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The Life Story of Aina Torell Introduction by John S. Torell
Someone once coined the phrase, “Behind every successful man is a woman.” I can say that I am a successful man because I made Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour in 1965 and have walked with Him since that day. However, this is not about me but the story of my wife who has been at my side since we were married in 1961. I was only 20 years old and plagued with an Arrested Development spirit that none of us knew anything about until the mid 1980s, but God used Aina to rescue my shipwrecked life. I was a woman chaser using alcohol and cigarettes when I met Aina. She gave me an ultimatum around the third week we were dating: I needed to make a choice between her or alcohol and the other women. I did not want to lose Aina and made the right choice but still continued to smoke. Some time later when I was up to three packs a day, she encouraged me to stop smoking. She helped me through college by working full time, and when I bombed out because I was not doing the homework, she stood by my side as I had to work hard during the summer of 1962 to be able to take a test to get back into college and finish my degree. The night before we were to leave for the United States, I chickened out and told her I did not want to go but she stood firm and would not let me change my mind. Later when we were in Salt Lake City, as I was laying on a hospital bed close to death, my little wife pleaded with God on my behalf and I was healed. When I decided to enter the ministry full time and had enrolled at seminary, she worked hard as a nurse’s aid to help me get through and then traveled with me as the wife of an evangelist with no place to call home. She has been a pastor’s wife since 1975 and taken all the pressure and abuse that comes with being one. She has stood by my side through all the church splits and horrible business meetings, facing Christians who acted more like demons than children of God. This is the woman that I married; she is a survivor and a fervent prayer warrior for Christ. I am proud to offer her book in our ministry, and for the first time you will have a chance to get to know a little shy girl from a village in Sweden who now is a terror to the Devil and his demons. Reading Aina’s book will make you laugh, cry and shake your head; her faith in God will encourage you to believe that nothing is impossible with God! I met Aina Ström in 1959, now it’s your turn to meet this woman of faith!
This is the story of a twin girl who was born in Sweden one year and four months before WWII. When she was two, her father was called to serve in the Swedish Army; for the next five years she only saw him on furloughs. As a teenager she was swept up in the fast moving life of dancing. But God had a plan for this shy, pretty country girl and guided and protected her. By a divine appointment, she met her future husband on a train and he would later take her to America where she found peace in salvation through Jesus Christ. This book will not just strengthen one's faith in what God can and will do but it will also lead people to believe and accept Jesus as their personal Savior. |
