BAR HARBOR – If God has many names, one of them must be “Sunbeam.”

It has been stenciled on the sides of five vessels used by the Maine Sea Coast Mission to spread more than just the Gospel to the state’s island communities.

The current vessel, Sunbeam V, is a 75-footer that serves as meeting house, community kitchen, dining hall, icebreaker and medical office.

But as the Maine Sea Coast Mission celebrates its 100th birthday next week, the organization has been quietly making its presence felt inland as well as along the coast.

In parts of Down East, the mission has opened a thrift shop, a nursery school and food pantry, and it is teaching character-building in a school district.

“Jesus talked about the poor more than he did any other topic,” said the Rev. Gary DeLong, the mission’s executive director, during an interview at the mission’s headquarters in a former mansion on West Street in Bar Harbor. “It’s watching out for the orphan, the widow, the people on the fringes of society.”

The mission was launched in 1905 as a way to help residents of Maine’s islands respond to or practice Christian faith.

After it was founded at the Bar Harbor Congregational Church, brothers Alexander and Angus MacDonald, the Canadian-born ministers who first led the organization, used a series of boats to help provide ministerial guidance to the island communities.

Before the first Sunbeam was built specifically for the mission in 1912, the mission used the vessel Hope, then The Morning Star to connect with its island flock.

In pursuing this calling, however, the MacDonalds quickly realized that people who could barely maintain their isolated existence on the islands needed more than just preaching, according to mission officials.

They saw that many island residents needed practical help to avoid the pitfalls that accompany poverty, such as poor health or a lack of education.

The mission responded to the MacDonalds’ vision by building churches, post offices and schools on some of the islands, and by helping to provide dental care.

Mission officials say this inclusive approach – helping to improve people’s lives regardless of their degree of faith – is reflected in the many similar but modernized services offered by the mission 100 years after its start.

The mission, either in partnership with island churches or through its own oceangoing minister, the Rev. Rob Benson, now helps provide pastors to nine island communities that are home to more than 2,700 people.

The mission’s programs may be similar to those it started a century ago, but its funding levels have changed significantly, even in recent years.

According to DeLong, the mission’s expanded service has helped to more than triple its budget since 1999, from $800,000 to $2.7 million. Of that amount, just over half is generated through fund-raising; roughly $935,000 comes from the mission’s endowment; and $247,000 is raised in program fees, according to Elsa Gettleman, the mission’s director of finance and administration.

Overall, the mission has total assets worth $26 million, she said.

The increased services offered by the mission are best exemplified by the Sunbeam V. By boarding the vessel, island residents, with the help of mission nurse Sharon Daley, can communicate with doctors on the mainland through the mission’s Sunbeam Island Health Services telemedicine program.

In 2002, Maine Sea Coast Mission started a program in western Washington County that is not dependent on the Sunbeam.

Known as the EdGE program, named after mission supporter and seasonal Addison resident Ed Greaves, it provides pupils in grades five through eight in SAD 37 with programs designed to help kids build character, improve their academic performance, and boost their confidence levels.

The EdGE program is where the mission’s ecumenical inspiration is actually least evident, according to Wendy Harrington, EdGE’s adult and community coordinator.

“There is no religious piece to this,” Harrington said, speaking in a meeting room at the mission’s Weald Bethel campus in Cherryfield. “We’re in the public schools.”

Besides the old farmhouse that houses the mission’s Washington County offices, the 60-acre Weald Bethel compound is home to a thrift shop, a community garden, a food pantry, a nursery school and a chapel.

Each of the five elementary schools in SAD 37, which comprises Addison, Cherryfield, Columbia Falls, Harrington and Milbridge, has one full-time EdGE site coordinator who helps provide academic tutoring and supervises after-school activities.

Next year, the EdGE program is expected to expand beyond SAD 37 to the Ella Lewis School in Steuben.

Among the services offered to children in the EdGE program are healthy snacks, studio arts, technology training and outdoor pursuits, according to Harrington.

EdGE students participate in regional team robotics competitions, work with established artists through the Maine College of Art and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, and take snowshoeing, kayaking, camping or cycling trips, some of which also are offered throughout the summer.

“We’re trying to create a positive life” for EdGE participants and their families, Harrington said, adding that the mission always is looking for staff help. “It’s like the Sunbeam on land.”

According to SAD 37 Superintendent George Kiley, the program has had a distinct, quantifiable impact on the lives of the district’s pupils. In the past three years, SAD 37 has gone from testing somewhat poorly to being the highest performing district in Maine, he said.

“We have to give EdGE some credit for that,” Kiley said.

Besides the one-on-one tutoring pupils get from EdGE staffers during school hours, they also develop life skills through EdGE’s after-school and summer activities.

“They get things they have never been exposed to,” Kiley said. “I think it gives them a great deal of confidence in themselves and builds self-esteem.”

Kiley said that, if he could, he would expand the EdGE program to serve SAD 37’s ninth-graders and help them make the often difficult transition to high school.

“They supply a great service to this school district,” Kiley said of the mission. “We certainly would miss it if it went away.”

According to DeLong, the mission considered establishing an alternative school when it set out to address the needs of children in Washington County, where substance abuse and the loss of jobs have helped make it the poorest in the state. The mission decided it could have a more stabilizing effect if it worked within the existing schools, he said.

“We don’t want to be a three- to five-year wonder down there,” DeLong said.

Though the EdGE program is new, Maine Seacoast Mission long has had a presence in Washington County. The organization built a chapel on Head Harbor Island near Beals Island and, after the population moved away following World War II, moved a stained-glass window that had been in that chapel to Frenchboro.

“We’ve always kept that Washington County connection,” said DeLong, who comes from Beals Island.

In addition to the EdGE and telemedicine programs, the mission in the new millennium has started a food pantry on Swans Island and given former Sunbeam minister the Rev. Ted Hoskins a new role as minister to coastal communities and fisheries.

It also continues its more traditional services, such as collecting and donating Christmas gifts to children and providing scholarships and emergency financial aid to those who need them.

Though the mission’s role is far beyond what the MacDonald brothers saw during their lifetimes, DeLong said, he is confident they would embrace the interfaith programs the mission has established.

The mission hopes to continue working with its target communities to make sure the brothers’ charitable inspiration lasts for another hundred years, he said.