A Mission to the World

At the end of the year, for most Southern Baptist Churches, there is a celebration of the work in Foreign Missions. It is a time to reflect on the call by Jesus to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. At this time of the year a certain, special, person comes to mind regarding the works of our Foreign Missions Program. That person is Charlotte Diggs Moon.

At many points in history, a movement of worldwide promotions may occur. One such movement is that which began at the call of Jesus to go into ALL the world and declare the Good news of Salvation through His sacrificial work on the cross.

Jesus told His disciples "Upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell will never prevail against it". Jesus was, in essence, laying a Foundation upon which His Church would be constructed.

A special young Virginia girl was born on December 12, 1840 destined to be a servant of Christ who would "shake the world" in building upon Jesus' foundation to the fulfillment of Christs' command.

Charlotte Diggs Moon would be the one who opened up the East to hear and receive the gospel in a greater proportion than ever before. Charlotte Diggs "Lottie" Moon was born into a devout Christian home. Her life’s work would prove to be one of the greatest evangelical works of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty first centuries.

In 1858 John Broadus, the founder of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary happened to be holding revival services on that campus. It was in one of those meetings that Lottie came to know Jesus as her personal savior.

It was very important to the Moon family that a good education be provided to their children and so Lottie completed her college education and became a teacher. She and her friend Anna Stafford opened Cartersville Female High School in 1871 in Cartersville, Georgia. While there she joined the First Baptist Church and ministered to the impoverished families of Bartow County, Georgia. It would seem as though the Lord was working through Lottie early on to prepare for her to lay stones upon the foundation of His Church by reaching countless thousands, no, millions of people with the gospel of Christs by way of the sharing the Good News in word and service.

By this short introduction of the life of Charlotte Diggs "Lottie" Moon we will gain great insights into the Lottie Moon offering we receive each year to continue laying stones upon His foundation.

TO BE CONTINUED

Dr. J.M. Ashburn, Th.D.