Lizzie Johnson
Missionary Quilt Maker
1869 – 1904 A.D.

One of the most remarkable examples of suffering devotion is that of Lizzie Johnson, who was an invalid for twenty-six years. For eighteen years she never raised her head from her pillow nor sat in a sitting position. But during those ears she raised $18,000. You wonder how? Love always finds a medium of expression, and her love for her Savior caused her to love the souls of the heathen, and to desire to spread the Gospel in benighted lands.

First she pieced a missionary quilt. She hoped to sell it for fifty dollars, and thus redeem an African slave, but she found no purchaser. Bishop Frank W. Warne learned of it, and asked her to send it to him. He took it with him, showing it to large congregations, telling Lizzie Johnson’s story. Instead of $50 the quilt raised $600.

In addition to the quilt, she made and sold thousands of scriptural book-marks, all over the world, attending to all the correspondence herself. Hear her own words: “I have worked very hard as I lie on my bed of pain, and am thankful to God for the opportunity of so doing. The profits resulting from the sale of my book-marks go to maintain native workers in foreign lands. The work overtaxes my strength, yet I am eager to toil on and do all I can to enable these native pastors and Bible women to continue their soul-saving work.”

She supported five Bible women, two in China and three in India. She went to her heavenly mansion September 21, 1909.

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Reference: Men and Women of Deep Piety by Mrs. Clara McLeister. Edited and published by Rev. E.E. Shelhamer. ©1920.