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A Life of Significance

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Lottie (Charlotte) Moon
(b. Viewmont, Albermarle County, Va., Dec. 12, 1840; d. Kobe,
Japan, Dec. 24, 1912). Missionary in Tengchow and Pingtu, China,
for nearly 40 years; instrumental in instigating first Christmas
offering, 1888. She was educated at Female Seminary at Botetourt
Springs (later known as Hollins) and at Albermarle Female
Institute, Charlottesville. She was converted in the spring of
1859 in a meeting by John Albert Broadus, then pastor at
Charlottesville. She taught at Danville, Ky., and Cartersville,
Ga. She volunteered for missionary service in Feb., 1873, in
response to a sermon on the text, "Lift up your eyes, and look
on the fields; for they are white already to harvest," and she
was appointed to China, July 7, 1873, by the Foreign Mission
Board, Southern Baptist Convention. In 1888 she wrote to the
Baptist women of the South, pleading for reinforcements. The
first Christmas offering in 1888 provided three additional
missionaries. She spent 14 years in China before taking her
first regular furlough. Toward the end of her days, she suffered
with her Chinese people in the terrible famine. She gave all she
had. In the time of deepest trials she wrote, "I hope no
missionary will be as lonely as I have been." Literally
starving, she grew steadily weaker. Before Christmas, 1912,
Cynthia Miller, faithful nurse, started back to America with
Lottie Moon; death came to the frail missionary, Christmas Eve,
while the ship was at harbor in Kobe, Japan. The present
Christmas offering for foreign missions, sponsored by the W.M.U.,
is named for Lottie Moon.
Biographical
Sources:
Allen, Catherine. The New Lottie Moon Story,
1980.
Lawrence, Una Roberts. Lottie Moon, 1927.
"Lottie Moon." Shapers of Southern Baptist Heritage pamphlet
series. Southern Baptist Historical Society.
Archival sources in Southern Baptist
Historical Library and Archives.
Moon, Lottie. Missionary Correspondence. AR. 551-2.
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