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Until the 19th century, women were not considered suitable for mission work. However, when Leipzig mission started its work in India, it came to the realization that to reach Indian women with the Gospel, women missionaries were needed. Soon, other German mission societies that sent missionaries to China, Indonesia and Africa also came to the same conclusion, opening the doors for ministry for the first women from Vidzeme (Livland). Baltic-German Hildegard Prozell, from Jaunmārupe, was sent in 1896 through Leipzig to India and Lilija Otilija Grīviņa, (in German Grihwin, Griwing, Griewing) from Riga, were sent in 1913 through Liebenzell to China. Each of these societies had different theological understandings about mission. Leipzig was based on the traditional Lutheran understanding of ministry and tried to create a universal Lutheran church worldwide, including in the mission fields. Liebenzell was the German branch of China Inland Mission, which was considered a “faith” mission that was more open to co-working with others. This impacted the way the mission societies selected their candidates, prepared them (a few months for Leipzig, 3–4 years for Liebenzell with male and female candidates training together), and sent them on the missions (solid salary for Prozell, not so with Grīviņa). Both missionaries had to learn the local languages and pass language exams. They both served as teachers, did evangelism with local women, and had to be administrators and local health care specialists. Prozell was the first to establish women’s work in Mayavaram, while Grīviņa was the first to take Chinese women to a local evangelism outreach (together with other teaching staff of the Hunan Bible Institute). Prozell, being a Baltic-German, received extensive support from her home church. Since her ministry took place before World War I, there are plenty of publications about her ministry in both Latvian and German newspapers in Riga. Grīviņa came from a humble background, going with almost no support, and as her ministry in China happened during WWI, there were almost no publications about her work. Both women have been equally forgotten in Latvian church history and deserve to be remembered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]