Jakobsen was a maid for a businessman named Christian Rasmussen, and in 1879 both of them established contact with the English China Inland Mission.
Four years after, the Swedish-American evangelist and missionary friend Fredrik Franson came to the city and held meetings in Rasmussen's home.
Anna Jakobsson was one of those who answered the call, and in 1884 she participated in the first evangelist course held by Franson in Christiania.
When Jakobsen announced her intention to marry a Chinese Christian evangelist, Cheng Xiuqi, there was subsequently a fierce campaign against her in the North-China Herald and she was forced to resign from the China Inland Mission.
In the Autumn of 2010, a plaque was unveiled on the wall of Jakobsen's house in Kristiansand where both she and Sophie Reuter worked before they left for China.