WHO IS LOTTIE MOON?
*She was born in 1840
*She was born to a family of privilege in antebellum Virginia.
*She was given educational opportunities far beyond most girls her age.
*An uncle was the first foreign missionary for Disciples of Christ.
*Her sister was one of the first women doctors in the United States.
*Her family once owned Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello.
* She was 4 feet 5 inches tall.
* Her given name was Charlotte Diggs Moon.
* At university, Lottie was a member of the first group of southern women to earn a Master of Arts degree.
* She was a student of French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and her professors thought her to be perhaps the best educated southern woman of her time.
* Lottie spent her early post-university years establishing a great school for girls.
* She was recognized as a leader.
* Her sister, Edmonia, was the first to scale the barrier that prevented single women from serving as missionaries.
* When Lottie’s pastor eloquently preached about the field white unto harvest, she made up her mind to move the scene of her ministry to China and was appointed by the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board and sailed in 1873.
* She was among the pioneer Christians in China.
* She was a part of a generation that had to improvise and experiment with
Mission’s methodology.
* Her personal evangelistic and teaching methods led to the establishment of a network of strong churches which bore enormous fruit in the next generation.
* In all, she served from 1873 until 1912 – 39 years.
* Her lonely years caused her to suggest new Foreign Mission Board polices about furloughs, health care, and appointment of new missionaries.
* She died on Christmas Eve, 1912 in route back to the United States which she had only visited three times in all her years of missionary service.
* Her suggestions included an offering to be taken at Christmas time for foreign missions. The first offering was in 1888 and has been taken every Christmas since totaling more than $1 billion for foreign missions (International Missions).
December 24, 2022 will mark 112 years since her death.
You have… heard about this hope in the message of truth, the gospel that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it. Colossians 1:5-6 (HCSB)
Lottie Moon Week of Prayer
December 1– 8, 2024
We Pray for Missionaries Around the World
Every day, 155,473 people enter eternity without the hope of Jesus. Please join us as we observe the Week of Prayer for International Missions, where Southern Baptists pray for IMB missionaries, their ministries and the unreached people and places they serve.
