Juan Sandoval's Early Life
Josh Rozeboom
Proffessor Sikkema
English 101
10 September 2014
A New Beginning The life of Juan Sandoval, told to the author by my mom. I would have liked to have interviewed my great uncle Juan, but he passed away in August 2014 and my mom told his story. At Juan's funeral last month a number of the orphans who are now in their upper twenties or early thirties attended. They were so thankful to this day for what Juan had done for them and how their lives would have never been the same if it weren't for him. I got on the topic with one whose name was Mark about how you can't choose the life you were given and regardless of the circumstances God has a greater plan for the future. He told me about when he …show more content…
came to the United States, got a degree, married, and now has 2 kids. He couldn't be happier seeing his children grow up in a great environment unlike his own childhood.
Juan and Joan are my great uncle and aunt who dedicated a good portion of their life running an orphanage. Juan was born in Tijuana, Mexico in 1927 and lived in poverty as a child. His dad left his mom when he was very young and his mother had trouble raising 5 boys. They were very poor so Juan and his brothers pretty much spent their lives on the streets. Juan began stealing and doing drugs and at the age of 20, he found himself in trouble with the law. In a way, the Rose park orphanage was born in a Mexican jail. It was the 1950's and sitting on the top bunk of a teeming cell, Juan Sandoval asked Jesus Christ to come into his life. Before then, his existence had been one of constant rebellion. Then, he accepted a gospel tract from a visiting lady that proved to be the start of a new life guided by God. From that moment until his release, Sandoval was inspired to witness and hold bible studies with the other prisoners. When free, after three years in jail, he dreamed of learning more of the faith that had brought new meaning to his life. He had only a sixth grade education, had grown up in extreme poverty, and knew little of the legal documents that made it …show more content…
possible to come to America. Yet, when he learned of the Evangelical Institute in La Puente, California, he made an application. With the help of the Institute, Juan was able to obtain legal papers to come to the United States. Miraculously, a way was found for him to become a full time student. At the level of education he was beginning, Juan found it hard to understand many things as he had very little schooling. With the help of tutors and mentors including his future wife Joan, Juan was on track to graduating as an ordained minister. He spent years in the word of God and was also learning English from the Institute. The first order of business after graduation in 1961 was marriage to his fiancee, Joan. She had come to the Institute from Wisconsin. Then, one day while visiting his mother in Tijuana, Juan and Joan became aware of the hordes of begging, stealing, and homeless children. Right then and there a conviction was born in their hearts to create a Christian home for as many of these children as God would send them. With no Government aid in the project, Juan scavenged up every penny he had and got to work. Juan had built the orphanage with the help of his wife Joan with used wood from anywhere they could get it. The orphanage was an all boy orphanage and had up to 96 boys at one time at it. The boys ate 3 meals a day of a small portion of beans and rice. My mom talked about mission work and helping out the kids and playing with them.
Her father was a world war 2 veteran who loved to travel, so their family traveled a lot. One of her favorite trips that she would go on was to Tijuana, Mexico to visit with her aunt Joan and uncle Juan at the orphanage. Her family would also take some of the kids back to Holland with them for a month or so at a time to let them see what America was like. The boys names were Pepe, Ramon, Christian, Antonio, Pablo, and Danny. Her Aunt Joan picked which boys she thought would be the best for traveling to the United states. Before they came Joan made a cassette tape recording of some basic Spanish to English translated words. The boys were taken to the beach to see Lake Michigan, local parks to play on the playgrounds, and a cottage on an inland lake were they went boating and fishing. In the winter the boys went sledding and even got to sled behind my grandpa's car through the neighborhood. They enjoyed taking the boys shopping and buying them clothes and toys for their time in America. She said how the kids were so amazed to even see grass in the lawns because where they were from it was mostly gravel and dirt. The kids were also amazed to experience what snow was like because they had never seen a real winter before. The boys had so many questions and things to say about America. Most of them were around the ages of 4-12 and had never really known who their parents were. Now, after more than
a quarter of a century, their ministry in the service of their faith has allowed Juan and Joan to provide a home for some 1,500 homeless children that would have otherwise lived in the streets. While at Rose park, all the youngsters have an opportunity to learn of God's love for them today. A young boy, Pablo, told my aunt that he dreamed to live in the United States one day and become a teacher. Another boy, Antonio, who still to this day visits our family at Christmas, became a successful builder in Arizona. Danny, an orphan at Rose Park orphanage followed in Juan's footstep and became a legal U.S. Citizen at the Age of 23 and desired to become a pastor and mentor for the local children and teens. Danny found hope from Juan and grew up wanting to help orphans like himself. The stories that come from these boys are just astonishing and to know that without the help of Juan and Joan they may have never made something of their lives the way they did. From the information I gathered from this source, Mexican drug cartel and gangs pressure journalists heavily on what they publish to the media and the rest of the world. They do this so the rest of the world via media and news isn't as aware to what is going on in the drug world and trades down there. I am sure there is so much that goes on that nobody ever knows about and will never find out about. “Mexican journalists, often poorly paid, face intimidation directly from drug gangs, from local officials in the pay of the cartels and even from their own colleagues who take bribes from drug gangs to ensure certain stories don’t get published. Many choose to publish without bylines, or in the most extreme cases, stop reporting on the drug cartels altogether, creating a news blackout that international press groups say threatens Mexico’s standing as a healthy democracy. Reporters fear they risk their lives if they run investigative reports about corrupt politicians working with drug gangs or if they publish the names of cartel leaders living at large” (Parsons). This leads to what I was going to add about how many of the orphans in Mexico do not have a home, supervision, or any guidance for their lives. Children get caught up in the drug trade and cartel world and may begin to think this is it for them and this is what they were supposed to do when they grew up. These very Children are the ones who found Juan and Joan and were lovingly accepted into the home. I personally can't even imagine what it must be like for these young boys and girls to live in a world where their own parents either are killed in drug and gang related violence or just abandon them to fend for themselves. When young boys in particular witness everyday life as it is in Mexico and seek out hatred at such an early age it just begins the cycle over again. He will grow up to seek out that revenge on others as he was shown that is how to live life. “At least 12,000 children have been orphaned in Mexico's relentless and bloody drug wars. “After witnessing the execution of a parent, the children -- even if physically uninjured themselves -- face a lifetime of emotional scarring” (Boarder land beat reporter). The article goes on to talk about the devastation and pain these young boys and girls go through to lose a parent in front of their eyes to gang violence. “With a child's unfettered frankness, six-year old Jorge tells a social worker that he is saving his pesos for the one thing he wants more than anything: an AK-47 automatic rifle. It will take a weapon at least that deadly, the boy reckons, to visit retribution on the assassins who brutally shot and killed his father” (Border land beat reporter).With the ever growing need for therapists and psychiatrists to help these orphans the world needs to take action and stop the cycle at the start: the victimized children. No one can really begin to even identify a number for the total orphans of Mexico. These children are known by almost no one and aren't even a number in a statistic which is really sad. “We know there are thousands of orphans, but no one has the slightest idea of exactly how many, or where they are,” Nashieli Ramírez, the head of Ririki Intervención Social, a non-governmental organization (NGO) working with poor and excluded children and women and one of the most respected voices in Mexico on children’s issues, told IPS. We don’t know whether they are in the care of their extended family [grandparents, uncles and aunts] or living on the streets, the expert said, adding that the state National Agency for Family Development (DIF) does not have the structural resources to care for the orphan population” (Pastrana). Why is this important? I find that I take life for granted and here I am thinking life is tough for myself when in comparison to these orphans I have life so incredibly easy. All of this gets me thinking. What if there was something we could do about this? What if we all had the heart to reach out to children who suffer these circumstances everyday for years? I got to know Juan as he is a family member of mine and we usually would gather around him and he would tell us about his life in the orphanage and how he gave up everything and dedicated it to this mission. I would have loved to have visited the orphanage and spend time playing with the kids and be a positive impact in their lives but it shut down when I was young and the government made it a drug rehab center.
Border Land Beat Reporter. “Mexican Orphans are Casualties of Drug Wars.” Border Land Beat. Reporting on Mexican drug cartel war, 17 Apr. 2011. Web. 14 September 2014.
Claudia Parsons. “Covering the Story of Mexico's Narco Orphans.”Reuters. Reuters Investigates, 6 Oct. 2010. Web. 14 September 2014.
Daniela Pastrana. “Mexican Government Turns Blind Eye to Orphaned and Disabled Children.” Inter Press Service. News Agency, 22 Jul. 2010.
Rozeboom, Julie. Personal interview. 5 September. 2014
Proffessor Sikkema
English 101
10 September 2014
A New Beginning The life of Juan Sandoval, told to the author by my mom. I would have liked to have interviewed my great uncle Juan, but he passed away in August 2014 and my mom told his story. At Juan's funeral last month a number of the orphans who are now in their upper twenties or early thirties attended. They were so thankful to this day for what Juan had done for them and how their lives would have never been the same if it weren't for him. I got on the topic with one whose name was Mark about how you can't choose the life you were given and regardless of the circumstances God has a greater plan for the future. He told me about when he …show more content…
came to the United States, got a degree, married, and now has 2 kids. He couldn't be happier seeing his children grow up in a great environment unlike his own childhood.
Juan and Joan are my great uncle and aunt who dedicated a good portion of their life running an orphanage. Juan was born in Tijuana, Mexico in 1927 and lived in poverty as a child. His dad left his mom when he was very young and his mother had trouble raising 5 boys. They were very poor so Juan and his brothers pretty much spent their lives on the streets. Juan began stealing and doing drugs and at the age of 20, he found himself in trouble with the law. In a way, the Rose park orphanage was born in a Mexican jail. It was the 1950's and sitting on the top bunk of a teeming cell, Juan Sandoval asked Jesus Christ to come into his life. Before then, his existence had been one of constant rebellion. Then, he accepted a gospel tract from a visiting lady that proved to be the start of a new life guided by God. From that moment until his release, Sandoval was inspired to witness and hold bible studies with the other prisoners. When free, after three years in jail, he dreamed of learning more of the faith that had brought new meaning to his life. He had only a sixth grade education, had grown up in extreme poverty, and knew little of the legal documents that made it …show more content…
possible to come to America. Yet, when he learned of the Evangelical Institute in La Puente, California, he made an application. With the help of the Institute, Juan was able to obtain legal papers to come to the United States. Miraculously, a way was found for him to become a full time student. At the level of education he was beginning, Juan found it hard to understand many things as he had very little schooling. With the help of tutors and mentors including his future wife Joan, Juan was on track to graduating as an ordained minister. He spent years in the word of God and was also learning English from the Institute. The first order of business after graduation in 1961 was marriage to his fiancee, Joan. She had come to the Institute from Wisconsin. Then, one day while visiting his mother in Tijuana, Juan and Joan became aware of the hordes of begging, stealing, and homeless children. Right then and there a conviction was born in their hearts to create a Christian home for as many of these children as God would send them. With no Government aid in the project, Juan scavenged up every penny he had and got to work. Juan had built the orphanage with the help of his wife Joan with used wood from anywhere they could get it. The orphanage was an all boy orphanage and had up to 96 boys at one time at it. The boys ate 3 meals a day of a small portion of beans and rice. My mom talked about mission work and helping out the kids and playing with them.
Her father was a world war 2 veteran who loved to travel, so their family traveled a lot. One of her favorite trips that she would go on was to Tijuana, Mexico to visit with her aunt Joan and uncle Juan at the orphanage. Her family would also take some of the kids back to Holland with them for a month or so at a time to let them see what America was like. The boys names were Pepe, Ramon, Christian, Antonio, Pablo, and Danny. Her Aunt Joan picked which boys she thought would be the best for traveling to the United states. Before they came Joan made a cassette tape recording of some basic Spanish to English translated words. The boys were taken to the beach to see Lake Michigan, local parks to play on the playgrounds, and a cottage on an inland lake were they went boating and fishing. In the winter the boys went sledding and even got to sled behind my grandpa's car through the neighborhood. They enjoyed taking the boys shopping and buying them clothes and toys for their time in America. She said how the kids were so amazed to even see grass in the lawns because where they were from it was mostly gravel and dirt. The kids were also amazed to experience what snow was like because they had never seen a real winter before. The boys had so many questions and things to say about America. Most of them were around the ages of 4-12 and had never really known who their parents were. Now, after more than
a quarter of a century, their ministry in the service of their faith has allowed Juan and Joan to provide a home for some 1,500 homeless children that would have otherwise lived in the streets. While at Rose park, all the youngsters have an opportunity to learn of God's love for them today. A young boy, Pablo, told my aunt that he dreamed to live in the United States one day and become a teacher. Another boy, Antonio, who still to this day visits our family at Christmas, became a successful builder in Arizona. Danny, an orphan at Rose Park orphanage followed in Juan's footstep and became a legal U.S. Citizen at the Age of 23 and desired to become a pastor and mentor for the local children and teens. Danny found hope from Juan and grew up wanting to help orphans like himself. The stories that come from these boys are just astonishing and to know that without the help of Juan and Joan they may have never made something of their lives the way they did. From the information I gathered from this source, Mexican drug cartel and gangs pressure journalists heavily on what they publish to the media and the rest of the world. They do this so the rest of the world via media and news isn't as aware to what is going on in the drug world and trades down there. I am sure there is so much that goes on that nobody ever knows about and will never find out about. “Mexican journalists, often poorly paid, face intimidation directly from drug gangs, from local officials in the pay of the cartels and even from their own colleagues who take bribes from drug gangs to ensure certain stories don’t get published. Many choose to publish without bylines, or in the most extreme cases, stop reporting on the drug cartels altogether, creating a news blackout that international press groups say threatens Mexico’s standing as a healthy democracy. Reporters fear they risk their lives if they run investigative reports about corrupt politicians working with drug gangs or if they publish the names of cartel leaders living at large” (Parsons). This leads to what I was going to add about how many of the orphans in Mexico do not have a home, supervision, or any guidance for their lives. Children get caught up in the drug trade and cartel world and may begin to think this is it for them and this is what they were supposed to do when they grew up. These very Children are the ones who found Juan and Joan and were lovingly accepted into the home. I personally can't even imagine what it must be like for these young boys and girls to live in a world where their own parents either are killed in drug and gang related violence or just abandon them to fend for themselves. When young boys in particular witness everyday life as it is in Mexico and seek out hatred at such an early age it just begins the cycle over again. He will grow up to seek out that revenge on others as he was shown that is how to live life. “At least 12,000 children have been orphaned in Mexico's relentless and bloody drug wars. “After witnessing the execution of a parent, the children -- even if physically uninjured themselves -- face a lifetime of emotional scarring” (Boarder land beat reporter). The article goes on to talk about the devastation and pain these young boys and girls go through to lose a parent in front of their eyes to gang violence. “With a child's unfettered frankness, six-year old Jorge tells a social worker that he is saving his pesos for the one thing he wants more than anything: an AK-47 automatic rifle. It will take a weapon at least that deadly, the boy reckons, to visit retribution on the assassins who brutally shot and killed his father” (Border land beat reporter).With the ever growing need for therapists and psychiatrists to help these orphans the world needs to take action and stop the cycle at the start: the victimized children. No one can really begin to even identify a number for the total orphans of Mexico. These children are known by almost no one and aren't even a number in a statistic which is really sad. “We know there are thousands of orphans, but no one has the slightest idea of exactly how many, or where they are,” Nashieli Ramírez, the head of Ririki Intervención Social, a non-governmental organization (NGO) working with poor and excluded children and women and one of the most respected voices in Mexico on children’s issues, told IPS. We don’t know whether they are in the care of their extended family [grandparents, uncles and aunts] or living on the streets, the expert said, adding that the state National Agency for Family Development (DIF) does not have the structural resources to care for the orphan population” (Pastrana). Why is this important? I find that I take life for granted and here I am thinking life is tough for myself when in comparison to these orphans I have life so incredibly easy. All of this gets me thinking. What if there was something we could do about this? What if we all had the heart to reach out to children who suffer these circumstances everyday for years? I got to know Juan as he is a family member of mine and we usually would gather around him and he would tell us about his life in the orphanage and how he gave up everything and dedicated it to this mission. I would have loved to have visited the orphanage and spend time playing with the kids and be a positive impact in their lives but it shut down when I was young and the government made it a drug rehab center.
Border Land Beat Reporter. “Mexican Orphans are Casualties of Drug Wars.” Border Land Beat. Reporting on Mexican drug cartel war, 17 Apr. 2011. Web. 14 September 2014.
Claudia Parsons. “Covering the Story of Mexico's Narco Orphans.”Reuters. Reuters Investigates, 6 Oct. 2010. Web. 14 September 2014.
Daniela Pastrana. “Mexican Government Turns Blind Eye to Orphaned and Disabled Children.” Inter Press Service. News Agency, 22 Jul. 2010.
Rozeboom, Julie. Personal interview. 5 September. 2014