I was talking one day with a Christian friend about Lottie Moon, and she didn't know who Lottie was. I was scandalized. It took me a moment to remember that Lottie was a Baptist, so if you're not Baptist you probably don't know who she is. Of course, there are many Baptists who were never GA's or in the WMU so they never learned WHO Lottie was, they just heard her name at Christmas time when the church was begging money for the foreign missionaries.
The whole concept of not knowing who that amazing personage was is a bit traumatizing to me. I hold her on high as a beacon. I know we should strive to be like Jesus, but sometimes we need a flesh-and-blood model to watch. For me, it's Lottie Moon.
She was a single missionary to China in a time when no single lady did anything. She was born in Viriginia in 1840, and was a rascally young lady. She was a prankster who hated authority and loved fun. At eighteen, her mother's prayers were finally answered and she surrendered to God. She went to college and became a teacher, before finally at age 33 accepting the call to go to China.
She stuck out sorely when she first arrived in China, despite the fact that she was only 4' 3" tall. She still wore her American clothes. The Chinese people, afraid of her differences, called her the "Foreign Devil."
Lottie was perplexed on how to make friends with the Chinese people. She took two major actions to help bridge that gap. The first, was to dress like them. Paul said that he became all things to all people so that he might reach some. Lottie did no different. By donning the clothes of those around her, she was able to show them that she was willing to meet them were they were.
Her second major action, was that she won the hearts of the Chinese children. How does one do that? You feed them yummy things. She started to make tea cookies for all the children in the villages she worked with. After making pals with the children, they would invite her home to meet their mothers. Through these relationships, she won people to Christ, and people stopped calling her the "Foreign Devil." They started calling her the "Cookie Lady," instead. And I don't know about you, but I can deal with being called the "Cookie Lady." In fact, I have been called the "Brownie Lady" before.
She served the people of China for nearly forty years--through hardships, wars, and famine. In fact, at one point she was giving away all of her food to her Chinese friends, knowing that she could do with less. Unfortunately, her heart was larger than her needs. In 1912 her missionary friends found out that she had nearly starved herself to death (she weighed only 50 pounds). They put her on a ship against her will to take her back to the states to see proper doctors. She died, though, on the ship while they were docked in Kobe Japan, still close to her to beloved China, on Christmas Eve.
What an awesome testimony. In 1912, 72 wasn't particularly young. She had lived a long, full life, and she had lived all but eighteen years of it for God. Nearly forty were spent sharing with those who had never heard the Good News of Jesus. And then, she died on the day before we celebrate the Lord's birth, after starving herself to death for others. I think we could all do worse than Lottie.
Every year, the WMU (Women's Missionary Union) has a special offering time in the month of December to take up money for the International Missions Board. In 1887, Lottie wrote to a foreign missions journal, asking for a time of giving to be set aside for foreign missions. The ladies of the Baptist world took this as a rallying cry and formed the Women's Missionary Union (an auxilliary to the Southern Baptist Church), with the purpose to educate women and children about missions. They also set aside the Christmas season to collect money for missionaries--just as Lottie asked. The very first Christmas Offering was collected in 1888, and the grand total rang up to $3,315 (which would be worth about $77,000 today). This was enough money to send three new missionaries to China. Ever since then, the WMU has hosted a Christmas Offering. In 1919, Annie Armstrong, the founder of the WMU, suggested that the Christmas Offering be named in Lottie's honor. In 1926, the name change was official, and ever since then, the WMU has sponsored the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
I think about her alot this time of year. I grew up in GA's, the WMU's program for young girls, and Lottie and Annie were our heroes. They changed the world in a time when women didn't change anything. They reminded us that our contributions, large and small, mattered--to God if to no one else. Lottie was a miscreant and a trouble maker that no one ever thought would amount to anything. But she did.
We're going caroling as a church next Wednesday, and returning for hot-cocoa and cookies. I think I'll make some of Lottie Moon's tea cookies, though I think I'm just going to modify the measurements of her original recipe instead of making the "redone" recipe that the WMU provides.
Sources:
IMB's Letter Archive (archives some of Lottie's letters)
Measuring Worth (value of money conversion)
Article on Lottie Moon (Wikipedia--the internet's most reliable resource.)
WMU's Lottie Moon Focus (Facts about Lottie, the Christmas Offering, and Cookie Recipe)
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