Luukkanen, Elsa (1916–1996)

Elsa Luukkanen was an Adventist musician, pastor, and evangelist in Finland. Her ministry is credited with gathering large audiences, and it resulted in baptizing hundreds of converts.¹

Background

Elsa was born May 20, 1916, in Sortavala, Finland.² 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 repented and 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 to speak publicly about her faith. When she traveled to Laukaa to celebrate Easter, she discovered they had arranged a religious meeting on Good Friday evening 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.”³

Education and Early Experiences

A church member financed her studies at Toivonlinna, an Adventist mission school, and after two years and time spent as a literature evangelist, she became employed by the church. She worked first with Pastor Arvo Arasola doing evangelistic work in Vaasa. After a year, her responsibilities expanded, especially as war broke out between Finland and the Soviet Union (1939-1940, 1941-1944) when the men had to serve in the armed forces.⁴

As World War II engulfed much of Europe, she again worked alone without supervision. Her first convert, Aino Varma Lehtoluoto (1913-2001), soon aided her as the duo worked as a team conducting evangelistic meetings. They traveled to Joensuu, Pieksämäki, and Varkaus. 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.”⁵ It was furthermore observed that both women had “an unusual talent for singing in their services to the accompaniment of guitars, a custom among the evangelical free churches in Finland. Much of their music is in the minor key.”⁶

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 churches established. She was described as “a spirit-filled evangelist, an eloquent speaker who moved hearts and minds towards God.”⁷

After World War II

This work continued after the war, and her evangelistic efforts are credited with beginning numerous churches and leading hundreds of people to the Advent message.⁸ In the 1950s, she was responsible for raising the funds needed to establish the Adventist Old Peoples home in Finland. In 1957, it was reported that she held evangelistic meetings in Helsinki, Finland, where she preached to hundreds of people up to three times a day in order to accommodate the overflow, resulting in 80 baptisms.

She worked so hard that the conference sent her to “rest” for a year in Canada. Between 1958 and 1959, she traveled with Aino Varma Lehtoluoto who, in addition to serving as her Bible instructor, also served as her translator and traveling companion.⁹ As they traveled, they preached and sang in numerous places, especially in places with Finish immigrants, and supported themselves through dressmaking. The “spirit of evangelism” burned deeply in their hearts. This led Luukkanen to hold an evangelistic series in Port Arthur (now part of Thunder Bay, Ontario) which, at the time, had a Finnish population of about 7,500. “The speaker [Luukkanen] merely held her Bible and gave an earnest message from her heart, using a blackboard when needed.” After she preached, the two women used their guitars and sang, and some acknowledged that this “vacation evangelism” was indeed an effective form of outreach.¹⁰ They also attended the 1958 General Conference session where Elsa spoke and both she and Lehtoluoto sang. “These devoted women are deeply in earnest about their soul-winning responsibilities,” noted one observer.¹¹ 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?”¹² They did another similar tour across North America in 1964.¹³ 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 successfully accomplished.¹⁴

Retirement

In the late 1960s she started an Adventist Welfare Society. In her “retirement,” she was the leader of ADA (Adventist Aidservice). Tens of thousands of homes, mainly in the poor northern and eastern European countries, received clothes, shoes, and other aid. In 1969, it was reported that the group of women she led each year supplied 500 quilted blankets and 60,000 items of new and used clothing.

That same year, a property became available to develop a new church and welfare center in Kajaani. Luukkanen and Lehtoluoto worked together to raise 140,000 marks (U.S. $34,000) to purchase the property. The two women either made or coordinate the production of about 15-20 different items for sale—including aprons, night-dresses, simple frocks, tablecloths, etc.¹⁵ 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.”¹⁶

As early as 1968, the Finnish Union leaders enquired about ordaining her and other women, which contributed to the 1973 Mohaven meeting. About 1970, Lehtoluoto adopted a young girl, Kristiina, and in their later years, both women had a hand in her moving near Finland Junior College as she got older “so she can be trained for God’s work.”¹⁷ In 1975, Luukkanen developed a summer camp for mothers who have received economic help in developing distant areas of Lapland (northernmost region of Finland) and Karelia (along the White Sea coast to the Gulf of Finland). About sixty people attended the four-day camp.¹⁸

Later that year, at the 1975 General Conference session and during the “International Women’s Year,” Luukkanen was one of a number of “honored women” whose significant lifelong role as an evangelist was recognized.¹⁹ In 1979, Luukkanen participated in a special nationwide TV program about Adventist beliefs in Finland.²⁰ Even in her “golden years,” she remained an indefatigable activist and used her influence to evangelize.

At the end of her life, Luukkanen had brought over 700 persons to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.²¹ She died on December 13, 1996, in Kaarina, Finland.²²

Sources

Arasola, Kai. “Elsa Luukanen and the Role of Adventist Women in Finland,” in Heirs of the Reformation: The Story of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Europe, ed. Hugh Duncan, Daniel Heinz, Dennis Porter, and Ronald Strasdowsky (Grantham, UK: The Stanborough Press Ltd, 1997).

Bothe, J. W. and L. R. Ellison, “Vacation Evangelism,” Ministry, May 1958.

https://cdn.ministrymagazine.org/issues/1958/issues/MIN1958-05.pdf.

Eva, W. Duncan. “Women’s Efforts Make Center Possible,” ARH, August 5, 1971.

Luukkanen, Elsa, as told to E. Olavi Rouhe, Elsa: Sweet Singer of Finland. Boise, ID: Pacific Press, 1980.

Obit. ARH, May 22, 1997.

Rouhe, Esa. “Elsa Luukanen and the Role of Adventist Women in Finland,” in Heirs of the Reformation: The Story of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Europe, ed. Hugh Duncan, Daniel Heinz, Dennis Porter, and Ronald Strasdowsky (Grantham, UK: The Stanborough Press Ltd, 1997).

Notes

1. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia (1996), “Finland.”↩

2. Obit. ARH, May 22, 1997, 29.↩

3. Elsa Luukkanen as told to E. Olavi Rouhe, Elsa: Sweet Singer of Finland (Boise, ID: Pacific Press, 1980), 42.↩

4. Esa Rouhe, “Elsa Luukanen and the Role of Adventist Women in Finland,” in Heirs of the Reformation: The Story of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Europe, ed. Hugh Duncan, Daniel Heinz, Dennis Porter, and Ronald Strasdowsky (Grantham, UK: The Stanborough Press Ltd, 1997), 95-97.↩

5. “Music Makes Finns Homesick,” The Leader-Post, February 3, 1959, 8.↩

6. “Finland Evangelists to Visit,” The Leader-Post, January 22, 1959, 3.↩

7. Ibid., 96.↩

8. Kai Arasola, “Finland,” in Heirs of the Reformation: The Story of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Europe, Hugh Duncan, Daniel Heinz, Dennis Porter, and Ronald Strasdowsky (Grantham, UK: The Stanborough Press Ltd, 1997), 92.↩

9. “Evangelist to Be at Adventist Church Service,” Santa Barbara News-Press, March 20, 1959, 21.↩

10. J. W. Bothe and L. R. Ellison, “Vacation Evangelism,” Ministry, May 1958, 16.↩

11. Louise C. Kleuser, “Bible Instructors at Cleveland,” The Ministry, October 1958, 30.↩

12. This conversation is described by Nancy Vyhmeister, “Women of Mission,” Spectrum, December 1984, 43.↩

13. “Meadow Glad to Hear Two Finnish Women,” The Columbian, October 23, 1964, 11. Another article notes that their tour began August 6, 1964, and continued through June 1965. “Evangelists at Adventist Church,” Ironwood Daily Globe, April 26, 1965, 10. On this latter trip, they spoke twice a day at the Florida camp meeting.↩

14. “Evangelists at Adventist Church,” Ironwood Daily Globe, April 26, 1965, 10.↩

15. W. Duncan Eva, “Women’s Efforts Make Center Possible,” ARH, August 5, 1971, 19-20.↩

16. Ibid.↩

17. Ibid.↩

18. “News Spot,” Australasian Record, August 18, 1975, 7.↩

19. “Honored Women of the Church,” ARH, August 7-14, 1975, 26.↩

20. See under “For the Record,” the section on “Nationwide TV in Finland,” ARH, December 13, 1979, 24.↩

21. Tauno A. Luukkanen, Festival Raises Large Sum for Welfare,” ARH, March 16, 1972, 20.↩

22. Obit. ARH, May 22, 1997, 29.↩