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John Nicodemus, 51, of Walkersville likes retirement "much more than I thought I would," he said, rocking on a back porch swing at his home last week.

He returned on Aug. 10 from a two-week mission trip to an orphanage in Haiti, and he's already planning to go back before the year ends.

Nicodemus retired this year from a 23-year math teaching career with Frederick County Public Schools. Six years after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, grading papers and working the chalkboard became difficult. The neurological disease causes movement problems.

"[Teaching] was too fatiguing," said Nicodemus, who lives with his wife, Ellen, next to the Monocacy River in a Civil War-era farmhouse owned by his mother.

During his trip to Haiti, Nicodemus and his friend, Mark Warner, and several other missionaries stayed at the home of Cheron Hardy, a resident missionary of the Hoschton, Ga.-based nonprofit Eternal Hope in Haiti, and an "amazing, amazing person," Nicodemus said. The charity organization opened Hope Haven Orphanage in Cap-Haitien in 1997.

Hardy is the administrator of the orphanage, which has about 50 children. Nicodemus and his fellow missionaries led a weeklong vacation bible school, followed by a weeklong basketball camp, for about 150 orphans. During his trip, Nicodemus resumed games of wiffle ball that he'd started on his first trip to the orphanage last year, he said, and played in his second staff-versus-Haitians basketball game.

"That tells them, ‘Hey, this person really cares about me,'" Nicodemus said.

Warner, 50, of Walkersville said that Nicodemus taught all three of his children in Walkersville schools. His youngest, Cameron, 16, also went on the trip.

Warner said their Haitian hosts were amazed at Nicodemus's willingness to serve others, when they expected to treat them as guests, Warner said.

"They just couldn't believe [it]," he said.

Warner is a member of the board of directors for Hands of Love, a Poolesville nonprofit established in 1994 to provide international relief. The charity hopes to establish a business training environment that will help the orphanage become self-sustaining, he said, and gradually less dependent on aid.

Nicodemus described the orphanage as a big, monastery-like building that rarely had electricity. The orphanage's goal is to make "productive citizens who love and serve Jesus in a country that desperately needs people to care," Nicodemus said, adding that Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, has a culture where it's "every man for himself."

Nicodemus is deeply religious, and has been since the age of 13, he said. He attends Faith Reform Presbyterian Church in Frederick.

He and his wife, who celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary on Aug. 11, have three children – Tim, 18, Anna, 20, and Emily, 23. Although both he and Ellen went to Duke University, all three of their children have attended Wake Forest.

Nicodemus hasn't entirely retired; he's teaching two classes, including elementary algebra, to adult students at Frederick Community College.

"I have had to step back a little bit," he said. His adult students, many of whom admit they have a "math problem," Nicodemus said, ask more questions and help each other more than did his students at Walkersville Middle.

Nicodemus also coaches women's tennis at Walkersville High School and MathCounts at Walkersville Middle. He also cycles and plays competitive basketball twice per week – with Warner – at Walkersville High at 6 a.m. August was Nicodemus's second trip to Haiti in two years. He's hoping to bring his wife for the third, which may be as soon as this winter.

"These kids need so much," Nicodemus said. "Really, all they wanted was our time."