For your first meeting face to face, I would recomend a public place. A local mall or gathering place where people are around and you two can stroll around a bit until you get a sense whether this is a person that can mentor you. I don't recomend a dark bar for the first meet--you need to see if you can trust him to help you on your journey and that means actually seeing him. Only after doing this would I recomend that you set up a session with him.

Whether or not you meet with him or someone else, set up a safe call. Choose someone in your life that you trust and tell them you are going on a blind date. If you don't want to share everything with them, fine. Put the location you are going to and the other information you have in a sealed envelope. Call them when you reach the location and before you leave it. If they don't hear from you in a set period of time, they should open the envelope and call the police.

Take care of yourself and you can have a great deal of fun.