Following a terrible train accident he hated God, until Jesus’ love melted his heart

Following a terrible train accident he hated God, until Jesus’ love melted his heart

By Mark Ellis, Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS - August 25, 2016) -- Drawn by the stories of riches to be made in the north, Juan and his brother Alvaro responded to the dream burning in many immigrants’ hearts and made their way to the United States.

“I heard stories about making money,” says Juan Cruz, who grew up in Toluca, Mexico, about 25 miles west of Mexico City.

When his friends returned from the U.S. with money, Juan decided he wanted to be like them. “I was attracted to that. I want to know about this place that sounds unreal, like a dream place. I thought cars might fly in that country.”

He had a rough background in his youth. “I wasn’t going to any church. I was a gangster since I was 13. I grew up in that circle of drugs and alcohol and stealing, doing things that gangsters do, like fighting.

After he turned 19 he went to his mother and announced: “I’m going to the U.S.”

“What will you do there? We have no family there,” she said.

“I will go with my brother, Alvaro.”

“I don’t like the idea of you going so far,” she replied.

He told her it was already settled and they would bring her back some of the money they earned.

As they departed, she called out to them: “May God be with you.”

When they made it to Tijuana, they slept in an abandoned car in a junkyard on Avenida Revolución. They made several attempts to get across the border, but failed. “We were caught by immigration many times and put back,” he recounts.

Crossing the border

But on April 5, 1990, they made a successful crossing and decided they would catch a freight train headed to Los Angeles.

They got off the train in Oceanside and found their way to a Christian mission near the train station, which provided them a meal and clean clothes.

They spent the night under a freeway overpass, along with a community of homeless people.

“We laid our blankets on the ground and the next day we were up early waiting for the cargo train to arrive.”

They jumped on the train at 7:25 a.m., as a man yelled at them to get off.

“We’re not getting off,” they shouted.

“It is your responsibility if something happens,” he said.

“We don’t care. We just want to go to LA.,” Juan replied.

Halfway through the Camp Pendleton Marine base, the train suddenly stopped.

Juan looked through the door and saw immigration agents coming, so they jumped off and ran to the beach. There were officers waiting at the beach.

“I hid in a big bush,” Juan says.

When they thought it was safe, Juan and his brother headed back toward the train. “There was an officer watching us with binoculars. He got in his truck and came down to try to catch us.”

The train started to move, but they were able to jump on. “The officer was yelling at us to get off.” Other immigrants on the train shouted expletives at the officer as the train picked up speed and they headed north.

After a few miles, the train stopped again in Capistrano Beach. “They are trying to set us up to catch us,” Alvaro told his brother, so they jumped off and considered a place to hide.

But they looked around, didn’t see any immigration officers, and after a few minutes the train abruptly started moving again.

The two brothers began to argue about whether they should stay for the night or leave right away.

“We better leave right now,” Juan said. “What if we get caught again? I don’t want to risk it.”

The accident

Finally Alvaro relented, but the train had picked up speed. “We ran as fast as we could to jump and grab a side ladder, but it is hard to run on the rocks. I was always looking to see where I could grab a side stair,” Juan recalls.

Alvaro leaped first and was able to get on. “I jumped for the metal stairs but the speed of the train pulled me,” Juan recounts. He couldn’t get his feet to land where they should.

“I was hanging and my feet were flying in the air. I couldn’t stand the movement and I let go. My body came down and the train sucked me in.

Photo captions: 1) Juan and Elizabeth. 2) The accident happened along this section of the tracks. 3) The Cruz family. 4) Dan Wooding welcomes Mark Ellis to the set of the "Windows on the World" TV show.

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About the writer: Mark Ellis is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net), and also the founder of www.GodReports.com, a website that shares testimonies and videos from the church around the world to build interest and involvement in world missions. Mark is also co-host with ANS founder, Dan Wooding, of "Windows on the World," a weekly TV show broadcast on the Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network (http://hsbn.tv), that features the top stories of the week on the ASSIST News Service.

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