Lottie Moon was a brave young woman who left home as a missionary in 1873 to go to China in hopes of sharing Christ with the people there. But the need was so great and her resources so small, she knew she’d never get the job done alone. She began to write letters to every Baptist agency and church she could think of, begging them to raise support and send more missionaries.There was little response at first. Resources were scarce. The American Civil War had just ended and most of her support came from the South, so recently devastated by the conflict. There was no money to be had. But never one to give up, and though tired of fighting the men who led the mission agencies, Lottie turned her attention to the women of the churches, asking them to pray and do what they could to raise funds. “Could they find a way to send just one more missionary next year?” she asked?
The Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) took up the challenge, raising over $3000 by the end of 1888 – enough to send not just one, but three missionaries to join her in China. Lottie was encouraged, but not done! She picked up her pen to issue another challenge, “Why not make every Christmas a time of sacrificial giving for the cause of the Christ? Why not pray and take an offering every year for the spread of Christ’s Gospel to the whole world?”

That was 1889. But the story of Lottie’s faithfulness doesn’t end there. Fully committed to the cause of Christ, she turned down a proposal of marriage from one of the rising theological stars of the day, Crawford H Toy, when she discovered that he had begun to embrace a theological liberalism that denied the inerrancy of Scripture. She later explained that “God had first claim on my life, and since the two conflicted, there could be no question about the result.” Remaining single, she continued her missionary service until 1912. War raged in China by then, and with it came disease and famine. Lottie wrote home, urgently begging churches to send help. People were starving in the streets.
The response came….but it was too little, and the need was so great. During the fall and winter of that year, other missionaries began to notice that “Miss Lottie’s” health was failing. She was growing thinner and weaker by the day. When her health finally broke, they found out why: Lottie had been giving what little money and food she had to feed the starving people around her. She was literally starving herself to death to minister Christ to them.

When it was clear she was too weak to go on, her missionary friends found a nurse for her and made hasty arrangements to send Lottie back to the States where it was hoped she would recover. But in God’s providence, it was not to be. On Christmas Eve, 1912 Lottie awoke from a coma on board a ship in Kobe Harbor, Japan. She began to whisper the words to the song, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!” And with those words, she passed out of this life into eternity with Jesus. Six years later in 1918, the Christmas Offering she inspired was re-named The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Since then Southern Baptists have understood that Christmas and Missions go hand in hand. Lottie’s offering has come to symbolizes that conviction, providing support for nearly 4000 full and part time missionaries all over the world.

What do Christmas and missions have to do with one another? In a word, everything! If you think about it, the Story of Christmas itself is a missionary story. Long before Lottie went to China, another was sent from heaven to give His life that we might be saved. His name was Jesus!

It is that same Spirit – the Spirit of Christ – that drove Lottie Moon. It’s that same Spirit that drives us to go, to give and to pray that His Name might be known to all nations! This year’s Rockport Christmas Missions Offering can be designated to The Lottie Moon Offering (for the IMB), HeartCry Missionary Society, Psalm 67, The Zizin Mission, or Michael Hawkins. Will you pray and consider how you and your family might give generously that those who’ve never heard may hear and come to know Christ as Savior and Lord?

Praying to see His Name declared to all nations!

Pastor Scott