Cedarville Magazine, Fall 2020

ANCHORED IN BROOKLYN When Rachel Hartley ’15, M.S.N. ’20 began working at Langone Brooklyn Hospital, she passed by a sobering reminder of why she left her job in Virginia to serve there: three tractor trailers in the hospital parking lot serving as temporary morgues for those who had died from COVID-19. Prior to New York, Hartley was a preoperative surgical nurse in Lynchburg, Virginia. When the hospital stopped scheduling elective surgeries in mid-March, the caseload dropped, and so did her hours. About the same time, she began receiving emails from recruiters looking for nurses to help out in New York City, which had been staggered by the pandemic. “From the moment I made the decision to call the recruiter and asked him about what they needed in New York, God confirmed this decision time and time again,” she said. Instead of driving or flying to New York City, Hartley and her husband, Taylor, took to the sea. They piloted their own four-stateroom sailboat, Turning Points, from its home port in Virginia to Brooklyn. However, much like the cost of living anywhere in New York and its boroughs, marina fees were sky-high. Hartley joined a Facebook group called “The Sailors of New York” and started asking about places to dock. “Within a half hour, they had put me in contact with a marina, and they instantly offered us dock space for free,” she said. “Normally, they charge $11,000 a month. God went above and beyond what I could have imagined.” While the free dock space was an encouragement, the opportunity to serve was the greatest blessing — from praying over the phone with a family grateful for her care of their dying loved one to sharing her hope in Christ with beleaguered and weary co-workers. “A Cedarville education prepares you to minister and to serve the Lord,” said Hartley, who completed her Master of Science in Nursing – Family Nurse Practitioner degree at Cedarville this fall. She’s also certain that New York City was the place for her to anchor, until God called her to another COVID-19 assignment at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, in June, and then to the U.S. Virgin Islands in October to work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). But wherever Hartley may dock, Jesus is her anchor. “God has gifted me to be a nurse, and in that calling He’s placed on my life, I will find joy and satisfaction,” she said. “I’m where He wants me to be.” CRUSHED IN THE CONGO Virginia Walker ’19, a Cedarville University nursing graduate, was nicknamed “Sunshine” by her nursing unit. This nickname perfectly describes how she shines Christ’s love to every COVID-19 patient she is currently treating in Inova Loudoun Hospital’s emergency room in Lansdowne, Virginia. God has gifted me to be a nurse, and in that calling He’s placed on my life, I will find joy and satisfaction Rachel Hartley ’15, M.S.N. ’20 Cedarville Magazine | 13