Souljourn

By Jim Burklo

Publisher: Patheos Press
Copyright: 2013

While on a hike near his deep southwestern home one morning, a quirky teenager named Joshua T. Stoneburner experiences an apparition in a cholla cactus. Inspired, disturbed, and curious, Joshua goes on a quest to visit every religious community he can find to try to uncover the meaning of his vision. Did he see the mother of God in that cactus? Something else? Joshua isn’t giving up till he finds out, even if it turns his teenage years upside-down. Joshua’s search for clues leads him into an array of spiritual experiences, eachone packed with characters as enlightening and exasperating as they are entertaining. Along his way, Josh meets stranded Mexican immigrants, a tormented church janitor, a café waitress and her young fraternal twins, and a Native American scout for drug smugglers. As he learns compassion, he teaches his own fumbling father how to love.

In Souljourn, Joshua Stoneburner is a “coyote” spiriting us across the border of laughter and tears and calling us into a newfound appreciation of this country’s remarkable religious diversity.