TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Ten years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the stories of those who died and those who survived have lost none of their power to move us.

That truth was self-evident Wednesday night when Indian immigrant turned Christian evangelist Sujo John stood before a near-capacity crowd at Canyon Hills Assembly of God church to recount his own narrow escape from death that day -- and to talk about how his intimate brush with death gave him new life.

"My story starts in Calcutta, India," John said.

He lost his sister to leukemia at a young age, and though he was raised in a Christian home, that profound loss caused him to doubt God's presence in his life, he said.

That would later change, but he remained unsettled, plagued by a feeling that there had to be more.

John and his wife, Mary, had moved as newlyweds to the United States in February 2001. They had both found jobs in New York.

John worked on the 81st floor of the World Trade Center's north tower. His wife worked on the 71st floor of Tower 2, the south tower. She was four months pregnant with their first child.

Little did they know that the morning routine that day would be shattered by the unthinkable, a terrorist plot to bring down the tallest buildings in Manhattan and at least two other buildings in the nation's capital.

At about 8:45 a.m. Eastern time, John was returning to his desk when he heard -- and felt -- a massive explosion. The building shook. Co-workers began screaming.

American Airlines Flight 11 had just crashed into the floors above.

"Part of the wing tears into our floor," he told the crowd. A "crater" is created in the floor.

"I can actually see 10 floors below us," he said.

Metal and flames rain down from above.

"I'm thinking, ‘God, if this building comes down, I will never see my wife again. I am never going to see the child she is carrying,'" he said as he moved on the stage, a giant American flag behind him, a large video monitor overhead following his every word.

Hundreds, maybe thousands of workers were making their way down the stairwell, "the fear of death written on every face," he said.

And yet, police and firefighters were going up. Many of those heroes would not survive.

"Greater love has no one than to lay down his life for a friend," John said. "I saw that happen on Sept. 11, 2001."

During his harrowing journey to safety, John said he prayed with many others. Confronted with his own mortality, he would come to realize that he wanted nothing more than to preach the Gospel.

"Until this moment in my life, I was kind of a closet Christian," he said.

Both husband and wife survived. For the past 10 years, John has spoken at countless churches, campuses and conventions. He no longer works in an office.

"His story has been a blessing everywhere he has gone," Senior Pastor Wendell Vinson said.

Bakersfield resident Nora Gamble came to the northeast Bakersfield church to hear John tell his story.

"I heard how the terrible events of that day changed his life, and how God used those events to move him to where he is today," she said.

Through such experiences, we learn what really matters in our lives, Gamble said, like family and faith.

Delano resident Luis Avila Jr. said it's important for Americans, especially those who didn't live through the events, to remember and to commemorate Sept. 11 and other world-changing moments in the nation's history.

"It's good for the younger generation to know what happened," he said. "We can't forget."