Meet Laura Messerly, Adventure Girl
One of our brightest and most shining faces in the world of Adventure and Recreation belongs to Laura Messerly. If you’ve had the pleasure of meeting Laura and you’ve seen her smile, you know what I mean.
Laura is our Adventure Operations Director. She interacts with our wonderful adventure staff (ranging in number from 50–150 depending on the time of year). I’d love for you to get to know Laura a bit better. I know you too will be blessed by her beautiful, optimistic spirit.
Tell us how the Lord brought you to Mount Hermon?
I found out about Mount Hermon through a professor while in grad school. I found myself moving to California in early September 2011 to begin as an Adventure and Recreation intern. Even though I left after my internship year ended, the Lord had other plans for me.
I moved back home to the East Coast. The next eight months following the internship could best be summarized as “soul searching,” all the while never quite being able to shake off the fact that Mount Hermon had won me over. A week into my first full–time job in North Carolina, I learned of a new full–time position open with Mount Hermon Adventures. After quite a bit of internal struggle and prayer, and lots of frustrating silence from God, I decided not to pursue that position. Despite my decision, a little piece of my heart was undeniably still at Mount Hermon and that little piece did not seem to be shrinking. Instead, it was making it increasingly difficult to be present and effective in my current role. After two long, challenging, extremely powerful months of relying on God, on a whim, I checked the Mount Hermon jobs site. I was unexpectedly flooded with emotions (and tears) to see a full–time position for Adventure Operations Coordinator sitting there on the list. I knew it was the perfect fit! I returned in April of 2013 to begin serving in this role.
Share some of you passions outside of Mount Hermon.
I have always loved the ocean and about a year ago decided it was time to learn how to surf! There were many, many months of falling down and getting back on the board, and falling down and getting back up . . . but I am now standing up consistently and having a lot of fun out there in the waves!
My sister now works at Mount Hermon up at Outdoor Science School so I enjoy spending time with her! And my awesome roommates!
What’s new on the horizon for you in your area of ministry this year?
We always seem to be growing and changing at Mount Hermon Adventures, thanks to our fearless leader, Nate! We have recently added two new levels to our Sequoia Adventure Course, (now called the Sequoia Aerial Adventure), and are excited about our Grand Opening in March. We have been going through the various preparations; exploring the course, training our staff, discussing how it will operate, creating new staffing models, marketing and hiring more staff.
How can we pray for you?
More staff! More housing for our existing and future staff. We are hoping to hire 38 staff this spring (not counting summer staff) to run our programs and courses at full capacity! Housing is a huge, tricky and very expensive factor here in Santa Cruz for all of our staff.
Next time you are in the Adventure Recreation neighborhood make sure to stop by and say “hi” to Laura, our Adventure Girl!
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