(b. Viewmont, Albermarle County, Va., Dec. 12, 1840; d. Kobe,Japan, Dec. 24, 1912). Missionary in Tengchow and Pingtu, China, for nearly 40 years; instrumental in instigating first Christmas offering, 1888. She was educated at Female Seminary at Botetourt Springs (later known as Hollins) and at Albermarle Female Institute, Charlottesville. She was converted in the spring of 1859 in a meeting by John Albert Broadus, then pastor at Charlottesville. She taught at Danville, Ky., and Cartersville, Ga. She volunteered for missionary service in Feb., 1873, in response to a sermon on the text, "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest," and she was appointed to China, July 7, 1873, by the Foreign Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention. In 1888 she wrote to the Baptist women of the South, pleading for reinforcements. The first Christmas offering in 1888 provided three additional missionaries. She spent 14 years in China before taking her first regular furlough. Toward the end of her days, she suffered with her Chinese people in the terrible famine. She gave all she had. In the time of deepest trials she wrote, "I hope no missionary will be as lonely as I have been." Literally starving, she grew steadily weaker. Before Christmas, 1912, Cynthia Miller, faithful nurse, started back to America with Lottie Moon; death came to the frail missionary, Christmas Eve, while the ship was at harbor in Kobe, Japan. The present Christmas offering for foreign missions, sponsored by the W.M.U., is named for Lottie Moon.
Biographical Sources:
Allen, Catherine. The New Lottie Moon Story, 1980.
Lawrence, Una Roberts. Lottie Moon, 1927.
"Lottie Moon." Shapers of Southern Baptist Heritage pamphlet series. Southern Baptist Historical Society.
Archival sources in Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives.
Moon, Lottie. Missionary Correspondence. AR. 551-2.
