About once every three weeks, this blog connects important
discussion topics for church youth and children’s groups to the story of a
famous Kentucky Christian from the past. This post considers Lottie Moon’s
life. Although she was raised in Virginia and spent much of her adult life in
Asia, Lottie Moon lived and taught school in Danville, Kentucky, where there is
an historical marker telling about her life.
Perhaps some of your students have been discouraged from moving towards what they really want to do, what they may even feel called to do. Perhaps they do not feel that there is an opportunity or an invitation for them because of where they live, how much money they have, what their parents want them to do, or because they struggle with learning a certain subject. Lottie Moon’s story may be a way to start a conversation with your students about these challenges. Perhaps what has been a discouragement can be leveraged to shift your students to a tenacity and courage that will help them to push through what has been set against their dreams.
Lottie Moon was boon in 1840 on a plantation in Virginia.
Her parents were wealthy slave owners. They were also Christians. Her cousin,
who lived nearby, told Lottie that she could never become a missionary because she was a girl, and girls could not be missionaries. Lottie didn’t want to be a missionary, anyway.
She was discouraged from believing the Christian message because she had seen
and heard so many Christians arguing. She decided that the Bible must be
nothing more than an old book of fairy tales. When she was in college, however, she
revisited her decision not to believe in Jesus Christ. She wrestled using
prayer and fasting to try to find what to believe. Finally, she had a personal
encounter with Jesus Christ. This convinced her to believe in Him. It also
shifted her career goals. She became a teacher which is how she came to live in
Danville, Kentucky. But teaching American children did not fulfil her. She
wanted to be a missionary to China where very few people had ever heard the
Christian message. This was difficult because most missions-sending
organizations agreed with her cousin that single women should not be sent out
as missionaries. Lottie Moon disagreed. She was passionate about reaching
Chinese women and girls. She persevered and was allowed to sail to China. There
she started schools for women and girls. She worked to change the Chinese tradition
of binding women’s feet so they could not walk fast or easily. She realized
that missionary work could not succeed without the participation of people who would fund the costs of sending the missionaries and financing the things they
needed to do their work. So, Lottie Moon wrote to Baptist churches throughout
the United States to encourage women’s groups and Sunday School classes to send
money for missionaries.
Ask your students to imagine what might not have happened if
Lottie Moon had never re-evaluated her early conclusion that Christianity is
like a fairy tale or if she never challenged her cousin’s insistence that girls
can’t be missionaries. See what obstacles
your students have encountered that keep them discouraged from making their dreams come true. Discuss whether
Lottie Moon’s example is helpful to inspire them to continue to move towards
what they feel called to do with their lives. Remembering Lottie Moon’s work to
stop the Chinese tradition of foot binding, brainstorm with your
students some things they would like to see changed about the world. Do any of these things have
the potential not to be addressed if one of your students remains too discouraged to pursue the passion that has been placed in their heart?
Save a spot on your calendar to bring your students to Paris,
Kentucky, where they will experience the Kentucky Faith & Public History
Education Project’s walking trail and re-imagined early nineteenth-century camp
meeting. This hands-on, outdoor experience will be opening to the public in
late summer 2021. Watch our Facebook Page and website for information.
©2021 by Lesley Barker
