Born in a Boxcar

On March 3, 2022, my wife, Annette and I were on our way to visit some art galleries in Black Mountain, North Carolina when I got a call from one of my sisters that my dad had died. When we found a parking place and got out of the car, I looked up to see this old, red caboose. I could hardly believe it. I felt as though God and my father were sending me a message.

On February 6, 1933, my dad, Johnny Green, was born in a boxcar. His mom was a cook in a logging camp. She was trying to make it to the town nearest them in a boxcar of a train that hauled the logs out of the camp. They didn’t make it until after my dad was born.

My father never had a birth certificate. His mom was not married to his father, a man who provided alcohol to the logging camp. When my dad was just a boy, he asked his grandmother what his full name was because other kids had a last name. He was told his full name was John-Allen Woodrow Bearcat on the Wall.

Because of family circumstances, he left home at age 13. One of his legal guardians, Francis Cherry, later became Governor of Arkansas.

My dad lived for a while at a boys ranch founded by R. G. LeTourneau, who invented large earthmoving equipment, mobile off-shore oil drilling platforms and many other things.

My dad went with Mr. LeTourneau and some of the boys from the ranch to enroll them in Taccoa Bible College in Taccoa, Georgia. My dad wanted to stay there to go to college too.

The President of the college asked my dad what high school he went to and he replied that he didn’t. He asked him what grade school he went to and he replied that he didn’t. He was fifteen years old and had never been to school a day in his life.

The President tried to explain to my dad that college was only for those who had already completed other education. So he wouldn’t be able to do the work. At that point my dad asked the Bible college President if he believed the Bible and he replied that he did. My dad asked him if he believed “All” of the Bible and he replied that he did. My dad asked him if he believed the verse Phillipians 4:13 that he had learned at the boys ranch. The President replied, that yes, of course he did. My dad, at age 15, then said that he did too and if the Bible is true, then he can do the work. Mr. LeTourneau left my dad at the college.

The President took a desk out of the college along with my dad down to a nearby gradeschool and told him, “This is where you start.” He lived in the dorm with the college students who tutored him at night. He made it up to the 5th grade that first year.

My dad went on to become a Baptist preacher. He pastored many churches and for several years was in full-time evangelism preaching many revivals.

My mom and dad were married for sixty-nine years until his death. My mom through the years was a tremendous help to my dad. All of the accomplishments were because of what they did together.

In his sermons, I heard my dad say many times, “Because you were born in a Christian home, that doesn’t make you a Christian any more than me being born in a boxcar makes me a freight train.”

In a lifetime, we all make a lot of choices. But many times our destination is up to us. One story I remember is an example of that. During a Revival meeting, my dad and the local pastor were driving past a man up on a telephone pole. My dad asked the pastor to stop. My dad got out of the car and yelled up to the man, “If you got hold of that wire the wrong way and got electrocuted, where would you spend eternity?” The man came down the pole and after a few minutes of conversation, the man knelt down and prayed with my dad. He was in the Revival service that night.

Born in a Boxcar

Johnny Allen Green

February, 1933, a cold Winter night
Inside a boxcar devoid of light.
Scary, noisy, so dark, so black,
Train lurching, rumbling down the track

Soon-to-be-Mother in childbirth pain;
Logging camp cook, rough, tough, plain.
Around a corner with blaring horn
As if announcing a child is born.

No birth certificate, no full name at all;
John-Allen Woodrow Bearcat on the Wall?
Most would think it a train to hell,
From beginning to end, quite a story to tell.

The train of life, not a single train,
Don't curse your lot with words profane.
When you stop at the next station,
Your are free to change your destination.

Next stop, when you hear "All Aboard,"
Perhaps your conductor, your God, your Lord.
Some turns to the left, some to the right,
Sometimes easy, and sometimes to fight.

Leaving home early, at only thirteen,
Starting school late, at age fifteen,
Joining the Army when seventeen
And officially taking the last name Green.

Age nineteen, marrying the love of his life,
Frances, for sixty-nine years, his loving wife.
And later four children along the way;
First Steve, then Kathy, Carol and Kay.

Despite faults, imperfections and limitations,
A dramatic experience of transformation.
Only the Power of God can rearrange
The direction of life, such significant change.

Teaching the Bible, God's Word, things Above,
Many years preaching of Jesus Christ love.
Not how you started or where you have been
But have you asked for forgiveness of sin?

When the Train comes around that final bend
And all you see is the Caboose at the end,
Matters not earthly, but heavenly paternity.
Where do you plan to spend eternity?

Steven A. Green

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Phillipians 4:13