Marc Nikkel was born to Mennonite parents in Reedley, California; he studied at the California State University School for the Visual Arts (and anthropology) before joining his sister in mission work in Nigeria and then studying at Fuller Theological Seminary[1] before becoming an Anglican.
In 1981, Nikkel began teaching at Bishop Gwynne College in Mundri, Sudan.
From 1984–1985, he studied at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in Chelsea, New York, being ordained to the diaconate by the Bishop of Southwestern Virginia and to the priesthood on his return to the Sudan.
In Kenya, Marc Nikkel also co-founded Kakuma Refugee Camp with Bishop Nathanael Garang of Bor Diocese, South Sudan.
There at Kakuma, Marc Nikkel named the young Dinka survivors "the Lost Boys."