Jude has proved to be quite the social butterfly and I can see him making a lot of friends throughout this pilgrimage. On the much feared 7 hour overseas flight, Jude wanted to be reassigned to be closer to the 4 seats my family and I took up at the back of the plane.  This put him now sitting next to Ben from New York.  Ben himself didn’t realize he was going to be on that plane a few days ago.  Until Thursday last week, he was supposed to be traveling with his girlfriend’s family to Europe.  After their breakup, he did an audible with the travel credits and decided on a trip to explore Lisbon.  That might not be the only thing Ben ends up exploring.

Jude and new friend Ben

For the next several hours, Jude and Ben tackled many topics including the origin and differences in the books of the bible vs. protestant versions, the True Presence, Mary and others.  Ben was raised Catholic, but never took things too far.  He was now attending a Christian Church, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts experimenting with a new faith after Jude got a hold of him.

Ben's most popular post ever on Instagram is with Jude now has over 10,000 views

I also got my turn with Ben as we waited for 30 minutes for the minors in our group to go through the manual passport process.  Ben shared with me that he wanted to see some old churches. In Lisbon, you are going to have but one option for those and they are going to be magnificent and super Catholic.  I believe the Cathedral would fit the bill and it was built in the 12th century.  I also encouraged him to check out the nightly candlelight procession in Fatima, a short bus ride away from Lisbon.

As we headed our separate ways, Jude connected with him on WhatsApp and gave him a good hug. I am guessing that our time together on the plane isn’t the last we will hear from Ben.

The huge 'The Monument to the Discoveries' statue as seen from the plane