INVESTING IN LIVES Royal Atrium Inn Resident Recounts a Lifetime of Educating At age 98, Gertrude Van Haitsma decided it was finally time to retire from a lifetime of teaching. Her remarkable ministry touched nine different decades, two continents, and countless lives.
Gertrude’s career began shortly after her graduation from Calvin College in 1943. For three years, she taught 4th grade at Zeeland Christian School until she faced a predicament: her little sister was scheduled to be in her classroom the next year. “I decided that wasn’t a wise idea,” Gertrude says, “so I looked around for a new opportunity.” Her mother, who had always been interested in missionary work, had read about teaching
opportunities with Rehoboth Christian School serving the
Navajo Nation in New Mexico. The two women drove to Grand Rapids to meet with the Head of Missions. “He was delighted to see us,” Gertrude remembers. “He said they had three openings in New Mexico,‘Would you like one?’” Ultimately, Gertrude said yes, and that one word set the trajectory of her life in motion.
Gertrude, pictured here in New Mexico with a mother and child.
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