Pioneer Women Formed and Led Organization of the Inter-American Division - Part 2

Women’s History Month #4 2023

For the information about women in leadership in the Inter-American Division we are indebted to Daniel A. Mora who has done a lot of research in church archives, discovering the great impact women had in the early days of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission in Inter-America. His article on this research was published in the 2022 Summer edition of Adventist Today Magazine which is quoted here.

Women at the Head of Their Missions

In the 1900s, the General Conference placed three women to serve as the only officers in charge of their missions in Central America, until a president was appointed. They, possibly unknowingly or without realizing the situation, maintained the stability and operability of their local fields in critical moments.

Hanna John Lutz (1908-1999)

Hanna was born on June 12, 1908 in Hamburg, Germany.[i]   Her parents, Eugen Gustav John and Eugenia von der Twer, came from respected families in Germany whose ancestors served as state officials, including in the kingdom of Prussia. Hanna's life and that of her family began to change when they converted to Adventism. Her father left his position as technical director in a glass factory (probably because of his Sabbath observance). While some of Hanna's uncles held high positions in the German government, her father began working as an accounting apprentice at the Adventist publishing house in Hamburg, then became director of the publishing house in Hamburg, Basel and Vienna, Austria.
Hanna studied secretarial studies at the Adventist Seminary in Marienhöhe and accounting at the German commercial school Handelsschule from 1925 to 1927. At the end of her studies, she worked at the Adventist publishing house in Hamburg until 1929, when she traveled to work as an au pair in the home of a German family in Guatemala. On October 29, 1930, Hanna sent a letter to her mother on Adventist Church letterhead. She was hired to work in the Mission office handling church finances and in the Bible and Home department. At that time, she met colporteur and elder Alfred Emil Lutz, and the two were married on July 29, 1931. Alfred and Hanna dedicated themselves to serve with sacrifice for the progress of the Adventist work in Central America, especially Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras, they had 7 children.

Hanna was elected secretary-treasurer at the Guatemala Mission from 1932 to 1934.[ii] From 1935 to 1936, Hanna held the same position at the Nicaragua Mission. She remained the sole officer in charge of administration there until 1938, when A. H. Roth transferred from the Panama Conference to become the mission president.[iii] Hanna and her family moved from Nicaragua to settle permanently in Honduras, and she died in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, in 1999.

Emma Rodríguez was appointed as secretary-treasurer of the Nicaragua Mission from 1938 until 1940 and then became its acting president when C. P. Crager transferred to the Colombian- Venezuelan Union.[iv] Emma served as the mission’s top administrator from 1941 to 1942, until Mr. and Mrs. R. G. Jones arrived from the Santo Domingo Mission.[v]

Marie Fanselau (1899-1991)
Marie Joswig Fanselau traveled from Germany to Honduras as a young Adventist missionary in April 1928. E. Kotz published a report on missionaries sent to foreign fields in 1928, entitled, "How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher?" quoting Paul's famous statement in Romans 10:14.[vi] Kotz began by stating, "Mission means sharing with others the best that we have: Christ." An extensive list of these Adventist missionaries was then detailed, including "Miss Maria [sic] Joswig, from Germany, to Honduras, Central America." There Hanna met the young German colporteur, Gustav Adolf Fanselau, who arrived in 1927 (possibly they knew each other from Germany).[vii] On May 2, 1928, Marie and Adolf Fanselau were married in Balboa, Panama.[viii] Their first child was born in 1929 in Tela, Honduras, and in 1932 their twins were born in Managua, Nicaragua. Adolf became a successful colporteur and in 1928 the Honduras Mission extended to him a missionary license;[ix] where he was appointed to head two departments: Home Mission and Field Mission.[x] They both dedicated themselves to work in Central America and contributed to the formation of the magazine El Centinela, in addition to raising their three children. In 1931, Marie (listed in the Yearbook as Mrs. A. Fanselau) was appointed as secretary and treasurer in the Nicaragua Mission, until 1934.[xi] Having demonstrated her ability to lead and strengthen Adventist work, she held the same position in the Guatemala Mission from 1935 to 1939, even after Adolf died suddenly in 1938.[xii] In 1940, she is listed in the Yearbook as Marie Fanselau, executive secretary and treasurer of the Guatemala Mission. While World War II was raging in Europe, progress of the Adventist work in Guatemala was recognized in the report of “Mrs. Marie Fanselau.”[xiii] During 1944, she became the mission’s interim president after Werner A. Wild was called away to serve as editor for El Centinela, in Panama.[xiv] In 1945, Pastor C. E. Westphal affirmed Marie’s extensive work: “Mrs. Fanselau, our Mission secretary-treasurer and [departmental] secretary for Publications and Home, devotes much of her time to attending to the needs of our twelve colporteurs.”[xv] In 1946, the General Conference voted to send Marie to the United States with her children. She received credentials as a missionary until her death in 1999.

Conclusion
Women were a determining factor in the organization of the first missions and associations in the Inter-American Division. They maintained the stability and governance of the churches, together with the men. In addition, they safeguarded the financial funds and reported the challenges and progress in their local fields. While they did not exercise the offices of an ordained pastor, these women served as duly elected and recognized top officers of the Adventist organization.

 

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[i] All biographical information was prepared by Rudi Maier, PhD, son-in-law of Hanna Lutz, and sent to the author via e-mail. Rudi Maier to Daniel A. Mora, "LIFE SKETCH Hanna John LUTZ".

[ii] Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventists – 1932, p. 179; Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventists – 1935, p. 139.

[iii] Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventists – 1937, p. 143; C. P. Crager, “Changes and Recruits,” InterAmerican Division Messenger, vol. 15, no. 6 (March 15, 1938), p. 5.

[iv] Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventists – 1940, pp. 151, 153.

[v] Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventists – 1942, p. 115.

[vi] E. Kotz, “How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher?” RH 106, no. 4 (January 24, 1928), 3.

[vii] See C. B. Meyers, “To the Mission Fields in 1927,” RH 105, no. 3 (January 19, 1928), 5.

[viii] “Marie Fanselau”, Ancestry.com. Federal Naturalization Records, California, USA, 1843–1999 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014; “Sister Maria Joswig (Mrs. A. Fanselau), to Honduras,” in “New Recruits,” IAM 6, no. 4 (March, 1929): 7.

[ix] See Adolf Fanselau, “The Printed Page in Nicaragua,” IAM 9, no. 10 (October, 1932): 7; W. E. Baxter, “The Sons of Strangers,” IAM 7, no. 3 (March 1930):3; F. W. Steeves, “Colporteur News from Guatemala,” IAM 14, no. 1 (January, 1937): 9.

[x] General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Yearbook of the Seventh-day Adventists,1928 (Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing, 1928), 244.

[xi] Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventists – 1934, p. 136.

[xii] Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventists – 1939, p. 149.

[xiii] Wesley Amundsen, “Advance in Guatemala,” Review and Herald, vol. 120, no. 42 (Oct. 21, 1943), p. 12.

[xiv] Three Hundred Fourth Meeting of General Conference Committee (July 22, 1943), p. 1020.

[xv] C. E. Westphal, “Notes of Progress from Field Reports,” Inter-American Division Messenger, vol. 22, no. 1 (January 1945), p. 8