Lately I haven't shared any of the Christian biographies that I had wanted to do. I was able to find this picture of Lottie.
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| Charlotte "Lottie" Diggs Moon. |
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Charlotte "Lottie" Diggs Moon was born in Virginia on December 12, 1840. She was the third of seven homeschooled children. (One reason why I like her!) Her mother was a strong Christian who taught her children of her faith but Lottie did not become in her early years. When in college she always avoided the chapel. Lottie was very smart but also a practical joker. Her "real" story begins when some of her friends invited her to a revival meeting about missions. She only went because she wanted to hang out with her friends. Little did Lottie know that this meeting would change her life forever. The Lord spoke so deeply to her that night, that she became a Christian and desired to spread the gospel. In preparation for this goal, she studied Greek, Latin, and three other languages so that she fluently spoke them. For a time she was a pastor's assistant to earn money to become a missionary. She also taught in a school for girls. Now, the question was, where did God want her to go? Lottie committed herself to God's leading and went to China to join her missionary sister. Lottie never expected that she would return to America. It took twenty-five days to travel by ship to Japan, and for most of that time she was seasick. After she finally reached China, she traveled 55 miles by land until she reached her destination in a very populated area. She hired someone to teach her Chinese and worked very hard until she had it mastered. She did her best to make contact with the Chinese people by baking cookies for the children and visiting with the people. Very slowly she began to gain their trust. Then her sister got sick so they both returned home. Her sister would eventually recover but would be incapable traveling back to China. Later, Lottie returned to China. Lottie set out right away by beginning a girls' school. Lottie was very bothered by the foot binding process and determined to stop it. Very slowly she accomplished this. Her next task was to travel inland to more remote places, despite the danger. She was able to build many missions thanks to donations from people and churches in the United States. Lottie did her best to live like the Chinese yet never had a family or married. Toward the end of her life, a large famine swept China. Lottie's mind began to deteriorate and she was sent home. Sadly, she never made it home. Charlotte Diggs Moon died at sea on December 24, 1912.
I personally found her story very moving. When doing research for this post I came across a few sites that I would recommend you read if you are interested in learning more about Lottie. I especially recommend the first site, it is rather short and written as though by Lottie herself.
http://www.baptistheritage.org/StoriesforKids/TheStoryofLottieMoon/tabid/259/Default.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lottie_Moon
http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/m/moon-charlotte-diggs.php
