August 9, 2006
Miss Anna Armia Heikkinen, retired missionary to French Indochina (Vietnam) and West Irian (Indonesia), went to be with the Lord on August 3, 2006, in St. Paul, Minnesota. She would have been 106 on September 9. Armia served as a missionary with The Christian and Missionary Alliance from 1928 to 1968.
In the fall of 1925 she entered St. Paul Bible College (Crown College) for two years and then transferred to Nyack Missionary College for one year. After graduation she went to French Indo-China (Vietnam) to start a school for missionary children. Dalat School opened in 1928 with three pupils; later a high school was added. After 28 years at Dalat School, the Lord impressed upon Armia that her work there was finished. In 1958, she redeployed to West Irian to help open a missionary children’s school in Sentani called Sentani International School (now Hillcrest International School). She served there until her retirement in 1968. Though currently run by independent, inter-mission school boards, Dalat International School (now located in Penang, Malaysia) and Hillcrest International School both educate and give spiritual formation to a combined number of approximately 470 students every year. The legacy that was born from Miss Heikkinen’s faithful ministry and love for missionary children continues to this day.
Miss Heikkinen’s memorial service will be held at 1:30 p.m. this Friday, August 11, at Lyngblomsten Care Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. The following will be officiating the service: Mr. LeRoy and Mrs. Evelyn Toth, Miss Heikkinen’s legal care givers; Rev. David B. Hustad, retired pastor of Hope C&MA Church in Apple Valley, Minnesota; and Mr. Paul Gedden, director for Endowment and Church Relations at Crown College.