Jason Storbakken

I should perhaps start with a personal admission: As a young man I lived deeply and intensely and often skirted danger in foreign countries. At age nineteen, seeking excitement and purpose, I trekked through the politically divisive Himalayan mountain state of Jammu and Kashmir in north India. At age twenty-two, I had been backpacking throughout South America for several months when my backpack-containing my journal, several rolls of film, and a little bit of cash-was stolen. In despair, I hitchhiked from Lima, Peru, to the city of Cartagena on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. There I laundered money for Mafiosi and lived in a brothel with Angolans in exile until I saved enough money to return to the United States. At the age of twenty-six, while teaching English in South Korea, I was charged with trafficking narcotics (but convicted only of usage), sentenced to several months in prison, and deported to the United States. I believe these experiences shaped and formed my worldview and theological imagination in many ways.