Cedarville Magazine Fall 2015

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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 ,
), 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,
Campus News