For 30 years, Nancy Van Dyke has been on a mission from God. Van Dyke, 73, has traveled a combined 13 times to Africa and South America to serve the sick and poor. In Africa, she spent time in the bush rebuilding a Ugandan village and later returned as part of a medical team treating AIDS patients. In the Peruvian mountains, Van Dyke used her nursing skills meeting “the street kids’” medical and spiritual needs. 

Van Dyke, of Edgecomb, is a retired hospice nurse. She is a member of the Anchor Church, an interdenominational church in Boothbay Harbor. Van Dyke also served many years as board chairman of the Food for Thought program. In April, she received the Rotary Club of Boothbay Harbor’s Lifetime Service Award for her community spirit in several other programs.

But her service goes beyond helping those dying of AIDS, troubled youths in a foreign land or providing healthy foods to children from local low-income families. It also includes assisting convicted criminals learning the Gospel. For 23 years, Van Dyke has traveled twice a month to Warren working as a prison missionary at the Maine State Prison.

A request from a fellow Boothbay Baptist Church member led her to becoming a prison missionary. Herb Mullens approached her about filling in for him on a Monday prison service and, Van Dyke recalled, saying no to him was impossible. “Herb was the guy who you could just see Jesus in him. There was just no doubt about it. No one could say no to him,” she said. 

After Mullens asked, Van Dyke paused for a moment before agreeing. Van Dyke and another church member went to Warren and taught the inmates a Gospel lesson. For Van Dyke, the prospect of teaching inmates wasn’t exactly on top of her to-do list. She was hesitant about dealing with them until she pulled from her past experiences. She served AIDS patients during a time when not much was known about the deadly disease.  “It’s not for me to judge. I don’t care who you are or what you’ve done. I will give you the best care I can,” Van Dyke  remembered and she brought the same attitude to Warren.

From there, the fill-in role expanded to a regular one. She began going to Warren twice a month, which has continued for 23 years. As a prison missionary, she provides services to inmates located in the prison’s Bolduc Correctional Facility. This location is for inmates with three years or less prior to release. In her ministry, Van Dyke has seen a dramatic change in the prison population. “It’s a lot younger, which I think is due to the opioid crisis,” she said. 

As prisoners come and go, Van Dyke has developed relationships with them. She has learned a lot about their backgrounds during her Bible study program. “All of these guys have a story and they don’t come from the same backgrounds as you and I did,” she said. “Most come from bad situations and tried surviving the only way the knew how. I tell them you are not bad people, you simply made bad choices.”

So why does a wife and mother of three, and grandmother of seven, devote so much time to others? Well, that answer dates back to a sermon given by a former pastor who once asked, “What are you doing for the Lord?” For this question, Van Dyke didn’t really have an answer. “I thought about it, and other than attending church, the answer was not a whole heckuva lot,” she said. 

So when a church group had a chance for missionary work in Uganda, Van Dyke volunteered. The group went to Africa and rebuilt a village. The trip left her with an indelible image of an adult population suffering from AIDS. As a hospice nurse, she understood how to care for dying AIDS patients. Van Dyke made seven more trips to Uganda as part of a medical team. Her focus was teaching the villagers how to treat terminal AIDS patients. She taught a few lessons, but also received a few.

“It was an amazing experience because I got my socks blessed. I learned about compassion and how (the villagers) appreciate the smallest gift. They don’t have much, but they take care of what they have. They are tired, poor, and hungry but you never hear a complaint,” she said. 

Van Dyke worked with a dying 14-year-old Ugandan boy named Ronald. He couldn’t walk and laid all day on a mat on his hut’s dirt floor. Ronald had a bed sore the size of a fist, according to Van Dyke. This led her to asking other missionaries to build a trapeze. She wanted Ronald to build his strength by lifting himself up with the trapeze so he could eventually sit himself into a wheelchair. “Our money was limited, but we raised enough to build a wheelchair and a little extra for twice weekly personal care for him,” she said. Eventually, Ronald was able to travel around the village in his newfound transportation. 

Another missionary assignment led her to Peru. She joined Word Made Flesh, a non-profit organization serving the world’s most vulnerable citizens. It was founded in 1991. By 1994, Word Made Flesh opened its first children’s home in Chennai, India. The organization focuses on pediatric AIDS care and established communities in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe. In her first Peruvian trip, she joined a group which included Jamie Reed whose parents, Alan and Martha Reed, attended Boothbay Baptist Church with Van Dyke.

Van Dyke sought out “street kids” to treat. But the Peruvian youth proved quite a challenge. “They were perceived as piranhas who ran wild in the streets. We brought them sandwiches, milk and juice at midnight just to get to know them,” she said. Van Dyke said many of these kids were in deep pain and they sniffed glue to escape the misery.  A teen gang was known for street fights and spitting on people. But the missionaries were determined to provide services to these troubled youths. One day, Van Dyke met a 3-year-old on the street.  Van Dyke sat and placed the girl on her lap. “I offered her candy and she bit it and offered me half. My first thought is you’re not supposed to do that, but it would’ve crushed her for me not to eat it, so I did,” Van Dyke said. 

As a child, Van Dyke attended church and even recorded perfect Sunday school attendance for eight consecutive years. But her true devotion occurred after a difficult time in her life. At 43, she was a single mother with three sons. Van Dyke knew she could cope with the challenge, but wasn’t sure how. She began attending church regularly, but still wanted the Lord to send her a sign. 

So she opened her Holy Bible to a random page and read Psalm 139, which reads in part:  “You searched me, Lord, and you know me.” For Van Dyke, this was the Biblical sign she was looking for. “I remember thinking ‘Wow. He really knows me better than anybody.’ The passage really captured my feelings.  He accepted me, and I wanted to turn myself over to him.”

Van Dyke wants to take another missionary trip to Africa or South America. She will continue her prison ministry. She plans to spend more time traveling, especially to see her grandchildren. And she said she knows the Lord still has plans for her to continue comforting his “children.”