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Summer 2010 | Volume 68, No. 4
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Southwestern Seminary preserves the legacy of Lottie Moon
by Benjamin Hawkins
Southwestern Seminary unveiled a shipment from China, Dec. 16, containing remnants from the Chinese home and belongings of Lottie Moon. Southwestern plans to display the items in order to preserve Moon’s legacy and edify Southern Baptists, who have collected a Christmas missions offering in the name of this devoted missionary since 1918.
President Paige Patterson, first lady Dorothy Patterson, and other seminary officials opened crates containing some of Moon’s furniture, such as chairs and a stove, as well as shingles, bricks, and other remains from her house in P’ingtu, China. The crates—carrying 35,000 pounds of material—also held antiques from 19th-century P’ingtu City that will help Baptists understand the Chinese culture and the people to whom Moon devoted her life. According to Patterson, the seminary is currently evaluating the best way for displaying Moon’s home and belongings.
Despite severe challenges, Lottie Moon immersed herself in the Chinese culture and succeeded in winning the respect of the Chinese people. For this reason, Patterson said, Southern Baptists named their Christmas missions offering after Lottie Moon in honor of her diligent and sacrificial service.
“Just imagine,” Patterson said, “how many people have come to Christ all over the world as a result of her witness. The incredible investment of millions of dollars given by Southern Baptists has accelerated the advance of world missions.”
The antique furniture and architectural structures that are now housed at Southwestern Seminary show the degree to which Lottie Moon immersed herself in this culture. In P’ingtu she rented her house—a four-room structure with dirt floors and clay shingles that covered a thatched roof and bare rafters—for $24 a year. She adapted one room as a kitchen, one as a storeroom, and another as a passageway. She lived, prayed, entertained guests, and rested in the fourth room, sleeping on a Chinese kang—a traditional bed made from mud bricks and covered with a thatched, straw mat. From here she set out into the city of P’ingtu, dressed in traditional Chinese garb, to share the love of Christ.
Patterson also expressed thanks to Southwestern alumnus Paul Kim, pastor of Berkland Baptist Church in Cambridge, Mass., and former president of the seminary’s National Alumni Association, and Louie Lu, president of Yangtze International Inc. Through their efforts, Lottie Moon’s belongings were purchased and transported by boat, train, and automobile to Southwestern Seminary, where they were received with excitement.
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