Who Was Lottie Moon | Sunday School Solutions
by Aubrey Kyle
For years, churches have encouraged members to support missionaries through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Is your church one of them? Do the children in your church know why this is encouraged, or even who Lottie Moon is? Keep reading to find out for yourself!
Charlotte “Lottie” D. Moon was born on December 12, 1840, and she wanted nothing to do with God or Christianity. She would constantly make fun of other Christians, avoid church or only go to make fun of the pastor, and talk about how she wasn’t religious. Lottie was a very bright girl, and one of the most educated women in her part of the country. However, she had no interest in ever becoming a Christian.
One day, she went to church to find something to make fun of in the service. Instead, she was surprised to find the message made sense and was interesting! After the service she couldn’t stop thinking about what she had heard, and the next day she attended a morning prayer meeting and evening service. It was at that evening service where Lottie decided to receive Jesus as her Savior in December of 1858. God began to transform Lottie in incredible ways, eventually leading her to become a missionary to China.
During her almost 40 years in China, Lottie wrote letters about her ministry in China. In some of those letters we learn that for 35 of those years she advocated for a Christmas missionary offering. It was during this time when Lottie read about certain Christian women who gave tremendous amounts of money to missions throughout the year. She then challenged the women at her church to give more money to missions themselves. Lottie even went so far to say that these ladies put the women from her church to shame!
God began to transform Lottie in incredible ways, eventually leading her to become a missionary to China.
During her almost 40 years in China, Lottie wrote letters about her ministry in China. In some of those letters we learn that for 35 of those years she advocated for a Christmas missionary offering. It was during this time when Lottie read about certain Christian women who gave tremendous amounts of money to missions throughout the year. She then challenged the women at her church to give more money to missions themselves. Lottie even went so far to say that these ladies put the women from her church to shame!
Lottie wrote out a clear plan in one of her letters for scheduling a Christmas-time missions’ offering. In December of 1887, this letter was published in America, and with the help of a woman named Annie Armstrong, Lottie’s vision became a reality. That next year, the first Christmas missionary offering was scheduled, and it raised over $3,300!
Lottie wrote out a clear plan in one of her letters for scheduling a Christmas-time missions’ offering.
This was only the beginning of this Christmas missionary offering. What originally started as a challenge to increase giving for missions and fund missionary helpers for Lottie soon became known as “The Christmas Offering for China.” Eventually, the monies raised from this offering began to help missionaries outside of China as well.
Lottie Moon died on Christmas Eve in 1912, and in 1918, Annie Armstrong made the proposal to name the Christmas offering after Lottie in her memory. This idea was widely accepted and loved, which is why some churches now have the “Lottie Moon Christmas Offering” every year in her honor.
God used the life of Lottie Moon for so much more than for just starting a yearly Christmas missions’ offering! For an exciting lesson that you can use to teach the children in your Sunday school about the missionary work of Lottie Moon this Christmas, check out this Lottie Moon missionary story available at CEF Press®.