שָׁלוֹם (Shalom), blogworld.
That was too predictable, wasn’t it?
😉
I just wanted to say hello.
My mind is still a bit muddled from the jet lag but the tiny fact that I can’t seem to make out a single coherent thought has never stopped me from talking heretofore so I shall proceed.
And besides, y’all are forgiving and this should help:
Just another thing I love about Atlanta: Octane cappuccinos. By the way, what is the best cappuccino you’ve ever had? That is a random but profound question for a Friday, don’t you think? It just makes my entire week when the barista makes the little intricate designs with the foam.
Have I mentioned that I keep waking up at 4:00 in the morning hungry for hummus?
Yesterday I spent hours on end making this very basic video slideshow from my pictures from Israel. My new hobby as of late is photography (and yes–it has taken the place of cooking for now). Israel is quite a location for the photo enthusiast, let me tell you. Please understand several things before you watch the slideshow:
- 1) I am not Rich Kalonick, though he did walk me through several things via text message yesterday. For the first time I think I fully respect the work he does when he creates the slideshows for the LPL events. It takes more time and work than you might imagine. So thanks, Rich!
- 2) The slideshow is quite long, running about twelve minutes. By no means should you watch the whole thing if you are bored to tears. You have complete control and you can’t say I didn’t warn you! 😉
- 3) This slideshow reflects about 5% of the people and places on our trip to Israel. I literally whittled down 2,000 photos to about 200. Sadly, there was just no way to include them all here. But on the bright side, if I had included all 2,000 the video would have been about six hours.
Having made this disclaimer, I do so much hope you enjoy it!
Israel Trip from Melissa Fitzpatrick on Vimeo.
Music added: “Beautiful” by Shawn McDonald & “I Stand Amazed” by Chris Tomlin.
Our trip was truly incredible. I have some more substantial thoughts that I would like to share but I will get back to you with those ponderings when I am not in such a fog–hopefully sometime next week.
Have a wonderful weekend, Siestas! We sure love you!
Warmly,
Melissa
Hey, we love predictable–we just don’t want to be predictable!
And loved the pictures. I just had to raise my hands and cry out, “Holy, holy, holy,” when I saw the pictures of the wailing wall.
Thanks!
Terri
Amazing pictures! And those two songs were the perfect fit. But there was a fish in there for luch I guess, that was scary..
Really, Melissa the slide show was awesome, not too long, and Rich quality pictures.
Breath taking! I watched the whole show by the way. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts about the trip!
Love ya!
Melissa — you are a gifted photographer! This was just incredibly gorgeous – I watched it all and could have watched more! Thank you for sharing….our church is planning a trip to Israel next year and I was opting out….this inspired me to go! Looking forward to more from you and your Mom as the weeks go on…….hugs!
Wow! Thanks for the wonderful pictures. Looks like you had a great time, and saw the most beautiful places. Hope to go there sometime myself. Thanks again!
Bravo Melissa!!
I LOVED the slideshow and it made me feel like I was there
I am going to confess my ignorance of not knowing how beautiful it is over there. I guess the media paints such an ugly picture of the land but it is BREATHTAKING
Holy ground for sure
I am now putting that down on my bucket list – trip to ISRAEL
Thank you again for all the pictures and your hard work 🙂
Much love
Kim
Thank you for sharing your trip to Israel with us ! I, too, look forward to hearing more about Y’all’s trip !
It must have been literally “amazing” to walk where our Savior, Jesus, walked and taught … Hallelujah !
Any chances that a mini Bible study might come out from this trip ??? 🙂
I am so glad that Y’all had the joyous opportunity to have gone to the Holy Land, but I am just as glad to know that all of you came back “home” safely. Praise God !
Love, in Christ Jesus,
Jennifer O.
Southern Wisconsin
That was beautiful!!!
I am half Syrian and make many of those foods all the time. Would love to have you for dinner some time.
Just watching this video brought me to tears, I can’t imagine the mess I’d be if I actually went! How marvelous, how wonderful is our Savior’s love!
The video was awesome and brought me to tears. Thank you so much for sharing.
Love,
Dianne
Great pictures Melissa. We have wanted to go for a while. This makes me want to jump on the next plane. So glad you had such a wonderful trip with your mom. Blessings to you both.
Thank you Melissa, what a beautiful, moving tribute to your experience. I wish I could have been there with you, but I do feel I have just shared some of the reverence, some of the awesome joy, some of the humbling reality that you must have felt as you walked in these places and shared with these people. I am new to this website and how I am praising God yet again for His working through your family and your life and the anointing that is obviously so strong upon you. Bless your heart.
Beautiful and awesome. Tears were pouring down my face by about the third slide. What a beautiful and powerful experience – for those there and for those of us who lived it through pictures and words.
Also, if you need a hummus recipe….
Wow Melissa. That was beautiful. Thanks for sharing that with us!
Thank you so much for sharing some highlights of the trip. I especially loved the fishing boats, the sheep, the grave, the colours of the market, the emotions at the tomb. Living in Canada, we don’t see a lot of old and that was particularly gripping – to match the Bible to those places.
Melissa, that was just so beautiful! It made not being there with you guys much more bearable. I loved them all. It was evident that you all were beside yourselves with joy, fun and amazement. So happy for you. Hopefully you can make a few more clips for us—-when your’re not working! carla
I wept, especially at the Wailing Wall. Thank you so much!
P.S. I recognize the top Beth wore in at the simulcast in Georgia:-)
Thank you so much for sharing! I was blessed 2x’s (I watched it twice!)
Oh my goodness – if this was your first attempt at a video it was incredible. Thank you so much for sharing. I plant to go to the holy land in January and was so excited to see a preview of where we will be visiting. I was so touched so see everyone lined up along the wall praying and all of the prayers on paper folded into the cracks. Thank you again for sharing with all of us sietas !!!
Awesome video!!! Thank you so much for sharing it with us 🙂
Wow. Thank you so much for sharing.
Wow, that’s some amazing stuff there. Thanks so much (to you AND to Rich) for sharing this with us.
blessings,
Toni
That was awesome, thank you for sharing this with all of us!! Makes me wish I could have gone too!! I just love all of you and hope you never stop what you are doing for us.
God bless you all
Melissa,
That was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! I just watched and worshipped! Thank you for taking the time to put so many of my feelings about the trip into snapshot format. You are a gifted photographer sister! Miss you already! Blessings, jenn
Thanks for sharing. I had a lump in my throat that simply would not move……. just watching made me hungry for the beautiful reunion when all God’s children will gather and honor the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!! Bless you girl!
oh melissa! your pictures are just beautiful! i was not bored in the slightest! i’ve recently taken up amateur photography myself…usually the pictures are of my kids (which would actually bore one to tears). haha. what an amazing trip…maybe one day i’ll be able to shower, get on a plane, and do that too!
t has beem 1 year and two months since my last visit to the blog—Gosh that was a mistake!! Good to be back–missed my siestas–got sidetracked by life and been hanging on to Jesus–but missed you Beth soo much–my teacher–Love, Shell
AWESOME! It makes me want to go there so much!
Melissa, WOW is all I can say! Thanks so much for sharing, I’m going to fwd to my husband. Blessings, Hattie
I’m listening to your weekly broadcast on oneplace.com on the power of words and cannot help but think of what is going on with Helen Thomas. She has wiped out a 50 year or so career with her words spoken in a 5 minute interview. God’s words are so true, I pray that we heed this warning in our lives.
Beautiful!! Great job capturing the trip Melissa!
I would just like to add to the growing list of Siesta’s who request to that the next trip include us! 🙂 I’d go!
Melissa—that is amazing—It brings me to tears everytime I watch it. To walk where our Lord walked 🙂
I know what you mean! It’s something I can’t quite wrap my mind around…probably not ever fully. Not this side of Heaven.
Melissa, thank you … absolutely wonderful, amazing and beautiful. I may never get to Jerusalem .. and your photos mesmerized me!! God bles.
That was a wonderful. I almost felt like I was there! Could tell it was a life changing trip for y’all.
Thank you for sharing it with us!
Loved it – great job – beautiful!!!
Love the video! Those pictures showed the beauty of Israel. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much, Melissa, for the great job you did on this presentation! (I only hope you were able to be in the moment while taking so many photos!) You captured so much beauty for us. Rest well…I’m anticipating seeing the other 1800!
breathtaking pics….i wanna go!!!
great photog work!
I love those little cappa pictures to 🙂
It just adds a little extra special-ness
Thank you so much for sharing your Israel pictures:) How awesome they are!! My son and I went to Israel with our church in 2007. He was almost 13 at the time and we had the most awesome time ever. Looking at your pictures brought back wonderful memories!!! My son even put together a powerpoint presentation and presented it to his Social Studies class. What a witness that was to his classmates, and his teacher was quite impressed, too…she even gave him extra credit and he didn’t have to make up any lessons he missed. We hope to go again some day!! Thanks again for sharing!! Love you guys!!!
Absolutely beautiful! I really enjoyed watching your slide video.
I live in Fort Lauderdale and have taken many of your moms courses at First Baptist Fort Lauderdale. I often look at this site just so I can keep up with what is going on with all of you.
God Bless You.
This was wonderful, beautiful, touching. This would definitely be the trip of a lifetime. Thank you for sharing this with those of us who long to be there, but haven’t had the opportunity to experience it yet. The picture of the crowd praying at the wall brought tears to my eyes, especially the man in the background running with his arms outstretched. Lovely, lovely, lovely!
Melissa!:) This video was great! I loved the pictures!:) They say a 1,000 words:) Looking forward to reading your recap:)
katiegfromtennessee
Loved the video- you did a great job. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much for the pictures! I don”t know if I’ll ever make it to the Holy Land, but with your pictures I get a real sense of what it’s like there. The pictures of the ladies praying at the Wailing Wall, well it just about did me in! To be there, to pray at the same wall so many have prayed before. It staggers the imagination. Thank you again for sharing of yourselves.
Melissa, thank you so much for sharing this video. I had goose bumps the whole time I was watching it. I could feel Christs presence while watching. Wish I could have gone. Polly Stone
Thank-you. The pictures were both beautiful and sobering.
Maybe it was just the joy of being in Seattle, the land of my birth and relative peeps (I’ve lived in NC most of my life), but I think my favorite cappuccino experience happened at Cafe Ladro. It involved some flavor of killer coffee cake. And it was the first time I’d seen anyone design a foam doohickey, like yours, on top. In fact, the first time I’d ever had a fancy coffee beverage was during a visit to Seattle, long before all the chains popped up. I had an iced mocha from a street cart with an extra shot of chocolate and a major caffeine/sugar buzz for the rest of the day.