Eelis was raised in a loving, conservative Pentecostal family in Finland. He was exposed to the gospel since his youth but finally came to a personal conviction of sin and understood the meaning of the cross of Christ in high school when God led him to study the material of the Living Waters ministries. He was baptised and joined the local Pentecostal church soon after this when he was 18.

After spending a year in military service, Eelis moved to Jyväskylä in 2009 to study chemistry. He joined a Lutheran bible-study group where he met his wife, Manna. After they married, they joined the Free Church of Jyväskylä, where Eelis was part of an evangelistic outreach team. During his time in Jyväskylä, Eelis came to Reformed Baptist convictions. Eelis & Manna were part of a group of like-minded Christians who planted a Reformed Baptist church plant in Jyväskylä in 2018 under the mentorship of elders from two other churches.

Eelis felt a call to ministry at this point in his life, and in 2020, the church chose Eelis as its first pastor. Together with two other elders, Eelis now leads the church. In 2023, Eelis also started to study in Agricola Theological Seminary. Eelis has the primary responsibility of teaching and evangelism in the church.

Manna was brought up in a nominal Finnish Lutheran family. God converted her in an evangelistic gathering where she heard the gospel preached by a Lutheran evangelist when she was 16. She is currently home-schooling and serves the church in Sunday School and women’s ministry.  

Eelis & Manna have five children: Aamos (2014), Iisak (2016), Eeva (2019), Aaron (2021), and the fifth child will God willing be born next Spring 2024.

Prayer requests:

·        Wisdom and love to evangelise the mostly nominal Christian people of Finland. The ground seems rocky.

·        Wisdom and strength to raise godly children. Manna’s pregnancy.

·        Faithfulness for the elders to serve the flock God gave them in Jyväskylä Reformed Baptist Church.

·        Wisdom how to help in other church-planting endeavours in Finland.