Finland gained independence in 1917 and suffered from a short but brutal Civil War between the reds (socialists) and the whites (government troops) in 1918. The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland supported the white winners of the war. At the same time, deaconess institutes tried to find ways to solve tensions between the social classes, and to find new societal relevance in their long tradition of social care among the poor and the suffering. One innovative path was found in the care of mentally and physically disabled children and adults. People with disabilities were seen as a new congregation, or a novel mission field, neglected by private and public providers of care. Asylums were established, and some deaconesses were sent to excursions to acquaintance with institutional care in Germany and the Nordic countries. This process can be conceptualized as a transformation in which deaconess institutes met the challenges of modernity by assuming a new position as leading experts in disabilities.