“…encouraging story in the
Cradle of Creativity.”
Cindy Bayer
A native of Springfield, Missouri, Cindy raised two daughters in Florida after graduating with a BA in foreign languages from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Over the years she has sold real estate, owned a real estate brokerage, and managed her personal investment properties, including restoring and operating a historic Standard Oil gas station in Florida built in 1921 that is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Cindy has been a Bible teacher for youth and for women in a variety of home/group settings. She served as a leader in Young Life and in Bible Study Fellowship. Her first husband left in 1996 and later divorced in 2000 after twenty-five years of marriage. The following year her older daughter, Lauren, married and went on to become an international lawyer in Washington, DC. In 2002 her younger daughter, Lanna, left for college and Cindy was turning 50. Having made 12 trips to Israel as a result of her love for the Bible and the Land of the Bible, she took the opportunity to use her “empty-nest” freedom to pursue a Masters Degree in Historical Geography at Jerusalem University College on Mt. Zion and, while in the States, at Dallas Theological Seminary.
From the ashes of a shattered marriage and the richness of what she was learning in Israel, she developed and wrote a Bible study entitled, Master Design…Decorating by The Book, which she has taught both in the U.S. and in Israel. It is a study that seeks to guide women in discovering how color, detail, purpose, and personal story can combine to reflect God’s design for that place called home.
Since 2002 Cindy has lived on Via Dolorosa in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City where she writes the e-journal, Jerusalem Journal. In 2004 she met and later married Hollywood actor Gary Bayer. They bought a home in a Jewish village overlooking the Sea of Galilee in 2007 and began splitting each week between two strategic residences where sharing their table allowed a venue for stories to flow. After a 4 year battle with cancer Gary died January 6, 2017 and is buried on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. Cindy continues to maintain both residences for hosting and she serves as Director of The Writers’ Gathering.
Now with her two daughters & spouses, 5 grandchildren, Gary’s 3 children & spouses, and his 5 grandchildren she is one busy grandmother who returns to the US twice yearly for visits mixed in with seeing friends and other family, along with pouring out stories of life in Israel to groups from coast to coast.
Click here if you would like to see Cindy’s archived television interview segment aired November 2009 on Finnish TV 7 for the program Israel Art.
Cindy Bayer
A native of Springfield, Missouri, Cindy raised two daughters in Florida after graduating with a BA in foreign languages from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Over the years she has sold real estate, owned a real estate brokerage, and managed her personal investment properties, including restoring and operating a historic Standard Oil gas station in Florida built in 1921 that is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Cindy has been a Bible teacher for youth and for women in a variety of home/group settings. She served as a leader in Young Life and in Bible Study Fellowship. Her first husband left in 1996 and later divorced in 2000 after twenty-five years of marriage. The following year her older daughter, Lauren, married and went on to become an international lawyer in Washington, DC. In 2002 her younger daughter, Lanna, left for college and Cindy was turning 50. Having made 12 trips to Israel as a result of her love for the Bible and the Land of the Bible, she took the opportunity to use her “empty-nest” freedom to pursue a Masters Degree in Historical Geography at Jerusalem University College on Mt. Zion and, while in the States, at Dallas Theological Seminary.
From the ashes of a shattered marriage and the richness of what she was learning in Israel, she developed and wrote a Bible study entitled, Master Design…Decorating by The Book, which she has taught both in the U.S. and in Israel. It is a study that seeks to guide women in discovering how color, detail, purpose, and personal story can combine to reflect God’s design for that place called home.
Since 2002 Cindy has lived on Via Dolorosa in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City where she writes the e-journal, Jerusalem Journal. In 2004 she met and later married Hollywood actor Gary Bayer. They bought a home in a Jewish village overlooking the Sea of Galilee in 2007 and began splitting each week between two strategic residences where sharing their table allowed a venue for stories to flow. After a 4 year battle with cancer Gary died January 6, 2017 and is buried on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. Cindy continues to maintain both residences for hosting and she serves as Director of The Writers’ Gathering.
Now with her two daughters & spouses, 5 grandchildren, Gary’s 3 children & spouses, and his 5 grandchildren she is one busy grandmother who returns to the US twice yearly for visits mixed in with seeing friends and other family, along with pouring out stories of life in Israel to groups from coast to coast.
Click here if you would like to see Cindy’s archived television interview segment aired November 2009 on Finnish TV 7 for the program Israel Art.
The Writers’ Gathering – Israel
The Writers’ Gathering Jerusalem invites established writers whose body of work is life-affirming and redemptive, for a fully sponsored 8 day immersion in the Land of the Bible. The writers explore the history of this ancient crossroads, both past and present, while experiencing the variety of people who call this place “home”….from artists to archaeologists, fishermen to farmers, soldiers to shopkeepers, political leaders to news reporters. They walk this historic land which continues to affect the very pulse of our world today.
Our hope is that they will be inspired and encouraged to write stories that are truthful, uplifting, and healing…instead of stories of fear, distortion, and conflict, which most of the global media generates about this place.
As past participants return home with ideas for scripts, plays, or novels we encourage them to bring their creative work to Israel in the form of shooting their film or staging their performance here.
We are sowing seeds…seeds that will hopefully bear fruit for stories that will nurture goodness and healing, reflecting truthfully this complex yet innately beautiful land.
The Writers’ Gathering – Israel
The Writers’ Gathering Jerusalem invites established writers whose body of work is life-affirming and redemptive, for a fully sponsored 8 day immersion in the Land of the Bible. The writers explore the history of this ancient crossroads, both past and present, while experiencing the variety of people who call this place “home”….from artists to archaeologists, fishermen to farmers, soldiers to shopkeepers, political leaders to news reporters. They walk this historic land which continues to affect the very pulse of our world today.
Our hope is that they will be inspired and encouraged to write stories that are truthful, uplifting, and healing…instead of stories of fear, distortion, and conflict, which most of the global media generates about this place.
As past participants return home with ideas for scripts, plays, or novels we encourage them to bring their creative work to Israel in the form of shooting their film or staging their performance here.
We are sowing seeds…seeds that will hopefully bear fruit for stories that will nurture goodness and healing, reflecting truthfully this complex yet innately beautiful land.