Who is Lottie Moon? Good question…some reading this may not know who she was and why we are always raising money for her during Christmas.

Is Lottie Moon a creditor, like Sallie Mae or Freddie Mac? Absolutely not!

Lottie Moon was an early missionary to China in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. She spent 40 years in her beloved country with a burden to get the gospel out. She was a deeply burdened, hard-working, Southern Baptist who faithfully labored so her people could know the Jesus who changed her life.

So why is the annual Christmas offering named in her honor?

While she was in China she constantly wrote letters home encouraging a greater awareness of missions, a greater personal involvement in missions, and a greater sacrificial support for missions. These letters caused the Southern Baptist in 1888 to take up a Christmas offering for international missions. That offering was enough to send three missionaries to China.

That was 125 years ago and her letters still speak to us today. As off today the offering named in honor of Lottie Moon has generated more than 3.5 billion dollars.

Where does the money go?

Every penny goes to support 4,800 missionaries. If we reach our corporate goal this year of $175 million then we would be able to send 576 new missionaries to the field. Calvary’s goal is $2,000 and it thrills me to think that the money we give is going to take care of ordinary people sharing God’s extraordinary grace.

Lottie Moon, missionary to China, died on December 24, 1912. She lived an ordinary life of extraordinary grace, sacrificing everything to get the gospel story of redemption out to the lost people of China. But that is not the end of Lottie Moon’s story. Her story is God’s story of redemption that lives on through the ages, and we can be a part of that story as we give sacrificially to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering.

Grace & Peace,