Lottie was born Charlotte Digges Moon, on December 12, 1840, in Albemarle County, Virginia.Her entire career was devoted to northern China, initially in Tengchow and then in Pingtu. As a teacher and preacher, she laid the groundwork for historically strong support for missions among American Baptists.Moon was born on the family’s historic 1500 acre (607.02 ha) slave-labor tobacco farm called Viewmont, in Albemarle County, Virginia, to wealthy parents who were devout Baptists. She was knowledgeable and was one of the first women in the southern United States to acquire a Master of Arts degree.In 1872, Charlotte Digges ‘Lottie’ Moon was appointed as a missionary to China by the Southern Baptist Convention Foreign Mission Board, making her the first single woman sent by the Southern Baptist Convention Foreign Mission Board.Lottie Moon founded a girls’ boarding school. Lottie was motivated to challenge the perception that Chinese people placed little significance on girls’ education at the time.Lottie and her fellow missionaries led evangelism in remote and difficult-to-reach areas in China’s interior. Moon’s name was given to the Christmas offering, a Woman’s Missionary Union fundraising campaign to support international missions.Lottie Moon’s letters and other writings, pleading for recruitment of more missionaries and financial assistance, spurred Southern Baptists to establish an annual Christmas offering for foreign missions in 1888, subsequently renamed the Moon Offering, which increased from $3,000 to more than $82 million in 1993.Lottie Moon penned several letters home, pushing for Southern Baptists to become more involved, appoint more workers, and fund missions during her career.Her frustration pushed her to write letters pleading with the Board to appoint preachers so that these souls could be touched. After 40 years of such condemnations and pleas, the Southern Baptist Convention has become one of the significant missionary sending bodies worldwide.Moon’s life has been celebrated through films (‘The Lottie Moon Story’), novels, cookbooks, biographies, playlets, greeting cards, and recordings. Charlotte Digges Moon died on Christmas Eve, on her way back to the United States.Spiritual AwakeningWhen she was 14, Lottie began her education at the Baptist-affiliated Virginia Female Seminary and Albemarle Female Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia. Moon got one of the first Master’s degrees given to a woman by a southern college in 1861.After a series of resurrection meetings on the college campus, she experienced a spiritual awakening when she was 18. Lottie was officially appointed as a missionary to China by the Foreign Mission Board on July 7, 1873.More than a century after her death, Charlotte ‘Lottie’ Digges Moon is possibly the most recognized Southern Baptist.Moon was born on December 12, 1840, and was baptized after professing Christian faith in December 1858. She worked as a Southern Baptist missionary in China, from 1873 until her death on December 24, 1912.John A. Broadus led the revival in Virginia that resulted in Moon’s Christian transformation and baptism after years of resistance to the gospel.God’s Messenger Work In ChinaLottie’s sister, Edmonia (Eddie), was one of the two single women assigned to China in April 1872. In 1873, Lottie traveled throughout the world with her sister. Eddie was frequently ill and finally fled China in 1876.She returned home after getting an M.A. in Classics from Albermarle Female Institute in Charlottesville in 1861 and stayed there until the end of the Civil War; she subsequently taught school in Alabama, Kentucky, and Georgia for three brief times.Moon was one of the first women sent by the Southern Baptist Convention Foreign Mission Board to China in 1872.Lottie studied Chinese and worked as a teacher in a missionary school. She eventually quit her job at the school to go throughout the countryside telling folks about Jesus Christ.Lottie cooked cookies and distributed them to the children. She then came to know the mothers of the children and discussed Jesus with them.Lottie dressed like Chinese women, learned Chinese culture and their language, and observed their practices, in order for them to trust her and regard her as a friend, rather than a ‘foreign devil’.There was a battle going on in China at the time and many folks were starving. Lottie donated her entire savings to assist in nourishing and providing for the Chinese people.Lottie realized that a shortage of funds frequently prevented missionaries from going to serve.So she wrote numerous emails to churches and mission boards back at home, underlining the importance of sending missionaries so that others could hear about Jesus. The Women’s Missionary Union was formed soon after.Lottie rebelled against Christianity until she was in university. She dedicated her soul to Christ and was baptized in December 1858, at First Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Virginia.At the age of 32, Lottie Moon set out for China. She had declined a marriage proposal and had left her work, home, and relatives to follow God’s leading.Baptism By Lottie MoonCharlotte Digges Moon is possibly the most famous Southern Baptist in history, even more than a century after her death.Moon was born on December 12, 1840, and was baptized in December 1858, after professing the Christian faith. She worked as a Southern Baptist missionary in China, from 1873 until her death on December 24, 1912.Moon received Christian transition and baptism after decades of denying the gospel, thanks to John A. Broadus, who led the awakening in Virginia.Moon had a tremendous direct influence on Baptist ideas of overseas mission activity during her lifetime. She kept Baptists up to speed on the struggles of the Baptist China mission, highlighting the spiritual warfare in particular.Social Reforms By Lottie MoonLottie Moon has come to represent the missionary zeal of Southern Baptists and many other Christians.Since 1888, the yearly Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for Missions has generated $1.5 billion for missions, funding half of the Southern Baptist missions budget each year.Moon was a driving force behind the establishment of The Woman’s Missionary Union, an affiliate of the Southern Baptist Convention, in 1888.Lottie applied for and was accepted for missionary work in North China.Despite her struggle to financially sustain her school, Moon assumed the girls’ medical, food, accommodation, and book expenditures. As a result, lower-income girls could attend boarding school and some were able to avoid prostitution and potential sex enslavement.Moon effortlessly taught Sunday school because the missions she worked with had already formed a Baptist church.Moon launched a home-visiting circuit in the distant regions beyond the city. She once went on an 11-day trek, to more than 44 communities, to share the Gospel with native ladies.Her push for women to be used as missionary evangelists, for freshly assigned missionaries to be engaged in mission work instantly, and for regular furloughs for all ministers had a significant impact on board policy.
Lottie was born Charlotte Digges Moon, on December 12, 1840, in Albemarle County, Virginia.
