By Rachel Leach I sat across the table from Fr. Juan at his birthday party in 2013 and said something very risky: “Father, for your birthday can you give me a present?” After his inquisitive look I explained: “The Bible says a lot about sheep and the ‘Good Shepherd,’ and I want to live with…
Reflections of a Pilgrim By Jennifer Ristine As the Coordinator for the Magdala Visitors Center and the Director of Magdalena Institute, I meet thousands of people every year. One simple lesson I have learned is, “Don’t judge a book by its cover!” One day I saw what to me looked like a joyful young and…
Dear Friends, I would like to share with you one of the first “insider” experiences I had with Magdala. When I visited Magdala for the first time it was the site of the abandoned “Hawaii Beach” resort. Yet, as I was standing there, I was fascinated. It seemed to me the ideal site to implement…
By: Christiane Esser Happiness is…being on the shores of the Sea of Galilee… I wish you all could meet Camila in person! From the moment she entered Duc in Altum in the arms of her father, I was impacted by her joy and personality. While greeting her parents and soon-to-be godparents in the Women’s Atrium, she…
#Pink Prayer By: Jennifer Ristine Magdala in solidarity with breast cancer victims and their families My mother passed away from cancer in 2006. Despite it being 10 years later, memories of her 5 “battle years” remain vivid. It colored my days. Life was different. Her suffering and the ups and downs of good and bad…
Dear Friends of Magdala: Every time a group of pilgrims arrives to Duc In Altum I ask them, “Who is the person who has impacted your faith and values the most?” The answer, 99% of the time, is “my mother.” Occasionally it has also been a person´s grandmother, a teacher, a catechist…. But only on…
OCTOBER INITIATIVE: Magdala in solidarity with breast cancer victims and their families. The Reality: According to the American Cancer Society, there were nearly 1,700,000 breast cancer cases among women worldwide in 2012. This is the most common type of cancer among women in the world. It is a cancer that affects not only the woman,…
Dear friends of Magdala: As many of you know we are currently in the middle of the construction process of the Magdala guesthouse, and as we continue to move forward and see more progress I feel the need to better express the motivations behind this particular aspect of our project as well as answer some…
When 6:00 pm finally arrives, the wind gusts offer some relief to the 100-degree August heat, and I am ready to dip my feet into the refreshing waters of the Sea of Galilee. What a day! Non-stop tours: Baptists from Atlanta, Georgia; Evangelicals from Sweden; Anglicans from the UK; Catholics from Mexico and Peru; four…
A few days ago I celebrated my 1-year anniversary of life in Magdala, Israel. September 2015 to September 2016 was a year of culture shock, adventure, and pita. A westerner coming to the Middle East, I definitely found myself in “another world,” and unlike the many tourists or pilgrims I wasn’t accompanied by a local…
