EAST SPENCER — Each year, the Southern City Tabernacle on Long Street presents a Legacy of a Leader award to a member of the congregation whose actions represent leadership in ways that benefit the community and the public.

This year’s recipient, who will be honored this Sunday at 3 p.m., is Marva Gibson McCain.

McCain started life in East Spencer where her family still owns a home before moving to Salisbury. A deaconess and class leader in the Southern City Tabernacle A.M.E. Zion church, she is also the president of the church’s missionary group, which serves members of the church and the community in need.

McCain and her husband Mark have been married 43 years and have three children, including a set of twins. Their daughter will video the ceremony so their grandchildren and great-grandchild can be a part of the celebration.

Each year, the collection taken at the service supports a scholarship that is given to college students each year who have completed at least one semester of college. This year, there will be five recipients of the scholarship, McCain said.

McCain came to the A.M.E. Zion church through Mark, she said, and the couple have raised their family in the church. She has always been one to offer her work for the church, and credits her mother for that servant’s heart.

“My mother was one who helped anyone who needed it,” she said. “At her funeral, someone came up and told me my mother had helped her pay her electric bill. She was one who said it was her money, and if she had it, she was going to help. That’s the example I grew up with.”

She follows in her mother’s footsteps in her work with the missionary group, which, among other things, cooks and serves breakfast the fourth Sunday of every month at Rowan Helping Ministries.

“Even my husband says he doesn’t know how I do it, but it’s not something I do because I have to,” McCain said. “I enjoy it. I get up early, because we have to be there at 5 a.m., but it’s a joy for me, not a burden.”

She is a caregiver at heart, having cared for her mother until her mother’s death in 2003, and her career is a full expression of her care. McCain spent 32 years as an early intervention specialist with the state in Raleigh working with children with disabilities.

McCain graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh and took additional classes at UNC Charlotte toward her work. She retired after 32 years but has not stopped actually working, spending hours on events and activities through the church. Pastor Tajuana Kyles told McCain she was chosen because of her “commitment, work in the community,” and because so matter what, she knows McCain is always there when needed.

“Marva is a very gracious and passionate person,” said Mayor Barbara Mallett, who attends church with McCain. “She never turns a person away who requests help. She is the very example of the ideals of the Legacy of a Leader, committed, loyal, and a servant to all in her community and church.”

McCain doesn’t care to take credit for her work, though, choosing instead to “give all the glory to God. I live by my verse (Phillippians) 4:13, ‘I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.’ God is my refuge.”

In addition to the rest of her efforts, McCain and Kyle have essentially adopted an exchange student from Livingstone College.

“She is 14 and just brilliant, but she’ll be away from her family for four years,” said McCain. “So we make sure she has all the supplies she needs, and we check in with her to be sure she is OK, and she lets us know how she’s doing. We’re incredibly proud of her.”

The ceremony is at the church Sunday, Feb. 23, at 3 p.m. and is open to the public. The church is located at 904 South Long Street, East Spencer.