Women’s History Month: Don’t Forget Lottie Moon

If you’re ever in Fort Worth, Texas, plan to stop by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) to view the school’s new Lottie Moon exhibit.

From the red roof tiles reclaimed from Moon’s Pingtu home to her handwritten letters and small personal treasures, there is much to reflect on regarding the life of a 4-foot-3-inch tall Virginia lady who gave her all to spread the Gospel throughout North China. The brief detour will be well spent.

On February 28, I visited the SWBTS campus for the Great Ideas 2018 conference and made time to visit the Moon exhibit. As I read Moon’s transcribed letters, I happened to overhear two young Southern Baptist women perusing the displays.

“I remember making her tea cookies as a GA,” one of the young women exclaimed. The other nodded in agreement. My eavesdropping made it clear that they did not know much more about the missionary. But as they read on, the two young women learned Lottie Moon’s mission extended far beyond her tea cookie recipe.

For those of you, like me, who did not grow up a Southern Baptist, “GA” stands for Girls in Action. From what I understand, it was a program on Wednesday nights for girls in first through sixth grade. Much like a “Missionette” to us 1990s Assembly of God kids.

So if you didn’t grow up Southern Baptist making Lottie Moon tea cookies or giving to the international mission Christmas offering commemorating her name, then you probably haven’t heard much of her remarkable story.

Even the young Southern Baptist women (and men) I quiz on the issue, don’t know the depths of Moon’s work as a missionary. What a shame.

Like the two young women fascinated by the SWBTS exhibit, younger Southern Baptist folks are stunned when I tell them about how Lottie broke off a relationship with a man she loved because he was drifting away from orthodox Christian teaching,  that she helped the Foreign Mission Board implement furloughs for the welfare of missionaries, or how she helped young Chinese girls escape prostitution and sex trafficking, and that she died of malnutrition in 1912 during a famine because she gave everything she had to her Chinese neighbors.

Mhmm. And these are just a few facts about her life.

Lottie Moon’s legacy is not only for Southern Baptists. Every Christian woman and man can see what it looks like to pick up your cross and follow Jesus through her inspiring story.

In a letter to the Woman’s Missionary Union’s Annie Armstrong dated January 9, 1889, Moon wrote:

Please say to the new missionaries that they are coming to a life of hardship, responsibility & constant self denial. They must live, the greater part of the time, in Chinese houses, in close contact with people. They will be alone in the interior & will need to be strong & courageous.

SWBTS is ensuring a bit of Moon’s extraordinary story is told to the Southern Baptist students that walk past its Lottie Moon exhibit in the center of Mathena Hall. I’m so thankful.

Lottie Moon’s legacy has much to teach us about following Jesus. I hope to help tell her story. Stay tuned…