Pastor John Torell
ABOUT JOHN & AINA TORELL
John S. Torell is founder and president of European-American Evangelistic Crusades, Inc., which was incorporated in the state of California as a nonprofit religious organization in 1972. EAEC is a mission organization dedicated to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a dying world, with headquarters in Sacramento, California.
Born in Sweden in 1939. He entered an Engineering College at Jonkoping, Sweden where he graduated in 1963 with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. During his second year in college he married his wife, Aina (i-na). Soon after graduation, they immigrated to the United States. They were sponsored by John’s uncle’s family who were Mormons and hoped John and Aina would also join the Mormon church, but God had other plans.
In May of 1965, watching a television special, they each came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Lord led them to a small Southern Baptist Church where they became members and were baptized in water by immersion. For the next three and a half years they were grounded in the Bible, taught Sunday School classes and learned about visitation and general church administration.
God called John and Aina into full time ministry to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ on April 16, 1967. John received his Masters of Divinity Degree from Golden Gate Seminary in 1973. They each experienced the infilling of the Holy Spirit, John, after attending a Full Gospel Business Meeting.
While still in seminary, John and Aina took an evangelistic crusade team to Europe, with particular emphasis on the Scandinavian countries of Sweden and Finland. During the next twelve years, eight preaching trips were made.
God commissioned John to write a series of Bible study books, which he completed in the 1970’s and also translated into Swedish and sold in the Scandinavian countries. They are called, Christian Dynamics, Course 1, 2, 3 and 4, and The Rise of Antichrist, Part 1.
From 1975-1977, John served as pastor for Christian Life Center in Lodi, California and from 1978-1984; he served as pastor for Christian Life Ministries in Carmichael, California. In 1986, the Lord spoke to John while he and his wife were in an airliner over Texas and told him to go to Sacramento, California, and begin another church and call it Resurrection Life of Jesus Church. RLJC is located in the Sacramento area. The Lord is prospering and giving the increase. Revival and awakening have already begun.
Pastor Charles Thorell
Charles Thorell was born in 1977 and raised in Sebastopol, California, which is north of San Francisco. His parents, Peter and Monica Thorell had immigrated to the United States from Sweden only six years earlier. Charles is a testimony to God’s faithfulness, because around 1870, his great-great-grandfather came as an immigrant to Chicago.
During his stay there, this young man got saved under the preaching of D.L. Moody, and after some years, he returned to Sweden and married. He settled in a small town called Huskvarna, and became known as “America Johnson,” a man that always talked about Jesus.
There were also two other generations of preachers during revival times in Sweden during the late 1800s and early 1900s. About 85 years after “America Johnson” received Christ in Chicago, Charles’ uncle, John S. Torell, immigrated to the United States and also made a decision for Christ.
John was called by God into the ministry in 1967, and in 1971, John and his wife Aina went back to Sweden for a series of revival meetings. It was during this time that they presented the Gospel to Charles’ parents, who accepted Christ and were saved.
Charles was just a few months old when he was dedicated to the Lord and to the family it soon became clear that God had a special calling upon him. At the age of five on a Saturday evening, Charles started asking questions about God and the gift of salvation.
This decisive salvation moment in Charles’ life is etched into the memories of him and his parents. Some years later when Charles visited Resurrection Life of Jesus Church (RLJC), there was an announcement for water baptism, and the Holy Spirit told him, “You need to get baptized.” The next week he was baptized in water through immersion.
Being raised in a Christian home Charles has a great testimony because he never went into the world, instead, he became active in soccer and in the church he attended. As a teenager, he participated in several mission outreaches to Mexico that opened his eyes to many new things. Charles was uncertain in what he wanted to do after high school, and so he worked in different jobs, but they were all unfulfilling and left him wanting a change.
Charles responded to God’s call in 1999 and moved to the Sacramento area to become active with RLJC. It was there that he met his future wife, Yekaterina. They were married in 2002, and shortly thereafter he was asked to become the youth pastor, and later in 2007, he was called to be the assistant pastor. When the church needed a worship leader in 2003, he stepped in and led the congregation in praise and worship for nine years. Charles holds a strong belief in the Bible as the foundation for the Christian faith and is an avid defender of the King James Bible.
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