Elsa Luukkanen was an Adventist evangelist and pastor in Finland. Her ministry is credited with gathering large audiences, and it resulted in baptizing hundreds of converts.
Elsa was born May 20, 1916, in Sortavala, Finland. She grew up in a large, poor family and, as a teenager, she attended revival meetings by an Adventist evangelist. She was severely tested when she announced to her family about her baptism at age 16 and was subsequently thrown out of her home, and also lost her job because of her Sabbath-keeping. A year later, her mother invited her to return home, and she also later regained her job at a textile shop. At age 17, she led a person to accept Jesus, and two years later, she began speaking publicly about her faith. When she traveled to Laukaa for Easter, she discovered they had arranged a religious meeting on the evening of Good Friday and had already announced that she was to be the speaker. She spoke six times that weekend. She recalled: “I, a mere woman, would be the first person to proclaim the message to them.”
After two years at the Adventist mission school Toivonlinna and time as a literature evangelist, she was employed by the church, first working with Pastor Arvo Arasola, doing evangelistic work in Vaasa. Her first convert, Aino Lehtoluoto (1913-2001), soon aided her as the duo worked as a team conducting evangelistic meetings. When the Soviet Union attacked Finland in 1939, the men had to serve to defend the country. During the war years, women were especially needed. At that time, people readily accepted the word from anyone who could preach the gospel. And Elsa was one of many women who felt compelled to proclaim their Lord. These faithful women held meetings and preached in homes, halls, theaters, and churches. Elsa and Aino had an unusual talent for singing in their meetings to the accompaniment of their guitars, a custom among the evangelical free churches in Finland. They played their instruments, sang of the love of God, and spoke to people wherever they encountered interest. They held meetings in several towns. In Joensuu, large crowds attended her meetings, but they were also met with severe opposition, and her access to public halls was denied. “Everything in Finland was very bad during the war,” she said, “but God took care of us. And when they took the men away to fight, women had to man the pulpits.”
At the beginning of meetings held in Joensuu in 1946, there were five Adventists in town; two years later, they organized a church with 150 members. Within a few years, churches were also organized in Pieksämäki and Varkaus. Luukkanen continued to work in many places across Finland, including Helsinki, with hundreds converted and a church established.
It was not that in 1957 there were no male pastors in Finland who could have held a great evangelistic campaign. The leadership of the church deliberately called this woman to the capital. She was described as a spirit-filled evangelist, an eloquent speaker who moved hearts and minds towards God. The success of this evangelistic campaign was new even to Finland, as she preached to hundreds of people up to three times a day to accommodate the overflow, resulting in 80 baptisms. However, the baptisms were performed by male pastors. For Elsa Luukkanen and the other Bible sisters, it was not important who baptized the believers. They followed their vocation to proclaim the word of God. “The love of Christ constrains us, as we have realized that one has died for all” (2 Cor 5,14).
In the 1950s, Elsa was responsible for raising the funds needed to establish the Adventist Old Peoples’ home in Finland. She worked so hard that the conference sent her to “rest” for a year in Canada. Between 1958 and 1959, she traveled with Aino Lehtoluoto, who served as her translator and traveling companion. As they traveled, they preached and sang in numerous towns, especially in places with Finnish immigrants, and supported themselves through dressmaking. They also attended the 1958 General Conference session where Elsa spoke, and both she and Lehtoluoto sang. When queried about whether Luukkanen had encountered any problems from being a woman in ministry, she replied that it was “rather the opposite.” She observed that pastoring is easier for a woman because “the congregation is mostly female.” She added: “If a woman has a talent for speaking and love for souls and is free, what could be more blessed?” They did another similar tour across North America in 1964. She observed that by this time, they had planted six churches, and when they returned to Finland in June 1965, they planned to plant another church, which they in fact accomplished.
In the late 1960s, Elsa started an Adventist Welfare Society ADA (Adventist Aidservice). Tens of thousands of homes, mainly in the poor northern and eastern parts of the country, received clothes, shoes, and other aid. When a property became available to develop a new church and welfare center in Kajaani. Luukkanen and Lehtoluoto worked together to raise the money to purchase the property, coordinating the production of different handmade items for sale. In 1975, Luukkanen also developed a summer camp for mothers who had received help from ADA, with about 60 mothers attending. When asked about why she did all of this humanitarian relief work, she replied: “We could not preach only. As spiritual mothers, we had to find church homes for our ‘children,’ and we did so without one mark of help from the conference.”
As early as 1968, the Finnish Union leaders enquired about ordaining her and other women, which contributed to the 1973 Mohaven meeting. During a special service at the General Conference session in 1975, Luukkanen was one of several “honored women” whose significant lifelong role as an evangelist was recognized. At the end of her life, Luukkanen had brought over 700 persons to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She died on December 13, 1996, in Kaarina, Finland.
Source: Adventist Encyclopedia and “Tired of Waiting” by H.Ottschofski