Finnish Christian missionaries in Ethiopia?
Have you ever heard of them?
I never had until I began researching Lettie Cowman and discovered she’d met Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.
But it wasn’t a coincidence (Of course not!)
Finnish Christian missionaries joined Lettie for a dinner with Emperor Selassie and his family in August, 1937.
We know their names: Sanfrid and Anna-Liisa Mattson.
Why Finnish Christian Missionaries in Ethiopia?
The Mattsons were not aiming at Ethiopia. They wanted to share the Gospel with everyone they met.
The two first met Haile Selassie on September 11, 1936, when he lived in exile in England.
According to Anna-Liisa’s biographer Asta Tillander:
They expressed their deep sympathy with the emperor’s situation as an exile and Anna-Liisa read Acts 8:32-35, saying Jesus had suffered at the hands of his own people.
Haile Selassie’s parting words to them: “Your speech made me feel we have been friends for a long time. A person in my position has very few friends who understand.”
Näkymättömän lähettiläs : Anna-Liisa Mattssonin elämä
They prayed with the deposed Emperor. He was so touch by their prayer, he invited them to open a mission in Ethiopia someday. He didn’t know how or when, but he hoped.
To everyone’s surprise (except Lettie Cowman), he returned to his country in 1941.
In the meantime, the Mattsons became involved with Lettie Cowman at the Bible College of Wales in 1936. Inspired by her call by God “to bring the Gospel to every creature,” they invited her to start in Finland.
Working through their Scripture Publishers to Every Creature Mission, the trio focused on gospel crusades in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
The Mattsons, however, never stopped praying for opportunities. When the world calmed down in 1950, they reminded Emperor Haille Selassie of his invitation.
But who were Sanfrid and Anna-Liisa Mattson?
Born in 1895, Sanfrid grew up near the western Finnish coast (Jakobstad area). Orphaned at five, he was baptized at 17 and soon entered the business world with his older brother.
Orphaned at 10 with many siblings, Anna-Liisa , came from a family of believers. Her “life mission became clear at the age of twelve. “I received a missionary call to all those who have not heard about Jesus.”
In 1928, Mattson Brothers Wholesaler invited Anna-Liisa Lindbohm to to work at their administrator. They probably met her through their Pentecostal church.
Sanfrid proposed and they were married in 1929.
A dynamic couple solely focused on sharing the Gospel, they built a mission home with other Finnish Pentecostal believers. They named it the Larsmo Mission Home–and began preparing missionaries for the mission field.
Anna-Liisa played the guitar, served as the church choir director, interpreter, language teacher, and organized the mission course.
The couple, who had no children of their own:
- ran the mission home
- published a Biblical journal/magazine
- sent out a newletter
- did prison work, evangelism work
- ran children’s summer camps and Sunday school.
The first three years after meeting Lettie, they handed out 600,000 gospels to soldiers and prisoners across the Baltic countries.
During WWII, their Scripture Publishers to Every Creature Mission printed and distributed two million copies of the Gospel. (Including 700,000 copies translated into Russian).
During a 1947 visit to the United States, and Lettie Cowman, they received 800,000 Gospels for missionary work in China.
Their Mattsons’ role models were Hudson Taylor, C.T. Studd, and Charles and Lettie Cowman.
Haile Selassie’s Response the Finnish Christian Missionaries?
In August 1951, the Emperor of Ethiopia invited the Mattsons to return.
They arrived in Addis Ababa on September 23, 1951.
Three weeks later, they met with Emperor Haille Selassie to present a work plan.
They started organizing meetings in their home. From there, they preached the gospel in a local prison called Alem Bekagn (“I am cut off from the world”).
Their missionary station at Wolmara–not far from Addis Ababa–began circa 1955.
They rented 80 hectares (about 200 acres) of land for a health clinic, school, chapel, granary, and residential buildings.
The Emperor granted them premission to do missionary work on the farm. His aim, though, was for them to train young people about farming, gardening, crafts and to earn a living.
Historians believe Selassie was more interested in modernizing his country–and welcomed missionaries willing to build hospitals and schools.
Ultimately, the Mattsons established eight missionary stations in Ethiopia. They called the work The Finnish Mission in Ethiopia.
Sanfrid and Anna-Liisa served 25 years during a challenging time for Ethiopia.
As recounted in Sanfrid’s biography:
The Mattsons lived . . . through many difficult times of persecution and endured the beginnings of the Ethiopian Revolution leading to the Dergue Regime in 1974. [Haile Selassie died in 1975]. . . Ethiopians took over the leadership of the church and named it the Guenet Church.”
Dictionary of African Christian Biography; Sanfrid Mattson
Sanfrid died in Addis Ababa on July 17, 1976; Anna-Liisa died in June 1988.
Today, Ethiopia is approximately 67% Christian; 31% Muslim.
Finnish Christian missionaries continue serving the people.
(Photos of the Mattsons and biographical information are used by permission obtained through Finnish writer Lisa Enqvist, from author Asta Tillander’s Finnish biography of Anna-Liisa Mattson.
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