LEWISTON — For a woman who’s given her time to staff health clinics in India and the Philippines, just sitting at home was never an option.

“I have mission work in my DNA,” said Betty Fake, 90, of Lewiston. “It’s very rewarding. I feel that my faith requires me to give back what I have had, and I have had a very wonderful life.”

These days, Fake’s need to do mission work is expressed twice each month at Calvary City Mission’s Wednesday night suppers.

Calvary Methodist Church offers two meals each week, on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. As many as 25 members of the church volunteer for each meal, preparing food for up to 75 people, then serving the meal and cleaning up.

“Between food prep, serving and cleaning up, we have quite a list of volunteers,” said Pat Gardiner, chair of the church’s City Mission. “It’s generally not the same people working every week. It’s one of the things that pulled me, personally, into the church.”

Gardiner said Fake is one of her more dedicated volunteers.

“She’s been doing this for a while, and she just turned 90, which is pretty cool,” Gardiner said.

Fake, a registered nurse, began attending the church in 1972 when she and her husband relocated to Lewiston. She soon found herself volunteering for United Methodist missions, helping staff clinics in India, Appalachia and the Philippines.

“I’ve done clinics in rural areas, blood pressure screenings,” she said. “The United Methodist Church worldwide has this program: You pay your own way and they send you to places where you’re needed.”

As she approached 70, she said travel was no longer an option for her. But that didn’t slow her down or prevent her from continuing her service work.

“I can no longer do what I did,” she said. “I can travel, but I cannot do the physical work, what would be required if I go to another country.”

She served on the mission’s board when it started and volunteers made casseroles and other treats in their own kitchens. She helped negotiate an agreement making Good Shepherd Food Bank the mission’s food supplier, which in turn brought all food preparation into the church’s basement.

“It wasn’t a conscious decision, but they started this program and I thought it sounded great,” she said. “I was involved at the very beginning.”

Today, that’s where she works every other Wednesday, helping to prepare the meals and get them ready for the church’s guests.

“We have a wonderful, well-balanced, nutritious meal,” Fake said. “We always have a fruit salad, vegetables, a nice casserole and meat. We always serve some kind of meat because these people don’t always have a way to prepare meat. So we make sure they get it, at least one time per week.”

She considers herself blessed and this is her way of recognizing it.

“There are hard times, yes, but you can’t really appreciate the good times until you’ve experienced the hard times,” she said. “And people have been there to help me, so it’s just part of the makeup of society that you give back.”

[email protected]