Cedarville Magazine, Fall 2015

30 | Cedarville Magazine 2014 Graduate Sailing Along in First Teaching Job Kayla Girtz’s ’14 career path would make a great riddle at a dinner party. Members of her class are from all over, but they don’t take a bus to school. Her students are always moving, but they never change rooms. She works “floating” hours, even though her schedule is fixed. Any guesses? No? Then you’re in the same spot Girtz found herself when she noticed a classified ad for a third-grade teaching position inAfrica for “Mercy Ships.” “This was not the first time I had looked for a school outside the U.S., but Africa has always sparked my interest,” she wrote in her blog. “Who names a school ‘Mercy Ships’?” S i n c e 1 9 7 8 , Me r c y S h i p s , (mercyships.org ), has taken state-of-the- art medical care to countries with minimal health care services. Its physicians have performed 79,000 life-saving surgeries free of charge at 587 different ports. According to the Mercy Ships website, 50 percent of the world’s population lives within 100 miles of a coastline, making the Mercy Ships strategy an efficient way to get medical services closer to millions who wouldn’t receive it otherwise. After 30 email exchanges, a completed application, and a phone interview, Girtz was hired to teach third-grade children of parents who serve on the boat. Her charges include children of the chief officer, supply manager, ships’ engineers, the on-ship academy’s assistant principal, and a chaplain. She had a classroom of five students her first year, but found the responsibilities just as rigorous as when she student-taught 30. “There are daily rewards in teaching,” Girtz noted, “but the students I’m teaching, their parents are the ones who have jobs more directly related to patients. “If I weren’t here, or their second-grade teacher, or the high school math teacher, their parents couldn’t do their jobs. I’m part of something that is changing lives more than just in my classroom, but in the country of Madagascar.” Girtz’s ship, the Africa Mercy , is in the middle of a two-year commitment to Madagascar, the island nation famous for its unique primate, the lemur. The ship anchored at Toamasina, Madagascar, from October 2014 to June 2015, but was taken to Durban, South Africa, over the summer for repairs and maintenance. The ship anchored again at Toamasina in August this year and will remain until June 2016. Although she wasn’t seeking a missions opportunity, Girtz admits that her 1,000 days at Cedarville prepared her heart for anything. “Attending Cedarville University, I was surrounded by people who poured truth into my life,” she said. “My peers, my professors, the many pastors, and speakers were used by God to show me that loving others is simply doing something. For me, that looked like traveling across the globe and living in a floating metal box.” Even though Mercy Ships is known for its medical mission, sharing the Gospel is woven into everything they do, from doctors and nurses counseling patients, to chaplains comforting those waiting for or recovering from surgery. “Crew members volunteer at orphanages, prisons, and other ministries,” Girtz said. “Through these opportunities, we are able to interact with the local people and share the Gospel. In my job as a teacher, I am able to share the Gospel daily withmy students— the people I serve. “Knowing the Lord personally and the desire to serve and follow Him is why the majority of us choose to volunteer with Mercy Ships.” And that’s not much of a riddle at all. Keep up with Girtz’s adventures on her blog, seasideclassroom.wordpress.com. Campus News at Cedarville Expositional Preaching What is it? Why is it important? Speakers include:  Danny Akin  Garrett Kell  Thomas White  And others November 12–13, 2015 cedarville.edu/9marks SAVE THE DATE