Well. Talk about God answering your prayers, and then some.
If you’ve been following our blog, you may have been wondering where we’ve been. In brief, since The Faithful Traveler debuted on EWTN in March 2010, we’ve been waiting to see if God would enable us to produce any future seasons of The Faithful Traveler for EWTN. (Basically, we’ve been waiting to find out how we can do it, financially. These things cost money, as you may well know.)
It’s been almost a year, and believe it or not, we’re nowhere closer to an answer than we were a year ago. Yes, it’s disappointing, but what can you do? (Email EWTN and tell them you want more of The Faithful Traveler? It couldn’t hurt!)
So, we’ve been getting on without lives. Working at our full-time jobs, doing things around the house. My mom and dad came to visit from San Diego for the Christmas holiday. That was nice.
Things changed sometime in early December, when I got an email that intrigued me. To make a very long and nail-biting story short and sweet, we’re going to the Holy Land, and we’re taking our cameras with us.
Our Archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali, wanted to go on an Archdiocesan pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and so the Archdiocese made it happen. The tour company that is putting this all together, Select International Tours, contacted us about filming the pilgrimage. EWTN loved the idea, and so, a special series of international episodes of The Faithful Traveler will be coming to a TV set near you sometime in the next year.
Isn’t that exciting? (That’s about the biggest understatement…)
Originally, we were supposed to go to Egypt and visit Mount Sinai and the Monastery of St Catharine. That would have been awesome, but, well, you know what’s been going on in Egypt these days. So that doesn’t look like it will be happening. But still! We’re going to the Holy Land! I never thought I’d say it! I never even dreamed it would happen! And here I am, going over my equipment, and reading up on the area and its history as much as I can.
We leave on March 25th–the Feast of the Annunciation, and the anniversary of our engagement. We’ll be there for about 10 days, and the itinerary is packed! It’s going to be a lot of run and gun shooting, and I’m nervous as all get out.
You’ll pray for us, won’t you?
Fortunately, I won’t be going alone. David, my husband and camera/sound/lighting man, is coming, as is Sony, our trusty second camerawoman. Although she’s never been to the Holy Land, she’s traveled the world with that camera of hers, and her fearless enthusiasm will be a nice balance for my nail-biting fastidiousness. I’m thrilled to be able to introduce her to a new part of the world!
After this trip, who knows? EWTN still has to decide if we can do another season of the US-based show. And if things go well with this trip, perhaps Select International will consider sponsoring us on other international trips! So, the possibilities, for now, seem promising.
At any rate, be sure to check us out on Facebook, if you subscribe. I’m sure I’ll be posting little updates while we’re on our trip, and will do my best to update the blog when I come home. But please do keep us in your prayers. As I said to someone last night, I’m equal parts excited and panicked. Excited, because this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and panicked, because of the same reason. We either get the shot, or we don’t. I trust in Him, that He’ll help us out. But I’ll take all the prayers we can get. 🙂
(Oh, and if you still haven’t bought your copy of our 2-DVD set of the entire first season, you still can! Thirteen half-hour episodes for just $24.95 is a steal! That’s $1.91 an episode! I bought a Catholic DVD the other day that was twice the price of ours, and which only included a 1-hour show!)