“We will be kicking off our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering
with a dinner on Saturday evening,” the Sunday morning bulletin read. Being new
to the Southern Baptist denomination, I wondered, “Who was Lottie Moon? Why was
the offering connected to Christmas?” I decided to do some research.
Lottie Moon was a rebellious teenager who didn’t like church and only went there to poke fun—not exactly the kind of person one would expect to have a missionary offering named after. However, when Lottie was 18, some friends invited her to an evangelistic meeting. She wasn’t interested but decided to go so she could mock the event. But God had other plans for her. On December 21, 1858, Lottie attended the meeting and found Jesus as her Savior.
This young, former sceptic went on to receive her master’s degree and opened an academy for girls. She developed an interest in China, which grew with the unheard-of assignment of her younger sister, Edmonia, to be a single female missionary to North China. Edmonia urged Lottie to join her there. Combined with a sermon by her pastor on the need for workers to reach the lost (John 4:35), Lottie felt a call “as clear as a bell” to go to China as a missionary.
Lottie used her education to teach the women of China. However, her sewing and knitting skills opened the door for her to minister the love of Jesus to them. She later started a program to train new missionaries in China. It was a lonely, challenging life, but Lottie put serving God above all other desires of her heart.
Famine struck Shandong where Lottie worked. She gave almost all her food to the Chinese people she lived among. Her health declined drastically, and the mission board sent her home. She died of starvation enroute on December 24, 1912. Thus, the fitting name of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, which supports missionaries like Lottie, who serve overseas.
Lottie was a committed, resourceful woman who sacrificially ministered to the people of China right up till her death on Christmas Eve. Her story, and the stories of missionaries like her, inspire us all to witness and give wherever God calls us, not just at Christmas, but all year long, so that others may hear of the love and saving grace of Jesus.
Be encouraged!
