Back to School
In 2005, Nikki Aldum toured the Anastasis in her home country of South Africa. She had been teaching for several years and was happy in the classroom but walking up that gangway changed everything.
Soon Nikki came aboard to teach in the Mercy Ships academy and 17 years later, she’s still playing a vital role in ensuring the children on board our ships receive an excellent education. Currently serving from Texas as the Superintendent of Mercy Ships academies, Nikki brings a wealth of experience and passion to our teachers and students.
In this episode, Nikki shares her journey of coming aboard, the profound lessons she learned from her students, and her dreams for the upcoming school year.
Get ready for all the back to school feels as Nikki takes you behind the scenes of our academies.
Looking for a way to join our mission of bringing hope and healing? Partner with us through a gift, volunteering with us, or by joining us in prayer.
New Mercies Podcast Transcript
Welcome to the New Mercies, a podcast by Mercy Ships, where we’ll take you behind the scenes and on board our incredible hospital ships that are transforming lives all over the world. We invite you to join us each week as we sit down with our crew, patients, volunteers, and partners to hear their stories of life-changing hope and healing.
Nikki Aldum has been serving with Mercy Ships for 17 years. Nikki is the superintendent of the Mercy Ships academies, and she plays a vital role in ensuring the excellent education that children receive on board our ships, having served herself on board both the Anastasis and the Africa Mercy and now running the show from the International Support Center in Texas, Nikki gives us a lot of insight and background to our incredible floating schools.
Raeanne Newquist:
Well, Nikki, we have just started another new school year. And I know that is so exciting, not only for you, but for all the kids on board and all the teachers on board. So we’re excited to kick off a new school year with you being someone who is so important to our academies. And so I want to welcome you to New Mercies.
Nikki Aldum:
Thank you so much. It’s a great opportunity. I always love the start of the school year, it’s just an opportunity for new things and to start again. And also to continue with what’s been good and kind of maybe try things different. So yeah, I’m always excited about the school year. And then of course, there’s the smell of new stationery, which gets everybody any teacher excited.
Raeanne:
Why is that? Why do we love the smell of school supplies? That’s so crazy.
Nikki:
I think I might have a slight addiction.
Raeanne:
Well, I know for myself, I have always marked a new year by the school year, January 1 isn’t so much the New Year to me anymore. The first day of school is when we start fresh. It’s like our big reset. So I’m so excited for all of us to have that right now as the academy is kicking off once again, we’ve almost been in school for about a week now. So that’s exciting. But before we get to all of that, and get to your role with the academies, why don’t you start by telling us a little bit about yourself, your beautiful accent, where you’re from, and tell us how your Mercy Ships journey began.
Nikki:
Although I currently live in East Texas, this is not an East Texas accent. I grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, and heard about Mercy Ships probably when I was a student, I was trying to think back on the exact date and it just was always part of our church life. Because the Anastasis used to come through the port of Cape Town at different points back in the early 90s. So kind of hearing about Mercy Ships was just part of growing up in our church. We’d often host a team, or when the ship was in port, a team would come and visit the church and share about what they were doing. And I was just taken by not only kind of the idea of doing good, but doing good within different professional areas, if that makes sense. I loved the idea of being able to serve and do what I wanted my career to be. Just felt like a good fit. There were so many short term mission trips that were more evangelical and I appreciate those but I’m not a preacher on the street corner, kind of person. I don’t have that courage, you know, to do that. But I can serve as a teacher, that was what I could possibly do. So there was over a number of years that God would kind of knock on the door. And back in 2005. The Anastasis actually came into the port of Cape Town and they were offering tours, I think in a four day weekend, 100,000 people went through. And we stood in line for literally hours to get on board to see the Anastasis.
A friend of mine who kind of said oh, it’s that time of year again, Mercy Ships is coming. By that time I had been teaching for three or four years, then she said, how about we go and visit? So we went down to the waterfront in Cape Town and stood on the line. And she actually ended up not being able to go on the tour because she had another commitment, and the wait was too long. So I went on my own and that hour long tour I spent crying, just tears rolling down my face, because I felt just a sense of, okay, this is it, you know, kind of thing. But I didn’t know when.
Later, I was about to enter my eighth year of teaching, and looking at all the other things I expected in my life weren’t happening. So I had the freedom to kind of do an adventure or do something different. So I my options and Mercy Ships was at the top of my list. And I thought, Oh, well, they’re never going to say yes, so let me just get that over and done. Back in those days, it was a paper application, you had to get them mailed from the US and when the envelope arrived, I filled them all in and I mailed them all off. And I just thought, Okay, this is going to come back as a no. And it didn’t come back as a no. And by September, I had a yes. And by January, I was in Texas completing my onboarding program. So it was just this huge thing. And it worked out well because the academic year in South Africa ends in December. So I was able to finish the school year with the kiddos that I had started teaching at that time. And just thought, Okay, well, I’ll go onto the ship, and start. So onboarding in those days was three months long, so it was a little bit longer. So the idea was to be available from January to March there. And then I would go to the ship for the beginning of the school year in August.
I had felt that knocking for a long time, and now I was on my way. In fact, when I packed up my house, I discovered like five sets of Mercy Ships applications that I had written off and never filled out. So it wasn’t a quick process. It took a while for me to have the courage or the gumption.
Raeanne:
Oh, my goodness. And now it’s been what, almost 18 years?
Nikki:
If my math is accurate, in January, it will be 17.
Raeanne:
When did your passion for education begin? When did you know that you wanted to be a teacher?
Nikki:
If I’m honest, I don’t think I had a passion to be a teacher. I wanted to make school fun. School was not my happy place growing up. I have dyslexia, so school was hard. Learning didn’t necessarily come easy. Talking came easy, but not reading or doing the other things that were required. And so school was just hard work. And then also I loved kids and I loved seeing those experiences. I was always the babysitter growing up. And so in high school I kind of figured, maybe I can be a teacher, despite of all the kind of the difficulties of the school and the kind of feedback and intentionally that you get if you struggle with school, and I thought well, maybe I can make it. Maybe I can do this and you get holidays off. So I said, Okay, let’s give this a go. So I ended up going into teaching and ended up also more specifically specializing in special education. And through studying to be a special ed teacher, I discovered so much about my own learning that made more sense. Yeah, it was an interesting journey. Sometimes, I think God uses different ways to hook us and then we discover the most amazing things about ourselves that we would never have seen if we hadn’t started.
Raeanne:
That’s very true. What was a highlight for you teaching on board? And how well first of all, how long did you live on board?
Nikki:
A total of about eight years.
I think a highlight was becoming principal. I just expected to be a teacher and then the opportunity came up, where they asked whether I would consider being principal at the beginning of the next school year. And so I accepted and that was a highlight, just having that opportunity, it was an opportunity I didn’t think personally I would ever get. And yet God opened that door. And again, I think the hook was becoming a teacher. I know I can do that. I didn’t think I could be a school leader. But he knew and kind of created that opportunity. So yeah, it was kind of sweet experience.
I think one of my all-time favorite stories, is the power of the faith that children have, and keep teaching us if we dare to listen and look and observe their walk with God. And it happened back in about 2010. We had an interesting season where we moved all the families off the ship off the Africa Mercy ashore in Durban, South Africa. We were replacing the generators on board, the Africa Mercy was a major project, I think we went six months, but it ended up being nine months. So we relocated and we lived at a teacher training college. We had space for classrooms, we had all sorts of things. So it was quite fun for the kids, families and the whole crew living in a dormitory, it was a learning experience. It was called Applesbosh. So kind of some people still have a nervous tick if we if we’ve mentioned Applesbosh, but anyway, it was during that season, when we arrived. And because it was a college campus, there was a massive amphitheater, that the lecture halls and the kind of the school and the kind of dormitories were all kind of built around this amphitheater. And it was all brick paved — just painting the picture. And every Friday morning, we would have devotions in the school assembly sitting literally under acacia trees. There was a drought and it was the summer season and where we were was very rural and very agricultural based. And the drought was having a really negative effect on the farming community. So whenever we would go to church or connect with people, that’s all we would hear about was this drought that was really affecting the economy in the area. So that’s what the kids were thinking and this Friday morning, we were calling for prayer requests, and what could we pray for together as an academy? And when I said, all the kids, that was the preschoolers through the grade twelve because that’s what we love to do is get everybody together and we somehow make it work and appropriate. There was a young student in kindergarten, so he’s five, and he stood up he said, Miss Nikki, I want to pray that it rains so much that this amphitheater fills up with water, and that we can swim. And it was a big, hairy, audacious, faith based prayer. And to be honest, a lot of the senior students, the staff kind of giggled, that’s a ridiculous prayer. I was like, Well, Tom, if that’s what you want to pray, go for it. And he stood there, and he prayed that prayer. And then two weeks later, it started raining, and did it rain. And you know, it rained so much that that amphitheater was knee high deep in water. God was kind of like, yeah, I didn’t have to answer that prayer in that way. We were just paying for rain. But yet he heard Tom, the five year olds prayer, and he kind of honoring it. Yeah, it was because the drain was blocked. And there’s all of the logic behind it. But it doesn’t make a difference. And some kids did swim in it, you know? To me, that was just a highlight of actually no prayer is too small, or too crazy, or too big for God to answer.
Raeanne:
Absolutely. What a great reminder, you know, I think sometimes we, especially as we get older, we get so practical in our prayers. We don’t pray for crazy stuff, like Yeah, fill up the amphitheater with so much rain. But I love the kind of the wonder and the naivete of children, and they pray these things, and God loves that. And he honors that and blesses it. And I think huge prayers, really affirm who God is, you know, we’re saying, God, you are big enough to do this. Nothing is impossible with you. And I think that attributes him such power and glory and honor when we actually pray big prayers. So I love that. I love that story. It’s such a great reminder for me personally, you know.
Nikki:
I always think, of Thomas and ask, am I praying in that way? Do I have the courage and the faith to pray those prayers? Still? And no, I think I’m far too practical, why I think of the reasons why God wouldn’t answer it rather than the possibilities of why he would or how I’m so narrow in my perspective of how I want him to answer my prayers, rather than saying, God, answer this in your way, with your creativity rather than my limited demand.
Raeanne:
Yeah, absolutely. Why is it important for Mercy Ships to include families, and have kids on board?
Nikki:
I think what I’ve seen the evidence of is more what it can answer and the beauty of having families serving as part of community and it creates a community serving communities versus individuals serving communities. I don’t believe God calls just a mum and dad, I believe he calls the whole family to serve with Mercy Ships. And during that season, it might be that the students, their service is in school, but their impact is outside of school. You know, I think we’ve seen when people come on board, and they see families serving, that even the most difficult conversations become easy, or that it opens doors and opportunities. And it shows the love of Jesus and the purpose that God has in family and community and the value of children in the most beautiful way. I think, too, that our children serve our onboard communities, not only the host nation communities, in the sense that they bring levity, they bring laughter, they bring joy.
Our days are never done. There’s always more need than we can serve. You know, no matter what we do, but yet, it’s still valuable on what we do. And having kids part of the community just helps us see that. Yeah, we’re more than just what we do in our service. We’re individuals were surrogate aunts and uncles, and grandparents and all of those things there. And also we get to learn from our kids. We get to see Jesus in them and the reminder to have that same faith with abandon, without reason or logic or hindrance, it’s just that ability. And I think God knew that we needed that. Our kids serve our community by helping us find that balance and bringing joy and levity. And often humor and beauty in a different way.
But I think that, you know, it’s a lot of work to have kids on board, because you have to create an academy, you have to create, you know, an education for these children. It creates safety issues, and there’s a lot of extra work that goes into it when there are children on board. However, as you’ve just mentioned, I think the benefits far outweigh the cost. And like you said, we can learn from them, like little Tom, you know, to pray big prayers, and to have a faith of a child, you know, when you’re in the intense working environment of a hospital, on board in a developing nation, you know, there’s a lot of intensity on board, but the kids kind of just, you know, bring you back to earth a little bit and, and to watch them relate with the children who are in the hospital, the patient is lovely.
And for them yet, kind of even to see that interaction and realize, if you can do it, why can’t I? In the hospital visiting patients, they see past all the disfigurements and, you know, they just see the child or the adult that’s there in the most beautiful way. They also ask us hard questions about faith that are not easy to answer, but help remind us of refining our call and our mission. Yeah, it’s worth it being here. Yeah. It definitely has a cost serving in any area of missions. But it’s worth it. They do give up some things, but they also gain so many opportunities, and the perspectives that any person serving with Mercy Ships has. But if kids get that experience, they’ll grow up with a worldview that is completely different. And they’ll have a perspective that is forged in a completely different way if they just remained in their home countries.
Raeanne:
Well, Nikki, tell us, what are you doing now? You were on board for about eight years, but you continue to serve with Mercy Ships? What is your current role?
Nikki:
So currently, my fancy title is Academy superintendent. So I oversee both academies currently on the Global Mercy and then when we relaunch and reopen the academy and with Africa Mercy in this coming January, so that we’re excited to be back to having two schools after the Africa Mercy has finished the refit season. I serve as part of a team and I’m trying to find out what that looks like. So a lot of when I moved up in 2014, we were really at that stage where the Global Mercy arrival was no longer just a dream or a plan. Although we had been working on it for a number of years, it was becoming a reality. So I have a colleague, Brian Blackburn, who’s worked here from the IOC back since 2007. He was on the ships and served with his wife and family, but then moved here and he was on his own supporting the Academy. And just after eight years, I left the ship and was ready for a new season and so he said, well come to come to Texas and help plan for the new Global Mercy. So initially, when I came out here, I wasn’t superintendent, I was working as supporting the academic program and then planning for the Global Mercy and what that looked like and then eventually stepped into a more senior leadership role. And now we have actually a team of seven people supporting the schools. Yeah, so it’s quite a growth, it just been a couple of months that we’ve had curriculum managers and instructional coaches, and they’re working remotely, both Jessie and Catherine served as teachers on board, and now they’re serving in that role from their home countries. And it’s just exciting to see those things. The Africa Mercy has been accredited as an International Christian School since 2011. And we will be applying for a systems accreditation for the Global Mercy, and we’re hoping to get that work finished in about 2025. So we’ll keep it keep us busy. But part of that is just to provide the quality because we have families serving us, and when they return home to their own countries, we want to help ensure that we can smoothly transition families into their home nations or the next chapter.
Raeanne:
I think it’s important for people listening to know that not only Mercy Ships values family, but also there’s a level of excellence that we offer our students and our academies. And they’re so valued. As you mentioned, you now have a team of seven people from around the world that are working off ship just to support these academies. And we really do offer an excellent education for the kiddos on board. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that excellence? Tell us a little bit about the quality of education that’s offered as well as the unique aspects that come with a school onboard a ship?
Nikki:
There is a mention in a book written is called “Worth It” by Professor Brian Simmons, he quotes that the Mercy Ships Academy is one of the most unique schools in the world. And I love that quote, but how can we be both unique, but also ensure that we meeting the same milestones as other schools, and make sure that we do a good job. And part of that is accreditation. And part of that is accountability and finding the balance between sort of how do you pave the pathway but help teachers down that pathway, but also have their creativity to be who God has created them to be as a teacher. I call it the how and what of teaching. So what we want our teachers to teach, we want to define well, so that not only we can know which pipe to forge, but also know what to communicate to our families and to future schools as students transfer.
So our school operates in similar ways, it actually looks like a pretty normal school. We start in the morning, and we have lessons in the day. And we have a bell and we have a morning break. The one unique aspect of the school is we have an hour long lunch break every day that matches the ships lunch hour. And so students get to go home and spend lunch with their families every day, which is great fun, and they come back in the afternoon. How we build our the more academic program is we have Bible and we do map and we do language arts or English and we do science and we do social studies. Our social studies is slightly different in the sense of we teach from a global perspective, we don’t focus on a particular country or particular perspective, we have that more global approach. And then we do things like technology and PE or physical education and art and music, we have a library on board for the kids. Then we have things like student life on a Friday afternoon for grade 6 to 12. It teaches our kids life skills where we invite crew to come and share an area that they are passionate about and it could be painting or cheerleading or wood working, all these different passions that crew have. So they get to share that with our students.
Once a year, we have something called work experience, and it’s part of our college preparation program. And our students get to choose a job that they would like to shadow. So they get to choose a job that they would like to essentially try out for a week. Then we approached people that are working in those roles and ask them to mentor one of our students and do all the preparation that goes with that. And though our students get to spend that week working the hours that they mentor works. So for example, a couple of years ago, we had one of our kids want to work as a baker. Okay, the baker starts at 3am? No, no problem. So here, the student was in work from 3am to 11am, every day, and he loved it, because then he had the rest of the day off. But he got that experience. And part of it is they also need to look at kind of what it takes to do that career, whether it’s a traditional pathway or by the different ways. We ask them to choose a different career every year, so that they can try different things. And they learn a lot about themselves actually, brought about through sweat equity, to be honest, some of them didn’t realize how hard people worked. Those are the fun, unique things. You know, on a very practical level, the school is accredited by two different organizations as an international school. And that’s through the Association of Christian Schools International, and then also through Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Both of those help because we have a monitoring process and there’s requirements that we have to meet and that helps keep us accountable.
Raeanne:
Well, I know firsthand, it is an incredible education that our kids are experiencing on board. I know, my kids just thrived and had such a positive experience. And it’s incredible how intentional Mercy Ships is about providing excellent education for the students on board. And it should be encouraging to any parents out there who are considering doing this with their family and to potential teachers who are listening, wondering, oh, maybe I could go do this.
Nikki:
And I think it also is that accreditation, that helps the teachers as well, because we can help with credentialing and licensing and whatever that looks like. So it isn’t a step out of their career. It’s just furthering your career in a different capacity, which is great for teachers, you know?
Raeanne:
Well, coming into almost 17 years or a little beyond 17 years of service with Mercy Ships, what is it that keeps you going? Why do you stay?
Nikki:
Yeah, I think that’s a good question. Some days, it’s easy to answer and some days it’s not!
I think it’s on the balance of just being part of something that you know is good. Yeah. And also that what I shared earlier on about getting to do my profession, but also serve. And I believe in the mission and vision, you know, I believe that they bring hope and healing to people that need to know Jesus’ transformational love, and you get to see that in action. I think for me, and when I talk to our teachers about our ministry, we might not be the patients but we bring that transformational love of Jesus to our students, and we get to see them not only grow in excellence and advance in their education, but grow their faith and an understanding of who their God is. And the fact that he’s called them so I think those things, the marrying of two worlds, I don’t know, I wouldn’t know how to separate them, you know?
Raeanne:
Well, as we wrap up our time together, why don’t you tell us what your hopes are for this new school year.
Nikki:
The last few years have been challenging. We’ve had the exponential growth in the organization, we’ve had a lot of leadership change. None of that’s bad or good. It’s just sometimes it’s hard, you know, and then you have COVID thrown in there. We have this layer of the Global Mercy thrown there. It’s just been a season of so much change, and a lot of crisis management. And, again, sometimes those are the seasons we need to walkthrough and a good day is a day we get to stand in the same spot! I’m looking forward to getting to a point in January, where we have both schools and seeing all the dreams we’ve had of the two schools working side by side, being unique schools, but also the opportunity the teachers on each ship to have collaborate together and just small glimpses of just opportunity and possibility that we’ve thought and planned about for so long. And just seeing what God’s going to do with that. Also seeing a new wave of people joining us and the impact that they’ve got and how God will work in them and through them in the coming season. I think, yeah, I’m looking forward to just being able to move forward.
Raeanne:
We will definitely all be joining you in prayer, as the school year has begun, and it will run smoothly. And Lord willing, two schools will be running together in January, which is so so exciting.
I’m grateful that you have been obedient each day. With that question of God, what do you have for me today? What can I do today? And as he has spoken to you, you have continued to say yes, in the hard days and in the great days, and we’re so grateful for your leadership and your supervision over our academies. We know that our children are being very well educated on board both ships. And so we thank you so much for all that you do and your team. And thank you for sharing with us.
Nikki:
Thank you, I appreciate the opportunity. I love exploring with families and teachers what it would mean to serve at Mercy Ships, I can jump on calls and answer questions about what it could possibly look like. So feel free to reach out.
Raeanne:
Thank you, Nikki. We appreciate you
If you are interested in teaching on board our ships, please go to Mercyships.org/volunteer for more information.
For more information about Mercy Ships, go to mercyships.org, and to keep up with the guests on New Mercies, follow us on Instagram at NewMerciesPodcast.