Dear Family and Friends,
How grateful we are to step into a New Year knowing that the Lord is good, even in hardship and suffering, and sovereign over all things!
Knowing that is at the heart of the vision and mission of Magnalia Homestead Foundation. We believe that creating a place of community, healing and hope is as important now as it’s ever been! Our now weekly community meals, expanding hospitality ministry and new educational residency programs are being used by God to encourage and challenge those who come as guests here. But beyond that, and what brings us an especially deep delight:
Magnalia is helping to stir up others to foster hospitality and create a “beacon and a shelter” in their own homes and homesteads!
We have a recurring prayer as we steward an “open home” within the bustle of a little Parish Village. It’s the daily prayer of L’Abri’s Francis and Edith Schaeffer: “Lord, bring here those who should come, from near and far, and keep away those who shouldn’t.”
We are excited to share – thanks to Wolfe LLC and Steadfast Builders and their amazing community of artisan craftsmen, suppliers and tradesmen – that Narnia Cottage is nearly complete! It’s a stunning, “Old Soul” 3-bedroom guest house inspired by the residence of C.S. Lewis in Oxfordshire. Pictures and details will be shared in January as part of its opening, which will be grand!
What a labor of love it’s been, with financial, in-kind, labor and design contributions from many hands. This place has been created to inspire and renew theological imagination, and will feature elements and artifacts of Lewis’s home and the place and period in which it was built – and from Narnia itself, of course!
This guest property enables us to accommodate more visitors for overnight stays as part of our new Residency Program at Magnalia. Beginning in the Winter of 2025, we plan to host groups of 8-12 from partner organizations to participate in weekend-long or 10-day (weekend-to-weekend) residency experiences, led by experts in various fields on topics relating to
“…history, literature, and the theology behind it all.”
These experiences will be curated with partners like Mount Jubilee Ministries, the UNC Study Center, the Fellows Initiative, Tun Tavern Fellowship, Trail Life USA and others. Though these partners serve different constituencies, all residency experiences will follow the Magnalia model for creating transformational learning experiences. Here’s how we illustrate this approach:
As we launch into this new season of ministry here, in faith and dependence on the Lord’s mercies new to us each day, we want to invite you to consider helping Magnalia Homestead Foundation to meet its ongoing fundraising needs. We are working to enhance our infrastructure here to serve more than 2,000 guests this year. Completing new lodgings will enable to accommodate our expanding residency programs, including:
- a residential loft above the Pole Barn;
- a children’s sleeping loft above the Gray Room;
- grading/preparation of a new campsite area in the woods of Sedwick Village; and
- furnishing a kitchenette for the upper rooms in Narnia Cottage.
If you would like to participate financially in this effort, we’d be grateful. And in any case, we’d greatly value your prayers! To donate, you can mail a check to Magnalia Homestead Foundation at P.O. Box 559, Stokesdale, NC 27357. Or, you can choose one of the following online options:
- Make a general fund online donation using this link; or
- Sponsor an infrastructure project at Magnalia Homestead using this link.
This has been an adventure of God’s doing, not ours, and so we’re not surprised to be quite consistently over our heads. We hosted on average about 120 guests per month in 2024! But we’ve set ourselves to a vision of inspiring and encouraging others in the spirit of the Gospel, and the Lord continues to make provision. He will resource what He orders. And so, in the spirit of Narnia’s Reepicheep, who’s on display in Narnia Cottage, we echo the words of Milton:
“…we still bear up and steer right onward!”
May 2025 be a year of unprecedented blessing for you and yours, as you seek His provision, His protection and His multiplication of things Beautiful, Good and True. If we can host you or someone who might be blessed by some soul care here, please reach out to us as we would be honored by your request. It’s why this place exists.
With gratitude and warm affection,
Jim, Rachel, Eddie + Team Magnalia’s family and friends
P.S. Magnalia Homestead Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization (EIN #27-4002746), so your donation is fully tax deductible as allowed by law. You will receive a Donor Acknowledgment Letter when you donate using the link to our general fund campaign here.
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