A guy was hired to drive me three hours from New Jersey to Maryland. I said goodbye to all the people at Morey’s Piers, and then turned to the big and burly driver.; He introduced himself as Stephen from Bulgaria and he gently lowered my luggage into the trunk of the car.

These drivers and their cars make me feel awkward. If it were a limo, you’d be separated by the thick “privacy glass” to separate your two worlds. But this was just a sedan, so you hop in the back like a little kid riding with grandpa. He’s professional and knows not to make small talk with his client. But I poked him a little bit until he started talking. Why not? I’m not going to ride with a stranger for three hours.

He was raised in Communist Bulgaria. His childhood was fun and safe and never sensed anything was wrong. He explained that nobody had money, but he didn’t know that because nobody told him that. They didn’t have American television or magazines to make them greedy. He was able to come to America because he got lucky in a lottery system. So now he’s almost thirty, and he’s married to a lovely German girl he met on the pier in New Jersey.

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This afternoon I gave a talk at the 10th year anniversary party for St. John’s parish here in Westminster. Today was for all the alumni who’ve come through Life Teen over those years. My talk was this afternoon, then we had a big dinner then a time of prayer at the parish. The church was so beautiful and peaceful–you couldn’t help but pray.

The church itself has an interesting history. They had an old but small church on the main street in historic Westminster. In the 1970’s, they built a modern church up on the hill. Folks from the Church offered to store the old stained glass windows and statues that didn’t fit with the new look of the church.

A few years ago, they built a big big church that looked more traditional. So the town begged everyone to bring all the old church stuff from their barns and garages. One guy pulled two huge angels out of his hayloft. He ran them through the car wash to get rid of all the bird crap. All that was missing was returned and then placed in the new church. It’s quite pretty.

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Now I am here back at the home of my host family. All their are five sons who are college-age and older, so the house is loaded with testosterone. It’s a lot of fun to talk about cars for as long as you want and not have to change the subject.

Everyone has gone to bed, and I am alone here in the bedroom. It’s been a long few days. I look forward to going home, but I don’t miss it that much. Without Candyce there, I don’t have much of an emotional string pulling me home. My greatest comfort is God, and He is everywhere I go. I could never live like this without Him.