Lottie Moon, Missionary
to China
By Linda Hull
It is said that
Charlotte Digges Moon (Lottie, for short),
born December 12th, 1840, was a
precocious child, somewhat unruly, and
irreverent. Many prayed for her salvation,
but she was a scoffer. Later, after a
series of revival meetings, she decided to
seriously consider Christianity. Shortly
after her 18th birthday, she
received Jesus as her Savior and Lord. She
was baptized at the First Baptist Church in
Charlottesville, Virginia in December, 1858,
while attending the Albemarle Female
Institute. It should be noted that Lottie
was the first woman to be awarded a master’s
degree from a Southern college, notable
proof of her determined spirit. Lottie soon
felt the call of a missionary, but foreign
missionary work was closed to single women.
Reports of
foreign work inspired both Lottie and her
sister, Edmonia. Edmonia began
corresponding with Martha Crawford, who with
her husband, served as a missionary to
China. Martha advocated that single women
should be allowed to come to China to
minister to women and children. On a whim,
Edmonia wrote to Henry Tupper, secretary of
the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board,
to ask permission to go to China along with
a missionary couple and the wife’s single
sister. Miraculously, the Board agreed.
Finally foreign missions were opened to
single women.
Called to China
In 1873, at age
32, Lottie followed Edmonia to Tengchow,
China. Tengchow, a port city of 80,000, is
in northern China in the province of
Shantung on the eastern coast, next to the
Yellow Sea. Lottie joined missionaries, T.
P. and Martha Crawford and her sister
Edmonia at the North China Mission Station
where she began her work of teaching in
established mission schools. Unfortunately,
Edmonia became ill, and clearly was not
suited to missionary work. She and Lottie
were forced to return home in 1875, so
Edmonia could recuperate from typhoid and
pneumonia.
Upon her return
to China in 1877, Lottie opened a school,
initially for upper class Chinese women, the
first of many schools throughout her years
of service. It was difficult to persuade
families to allow their daughters to be
educated since girls were rarely educated in
those days. In fact, it was assumed by most
Chinese men that women were incapable of
learning. However, women were treated with
respect and honor in the home. Amazingly,
it was the poor who realized the value of an
education, so Lottie enrolled thirteen girls
from these poor families.
After several
years, Lottie, chaffing at the lack of
resources and recruits, wrote a letter in
September, 1887, praising the Methodist
Woman’s Board of Missions for raising
$65,000 for the year. The letter was
printed in the Foreign Mission Journal that
December. Not only did Lottie praise the
Methodist women, but she also exhorted
Southern Baptists to prove their commitment
to Christ by calling on them to follow the
example of the Methodists. She suggested
the week before Christmas be set aside as a
time of giving toward foreign missions.
Consequently, what is now the Lottie Moon
Christmas Offering for International
Missions was begun. Best of all, enough
money was collected to send three more
missionary women.
Lottie helped
bring about reform. She was a strong
advocate for abolishing the practice of foot
binding for girls. Foot binding to make a
tiny foot was a nasty tradition that began
when girls reached school age. The painful
process of making the foot smaller began
with bending the four small toes under,
toward the sole. Then they were bandaged,
and drawn toward the heel until the bones
were broken, creating a tiny 3 inch foot.
Unfortunately, many girls suffered
complications of infection, foul odors, and
paralysis; some even died. Bound feet
afforded a young woman of the upper classes
the opportunity to make a good marriage, and
possibly to advance in class. Peasant
classes rarely practiced foot binding
because women are needed to work in the
fields.
Lottie loved to
travel about the countryside evangelizing in
village after village in the area around
Pingtu. The Shantung province was densely
populated, and for the few missionaries, it
must have seemed a daunting task to reach so
many with the Gospel message. Her
denomination believed that Scripture
teaches that women are not to teach men or
to have authority over them, but often Lottie found herself in the uncomfortable
position of having to refuse to preach to a
mixed group. Her frustration drove her to
write letters to appeal to the Board to send
men who could preach, that these souls might
be reached.
Lottie
continued her faithful service until her
health finally gave out. Lottie loved the
Chinese, and when a severe famine overtook
the land, Lottie stopped eating, giving away
her precious rations to feed the starving.
She suffered from dementia, a result of
having starved herself. When her condition
was discovered, it was too late to save
her. Her only hope was to return home, but
Lottie died aboard ship in the harbor at
Kobe, Japan, December 24, 1912.
Lottie was
mourned greatly by all who knew her. She
had finished a tremendous work in bringing
the Gospel message to China. To understand
the impact these faithful ones had on China,
we must remember the words of Viceroy Tuan
Fang at the Waldorf Astoria in February,
1906 (Headland, 1909):
"We take
pleasure this evening in bearing testimony
to the part taken by American missionaries
in promoting the progress of the Chinese
people. They have borne the light of Western
civilization into every nook and corner of
the empire. They have rendered inestimable
service to China by the laborious task of
translating into the Chinese language
religious and scientific works of the West.
They help us to bring happiness and comfort
to the poor and the suffering, by the
establishment of hospitals and schools. The
awakening of China, which now seems to be at
hand, may be traced in no small measure to
the influence of the missionary. For this
service you will find China not ungrateful."
Giving was a
principle Lottie advocated to others, and
one which she lived throughout her
thirty-nine years of missionary service in
China, finally giving her life that others
might live.
Bibliography:
Headland, I.T. (1909).
Court Life In China: The Capital, Its
Officials, and People. Retrieved October,
2006, from
East Asian Sourcebook
*********************
Resources:
Ban Zhao Pan Chow
(80). Lessons For A Woman. Retrieved
October, 2006, from
Chinese Cultural Studies at:
http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/banzhao.html
Headland, I.T.
(1909). Court Life In China: The Capital,
Its Officials, and People. Retrieved
October, 2006, from East Asian Sourcebook
at:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/headland-courtlife.html#I%20%20The%20Empress%20Dowager-Her%20Early%20Life
Moon, L.
(1880). Lottie Moon Correspondence.
Retrieved October, 2006, from
Solomon Databases at:
https://solomon.imb.org/Webtop/index.jsp
The International
Mission Board. Lottie Moon. Fast Facts.
Retrieved October,
2006, from http://ime.imb.org/lottiemoon/fastfacts.asp
The International Mission Board. Lottie
Moon. Who was Lottie Moon? Retrieved
October, 2006, at
http://ime.imb.org/lottiemoon/one.asp
Vento, M. (1998). One Thousand Years of
Foot Binding: Its Origins, Popularity and
Demise. Retrieved October, 2006, from
Chinese Culture at:
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/studpages/vento.html
~*~
Linda Hull is the author and publisher of
Words of Encouragement an e-zine
offering encouragement through Biblical
knowledge and wisdom. She is also an
experienced teacher, crisis counselor,
caregiver, and mentor. Linda’s work reflects
her love and devotion to her Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Contact Linda at
woehome@frontiernet.net
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