions.
5. As of September 23, the food pick-up time at the Community Food Pantry at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, will change to noon. If you are free at that time, Beth will meet you there to help unload you combine the food you've purchased with that donated by the pantry, and separate it all into 15 bags to be delivered to the families. If you aren't available at noon, we ask that you meet Beth in the parking lot of the Big Brothers Big Sisters office on Foster Drive, across from Reno High School at 5:00, to repackage the food and hand it out to the Big Brothers Big Sisters staff and volunteer mentors who will deliver to the families.
6. Turn in your receipts to St. Catherine's for reimbursement.