Small-Town Church Welcomes Parents of Children with Autism
Dusty and Melanie VanDyke have been leading Raven AG for just over a year. The VanDyke’s focus on community and making the church accessible to families with children who have autism or other neuro differences, has led to strong church growth and a growing and glowing reputation in Raven and other communities.
Having moved to Raven about four years ago, Dusty says God has worked things out for them in His perfect timing.
“We had been serving at a non-denominational church as kids pastors,” Dusty says, “but I felt the Lord dealing with me to get back into the AG and finish my ADSOM (Appalachian District School of Ministry) courses . . . the Lord led us to Raven AG during a revival they were having. We moved there, joined the church, and I finished my certification as an AG minister in March 2024.”
In July 2024, the lead pastor of Raven AG stepped down and the board asked Dusty to be the interim pastor — to see how things would go. In October, the church voted him in as full-time pastor.
Throughout the VanDyke’s married life, Melanie has worked much of that time as a special education teacher’s aide. With that experience, she felt God was wanting her to bring special education tools used in schools into the church to make the church accessible to kids with needs stemming from neurodivergence and/or disability.
“While we were serving as children’s pastors, the school I was working in had just built a new sensory room where kids, who needed to, could go to calm down and engage in calming activities,” Melanie says. “I felt the Lord speaking to me that He was going to use me to build one of these rooms in the church and fill it with kids.”
However, Melanie admits God’s timing in fulfilling this message wasn’t what she had anticipated as five years had since passed.
“I thought this would happen at the other church,” she says, adding she was originally disappointed. “But here, now, just in the last six weeks or so, and just as we have been finishing up the sensory room, we went from one to eight kids who have these needs!”
Raven AG’s new sensory room is filled with a variety of tactile toys, games, bean bag chairs, and even a lighted “tent” swing for kids. Children with autism and other neuro differences can become overstimulated (too much information to process) by music, voices, noises, lights, and other “triggers” where they need time to get away, calm themselves, and reset.
“If you go into a school and see what their sensory rooms look like, you’ll know what our room looks like,” Melanie says. “I’ve met so many parents — they worry about their kids fitting in, as some are even non-verbal — who don’t attend church because it’s too hard on them and their children. But now, they have a place to come where they don’t have to worry.”
Billy, 48, and Amy Brown, 47, started attending Raven AG just a few months ago. They now say they’ve found their church home.
Amy explains they have three older children (27, 25, and 18), but they felt they wanted to get involved in foster care. Long story short, they now have five adopted children — Cason 11, Bentley 8, Kaylee 6, Carley 5, and Billy 4 years old.
Cason and Bentley have been diagnosed with autism and ADHD. Bentley also has PTSD from trauma he suffered prior to coming to the Brown’s home. The younger three either have ADHD, anxiety struggles, or a combination of both.
“Sundays used to be our time to go to church,” Amy says, “but when we went to other churches, they kept bringing the kids back to us — we were getting really discouraged. We ended up watching services online.”
But then a friend who attends Raven AG invited the Browns to check out the church.
“We just felt since the day we walked in the doors, this was it, this was home,” Amy says. “We felt so loved and everybody was so caring. And our kids, they stay through children’s church — and if they get overwhelmed, they’re invited to the sensory room and in hardly no time, they’re ready to go back.”
Amy also notes that when you have kids with challenging needs and disabilities, it’s hard for other people to see what you’re dealing with and how to help — but that hasn’t been the case at Raven AG.
“Bentley will just run up to pastor Dusty and jump on him,” Amy says. “The kids can’t hardly wait to go to church now, and we (Billy and her) get to sit in service and be fed the Word of God.”
“Over the past year, the church has grown from seeing 100 to 150 on Sunday mornings to 180 to 220,” Dusty says. “And part of that growth are five new families (including the Browns) who have children with special needs recently becoming members.”
And God didn’t just fulfill His promise to Melanie of a providing a sensory room, He also made accommodation for this ministry to be highly successful.
“The Lord has sent us four special education teachers who we are planning to use on a rotating schedule in the sensory room,” Melanie says. “It’s not just a coincidence that they are here; the Lord has sent them for a purpose.”
Dusty says that the Lord began birthing a ministry to families with neurodivergent children when he was a children’s pastor and got to know, Marc, a boy with Down syndrome.
“Marc, who just turned 23, and I formed a bond at our previous church,” Dusty says. “He can only say a few things, but he calls me ‘Dust.’ He gets so happy during church time – he loves praise and worship. Marc,” Dusty pauses as his voice breaks and becomes heavy with emotion, “I look at him as my guardian angel, that’s the feeling I have about Marc . . . he is just an angel from heaven.”
Marc’s parents, Dusty adds, coach a team for kids with neurobiological differences called Mighty Warriors. In the summer, the Mighty Warriors play softball; in the fall and winter, they transition to play basketball.
“There are about 40 kids involved in the league they participate in and we’re hoping and praying to see those kids come and be a part of our church,” Dusty says. “People see how we work to make Marc feel a part of our church (he has a place on the platform where he enthusiastically joins in praise and worship) and they then feel comfortable bringing their kids because they know we will love them and help them fit in as well.”
David W. Dillon, superintendent of the Appalachian Ministry Network, has nothing but praise for the VanDykes.
“This dynamic couple is leading the church to a new day. There is so much energy and enthusiasm in the congregation and one can easily sense that,” he says. “The VanDykes are turning things around in a very good way and the church’s life and community outreach efforts bear witness to that.”
The VanDykes hope that what they’ve done in their small, rural community to welcome and embrace families with children who are autistic or have some form of neurodivergence, will inspire churches across the country to do something similar.
“We know there are so many of these children out there, across the country, and it breaks my heart to think that they don’t have a place to go,” Dusty says. “I would love to see this kind of ministry spread like wildfire across the country.
“There are lost souls out there, families with children who need this type of ministry, and if they had a place to go to hear the gospel, feel loved, and be saved . . .,” Dusty continues, his voice trailing off. “The fields are ripe and ready for the harvest and it’s our job to reach everybody we can.”
