“Pastor, will we ever pay off this old woman’s debt?” was the question asked during a Wednesday evening prayer meeting. “Seems like we take up a collection for this same old woman every Christmas. Just who is Lottie Moon?”
Many of us who have been raised in Southern Baptist churches set offering goals for “Lottie.” We promote the offering and talk affectionately about this important foreign missions emphasis. But too often, we forget that we have new Christians in our churches and we forget to tell them the story of this wonderful missions saint.
Lottie Moon (her full name was Charlotte Diggs Moon) was born on December 12, 1840 into a privileged and affluent Virginian home. She received the best education available at a time when that was unusual for girls. She attended the Albemarle Female Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was there that Lottie met Crawford H. Toy, her languages professor.
Crawford Toy was a handsome bachelor; he was the object of many of the girls’ crushes. It was his practice to invite his most outstanding Greek student to his apartment for sweet potatoes and coffee. Since Lottie was an outstanding student of languages, their frequent meetings eventually turned to romance.
Lottie was anything but a devoted Christian. During her last two quarters in high school, she missed chapel 26 times. Later, at the Albemarle Female Institute, one student asked her what the initial “D” in her name stood for. Lottie shot back, “Devil.” Indeed, she was a mischievous, skeptical atheist. She was the subject of many prayer meetings for her salvation.
Those prayers for Lottie’s salvation were answered on December 21, 1858. During revival services led by John Broadus, Lottie went to scoff the “old man.” Instead, God got a hold of Lottie Devil. She repented of her sins, asked Jesus to save her from hell, and to take control of her life.
God called Charlotte to be a missionary while she was teaching school in Georgia after the Civil War. So she moved to the Carver School of Missions in Louisville, Kentucky, which was next to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary campus, where Crawford Toy was teaching theology.
Charlotte Moon still had a little bit of the devil in her. She often “accidentally met” Crawford at the bridge over the creek that separated the Carver School and Southern Seminary. It was reported that they were brazenly holding hands in public! As graduation drew near, Charlotte met Crawford on the bridge over the creek. Crawford asked Charlotte to be his wife. With tears in her eyes, Charlotte affirmed her love for Crawford, but refused to marry him because God has called her to be a missionary to China and had called Crawford to be a professor of theology. To this day, that place is known to Southern Alumni as the “Valley of Decision.” Later, during one of Lottie’s furloughs from the mission field, Crawford proposed again. And again, Lottie turned him down.
After graduation, Charlotte Moon left the United States for China. She worked in North China for forty years; she mastered the Chinese language and integrated into the Chinese culture more thoroughly than any other Westerner has ever done. She ate their food, wore Chinese clothing, and maintained a “Chinese” home. At first, the Chinese called her “Devil woman” because of her quick temper. But in time, the Chinese learned of Lottie’s love for them and for the Lord Jesus Christ. The Chinese stopped calling her “Devil woman” and started calling her “Miss Lottie.”
But being a missionary was a lonely and hard life. The Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention was deep in debt. When they refused to send Lottie additional missionaries, she went over the Board’s head and appealed directly to the Women’s Missionary Union to take up a Christmas offering for foreign missions. Obviously, this did not make the Foreign Mission Board happy.
The Women’s Missionary Union went to work. They set a goal of $2,000 for the 1888 foreign missions goal. Annie Armstrong wrote letters, not to pastors, but to the women of the churches. When all the receipts were tallied, the WMU had received $3,315.26–enough to send 3 missionaries to help Lottie Moon.
Toward the end of her life, Lottie Moon worried about the future of Southern Baptist missions. Finally, during the famine and hunger in China, Lottie fell ill in 1912. She refused to eat when everyone around her was hungry. She gave all her food and supplies to the hungry. Finally, at fifty frail pounds, Dr. O. T. Hearns carried her on board the Manchuria, a steamship, in the hopes of saving her life.
The captain of the Manchuria entered the following in his log:
Tuesday, December 24, 1912, Harbor of Kobe, Japan. Miss Lottie Moon, age 72, died of melancholia and senility. The remains were cremated at Yokohama on December 26. Personal effects consisting of one steamer trunk taken care of by Miss Cynthia Miller, her traveling companion.
In honor of this dedicated missionary, Southern Baptists established the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. This offering provides more than 50% of the International Mission Board’s operating budget.
But the question persists: “Will we ever pay off this old woman’s debt?” The answer is “No.” We will never pay off the debt we owe to Lottie Moon. She gave us an example of what the Bible means “to offer your bodies a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1).
More importantly, Jesus our Lord commanded us to preach the Gospel to all the world. There are still 2 billion people who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Neither television nor radio ministries will reach these 2 billion people. Why? Because they are too poor to have televisions or radios. How will they be reached? They will be reached the “old-fashioned way”: by sending missionaries.
God promises to meet our need only after we have given sacrificially to missions (Philippians 4:10-20).