10 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT LOTTIE MOON:

1. Lottie was born in Virginia on December 12, 1840.
2. Her name was Charlotte Digges Moon, but everyone called her “Lottie.”
3. She was 4’9” tall.
4. Before she became a Christian while in high school, Lottie missed required chapel 26 times.
5. Lottie loved to pull pranks on others. Once, when asked what the “D” stood for in her middle name, she replied, “Devil.”
6. Lottie was appointed to China as a missionary at age 33 and served there 39 years, primarily in Tengchow and Pingtu.
7. She wore Chinese clothes and lived like her Chinese neighbors.
8. Lottie had several nicknames in China—foreign devil, foreign lady teacher, heavenly book visitor, and the cookie maker. (Lottie baked cookies to win the hearts of the children and families who were frightened of her.)
9. Lottie led in the campaign to end the practice of bound feet. The Chinese believed small feet made a woman more beautiful, so girls’ feet were bound tightly with cloth. Girls with bound feet could hardly walk, and infections, gangrene, and even death were common side effects of this practice.
10. In 1912 at the end of her career, China experienced famine, flood, and war. As her friends in China staved, Lottie stopped eating and gave all her food away. When her friends realized the depth of her sickness, they put her on a boat to return to the United States. Lottie died on Christmas Eve while en route to the U.S.

The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is an annual offering collected by Southern Baptists to support international missions. The offering was officially named in 1918 by Women’s Missionary Union in honor of the missionary to China who urged churches to start it and give sacrificially.