Your Story Hour

Guest (Male): Hey, sis! Dad, Mom, come on! Your story hour's on.

Narrator (Male): Presenting Your Story Hour, building for a better tomorrow.

Aunt Carole: Hi there, boys and girls. This is Aunt Carole.

Uncle Dan: And I'm Uncle Dan. Welcome to our program. I know that Aunt Carole has another exciting story all ready for us.

Aunt Carole: That I do, Uncle Dan. It's the second chapter of our story about Lottie Moon.

Uncle Dan: Now, as I remember from last time, Lottie, a very spirited young lady, grew up in a well-to-do family in Virginia and became well-educated, although in that era young women did not generally acquire a higher education.

Aunt Carole: Correct. And at the end of my last story, Lottie's youngest sister, Eddie, has just left to become a missionary in China, something which Lottie also aspired to do.

Uncle Dan: So, now what happens?

Aunt Carole: Well, Uncle Dan, let's find out in this chapter, which I call Lottie Moon: Woman of China.

Narrator (Male): Within a few months of receiving news of Eddie's departure for China, Lottie was making plans of her own to go as well. She began her travels West by first visiting older sister Ori, a physician, to learn basic medical skills and to say goodbye.

Ori: Oh, dear Lottie, will I ever see you again?

Lottie: Missionaries are expected to stay in the field until complete breakdown or death, Ori. Yet I go willingly to tell the Chinese people about Jesus.

Narrator (Male): Lottie then boarded a westbound train that would take her over the recently completed transcontinental rail lines to the West Coast.

Guest (Male): All aboard!

Narrator (Male): Then on September 1st, 1873, at San Francisco, Lottie boarded the sailing ship Costa Rica, which arrived at Shanghai, China on October 7th, 1873. She was met by Tarleton and Martha Crawford, with whom Eddie was staying in Tengchow.

Tarleton had business in Shanghai to complete before they could leave for their home in Tengchow, so Martha showed Lottie around Shanghai to allow her to begin absorbing some of China's culture.

Lottie: There are people everywhere, Martha. What a bustling place.

Martha: Oh, yes, especially here at the market where the farmers and merchants bring their wares.

Lottie: Oh, phew! What is that smell?

Martha: It's just the fish. Lots and lots of fish.

Guest (Male): You give me ten. Very good fish. Very fresh.

Lottie: Oh, my. Look, some of the women. They can hardly walk.

Martha: In China, it's expected that a woman will have her feet bound. It's a status symbol of sorts. Women are very restricted and expected to stay inside their compounds, so only the very poorest women do their own shopping, or they become servants who run errands, and they're the only ones who may have escaped the practice of foot binding.

Lottie: But isn't it painful?

Martha: Very painful, especially for the little girls. You see, they start binding a girl's feet when she's only four or five years old. Little by little, all of the toes except the big toe are pulled back, down, and under the foot until their bones break.

Lottie: Oh, no.

Martha: Yes, tiny feet, broken and deformed as we see it, are much desired. And sometimes, if infection sets in, the girls die.

Lottie: Oh, what a terrible practice. How unspeakably cruel.

Martha: Many things are different here, Lottie. The customs, the food, the mode of dress.

Lottie: So I see. The women wear tunics and pants instead of dresses. The methods of transportation: donkeys, sedan chairs carried by coolies, and those whatever they are.

Martha: Shensi. They look a little like tiny covered wagons, don't they?

Lottie: Yes, except they don't have wheels, just poles fastened to the sides, and the poles are strapped to mules front and back. It looks as if they might be comfortable, at least.

Martha: Not at all. After much of a trip, you come out very bruised and very sore. You'll find out soon enough.

Lottie: I guess I have much to learn, Martha. Not the least of which is the language.

Martha: I hear you're very good with languages.

Lottie: I can speak several: Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, and Hebrew. I can only read that, not speak it. But those languages are different. Chinese is well...

Martha: Tonal. Yes, exactly. The tone of voice high or low changes the word. Your sister, Edmonia, I guess you call her Eddie...

Lottie: Mm-hm.

Martha: She learned very quickly, and I have every reason to believe that you will as well.

Narrator (Male): And in fact, once in Tengchow, Lottie did begin learning Chinese quickly. She helped Eddie as she taught in her boys' school and discovered that the students, out of respect to their teacher, did not face her when reciting, but turned to the wall instead.

And she learned that respect was not always practiced by the people on the street who, suspicious of strangers from the West, sometimes called out hateful taunts.

Guest (Male): You foreign devils, we kill you. You not teach school. You kidnap children, sell as slaves. We know you eat eyeballs of children. Go home!

Narrator (Male): She also discovered that although Eddie had learned the language well and was working diligently in Tengchow, she was having difficulty adjusting to the radically different lifestyle.

Eddie: Oh, how I wish the people back home knew how hard life is for us here, Lottie. To be cut off from every friend, every comfort, the constant danger, the threats.

Did you know the neighbors even think we are Tarleton Crawford's second and third wives just because we are staying in the Crawford's home? Oh, and did I tell you about the soldiers? They came tromping by, back and forth, back and forth, just to intimidate us, I'm sure.

Narrator (Male): And Lottie learned even more of the cultural differences. Fortunately, they were working in a treaty port area where British law was observed and where foreigners were somewhat protected.

Farther inland, away from the treaty port cities, conditions could be much more threatening. Very few women ever attended church services, and when they did, they were separated from the men by a curtain or wall running down the center of the audience.

Nevertheless, the two sisters, along with their limited group of fellow missionaries, struggled on month after month and very slowly began to see results. Then one day, Mrs. Lane, the Chinese woman who had children in the mission school in Tengchow, visited her home village nearby and began to share the good news about Jesus.

The response to her words was so overwhelming that she sent back word that she desperately needed help. Martha Crawford was much encouraged.

Martha: Tarleton and I have worked so hard for so long and with so little in the way of results. And now, oh Lottie, we must leave immediately.

Narrator (Male): Once in Mrs. Lane's village, Martha, Lottie, and Eddie found a crowd eager to know more about the Bible. Lottie and Eddie discovered that women had a bit more freedom here in the countryside than in the city, and because of their efforts, the first-ever Christian church service was held in the village that weekend.

On their way back to Tengchow in their open sedan chairs, Lottie and Eddie were joyous in spite of the raw, bitterly cold wind.

Lottie: Brrr, Eddie, cold just cuts through a person, doesn't it?

Eddie: Oh, yes. But I know it's nothing to the warmth in our hearts. What an encouraging experience.

Lottie: Yes, very. Even though we as women are not allowed to preach, we were able to help and make friends with the village women and tell them about Jesus.

Eddie: And teach songs to the children. Eddie, are you all right?

Lottie: Yes. No. I'm just so cold.

Narrator (Male): In fact, from that moment on, Eddie's health never improved. Lottie carried on, however, and with another missionary, Sally Holmes, bravely ventured on horseback to outlying villages around Tengchow.

Once they even found accommodations in a priest's home on an abandoned temple compound surrounded by idols. They set up operations on a kang, a large raised platform.

Sally Holmes: You see, Lottie, the heat from the small fire in the adjoining room is piped under the kang. Life in the typical Chinese household revolves around their brick or earthen kang. It's where they sit and eat and sleep.

Lottie: Well, it's certainly not very soft, but it is somewhat warm, thankfully.

Sally Holmes: And in the evening, it's a good place for our guests to gather if they come to hear about Jesus.

Narrator (Male): Eleven difficult days later, after visiting and sharing Jesus in 44 villages, Sally and Lottie returned to Tengchow. Eddie had not improved, and through the next months, gradually descended into both physical and emotional collapse.

Soon it became evident that Eddie would have to return home. Lottie accompanied her and on December 22nd, 1876, just before Christmas, the sisters arrived at Viewmont.

Lottie related the hardships of mission life to the mission board to explain why the experience broke the mental and physical health of so many of her fellow missionaries, and suggested that workers be allowed to return home every ten years to rest.

One year later, she was back in Tengchow where, in spite of many difficulties, she set about opening and operating a school for young girls.

Martha: Oh, there you are, Lottie. Writing another letter, I see.

Lottie: Well, yes, Martha, another one to the mission board chairman, Mr. Tupper.

Martha: Yes, no one back home can even imagine what we're up against. Tarleton says the same thing. He's constantly upset, grumpy even, about the hardships. He says the mission board doesn't understand anything and he wants to pull away from their authority and operate independently.

Lottie: Well, I can understand that, but we are under their support and directives, and Mr. Tupper is quite sympathetic. Anyway, I'm writing about the school. I now have 13 students.

Martha: I'm surprised you have even that many. Girls are promised in marriage so early in life, sometimes even at birth.

Lottie: I know, and once they're actually married, they're almost completely under the thumb of their mother-in-law. And with their feet bound, they're practically prisoners in their own homes.

Martha: So why educate them? That's what everyone thinks.

Lottie: And yet I know education is the key. Unfortunately...

Martha: What?

Lottie: Well, the only girls I've been able to entice to come to school are the poorest of the poor. Some of them have come just to escape living on the street.

Martha: So who is paying for them? Well... I see. You are. Schooling, housing, food, everything?

Lottie: They need a chance, Martha. And maybe eventually, hopefully, some of the girls from richer families will be attracted to the school too. That could give us an opportunity to reach their families with the gospel as well.

Narrator (Male): In the winter of 1878, Lottie and Sally Holmes were again traveling to outlying villages, braving the bitter cold and biting wind as they rode in their sedan chairs.

In one village, a curious group of children soon crowded around them with the usual questions.

Guest (Female): How old you are?

Guest (Male): Why you wear funny clothes?

Guest (Female): You have children?

Guest (Male): Why your mother-in-law let you come?

Narrator (Male): By patiently answering all their questions and allowing the gathering people to touch and giggle over their Western-style clothing, the two missionaries were also able to tell them about Jesus.

That evening, they were given accommodations in one of the homes for the night, a very small room with the typical dirt floor, sooty walls, paper-covered window, and a kang. Soon, however, the room was crowded with curious women and children.

Guest (Female): Please, you read to us?

Guest (Female): We want to hear heavenly words.

Guest (Male): Please, you give us heavenly books, please?

Uncle Dan: In just a few seconds, Aunt Carole will finish her story. But first, we'd like to invite you to visit our website at yourstoryhour.org. That's yourstoryhour, all one word, .org.

Aunt Carole: You'll find interesting and fun things to do on the website. There's Clubhouse magazine, which you can read online or print out.

Uncle Dan: There are podcasts you can listen to, comments from other listeners that you can read. You can sign up for Adventures in the Holy Bible. That's our free Bible course. By the way, kids really enjoy it and you can do all the adventures right there online.

Aunt Carole: The adventures are designed especially for kids nine years old and older, which means that even you adults are eligible to receive them if you'd like.

Uncle Dan: And quite a few adults tell us they love the adventures.

Aunt Carole: So as you can see, there are lots of things just waiting for all of you at yourstoryhour.org. And now...

Uncle Dan: Oh, I know, Aunt Carole. We're all eager to hear the conclusion of your story: Lottie Moon: Woman of China.

Narrator (Male): By the end of the following day, hundreds of villagers had come to see the two missionaries with the heavenly words and heavenly books. They continually touched the strange clothing of these heavenly people and asked countless personal questions, which was common according to Chinese custom.

But once they felt acquainted by having their curiosity satisfied, many became receptive to learn about Jesus. Lottie realized that her biggest challenge was conquering her dislike of being endlessly touched and questioned in order to effectively engage in evangelism.

Yet she desperately wanted to tell the Chinese people, steeped in ancestor and idol worship, about the true God and His love for them. She continued to operate her school and constantly toured the villages, and she continued to write to the mission board to educate the people back home, people who supposed that missionaries must no longer be facing hardships.

Lottie: If anyone fancies sleeping on brick beds with the stench of the stable yard being within three feet of your door, or if anyone thinks that the constant risk of exposure to smallpox and other contagious diseases is just the most charming thing in life, I shall emphatically differ with them. A few days of roughing it as we ladies do habitually will convince the most skeptical.

Narrator (Male): In fact, difficult conditions continued to wear down the vitality of those who were tirelessly working to spread the gospel. Tarleton Crawford suffered a breakdown and returned for a time to the US. Sally Holmes also had to leave for health reasons, as did many others through the months and years, and many others paid the ultimate price.

After Sally left, Lottie moved into her compound, which she transformed into somewhat comfortable headquarters for herself and newly arrived missionaries. It soon became known as Little Crossroads.

Later in 1885, Lottie went farther south for a while to the city of Pingtu to open a new mission station. Pingtu was far from a treaty port area and thus a more dangerous region. Mr. and Mrs. Chow, Chinese Christians from Tengchow, went along to help. Once there, Lottie decided on a new strategy to make friends.

Lottie: Ah, that fire feels good.

Mrs. Chow: Miss Moon, I smell something very, very good.

Lottie: Ha-ha. It's my secret weapon, Mrs. Chow: sugar cookies, my family recipe. No one can resist them for very long.

Mrs. Chow: You make for children?

Lottie: Oh, children, adults, anyone. It's a better way to arouse interest quickly if the people come to me instead of my going to them.

Mrs. Chow: I see.

Lottie: I'll just slide the cookies off onto a plate, and now let's go outside and see if my plan will work. And look, we already have a curious crowd of children.

Mrs. Chow: Yes, but they afraid. Your cookies, they think is poison.

Lottie: Oh, the cookies will win them over. You'll see. Ah, so. I see first brave customer. I see little hand reach for cookie.

Narrator (Male): As the Pingtu winter set in, Lottie finally decided to have Chinese-style clothing made for herself. She was amazed at how much warmer it was than her American clothing. And better yet, by pulling her hair back Chinese style and wearing her Chinese outfit, she was much more accepted by the people.

From that time on, she chose to wear traditional Chinese clothing. Summer found her back at Little Crossroads in Tengchow for a rest. But alas, it was not to be. Of the eight missionaries which the mission board had sent to help over the past few years, only one remained.

That meant there was no time for Lottie to relax. Obviously, more help was needed.

Lottie: Hmm, I wonder. I know the Methodist missionaries are better off financially, and that's because of their women members back home. They've set aside the week before Christmas to pray and then take a Christmas offering for missions.

Oh, and why couldn't our women's societies do the very same thing? If there were more money available, more missionaries could be sent to help.

Narrator (Male): Lottie lost no time in writing to the Baptist foreign mission journal with that very suggestion. In the meantime, she would just have to do the best she could, even though the mission board had finally granted her a furlough. But how could she leave, especially when several messengers arrived on her doorstep?

Guest (Male): Please, you come? Shaling only ten miles.

Guest (Male): Dan Hobong, he hear from Mr. Crawford about Jesus' way. You come, teach more. Many people ready. They want to learn about Jesus who make sins go away.

Narrator (Male): And so Lottie postponed her trip home and went to Shaling instead. Soon she sent for Martha Crawford to join her, and the two women spent 14 hours a day teaching Dan Hobong's eager group of listeners about the heavenly way.

20 of the 50 families in the village formed the nucleus of the Shaling believers. And how they loved Lottie for sharing Jesus with them.

Guest (Male): Oh, I ever thank you. You bring me good news of salvation.

Narrator (Male): Months later, Dan Hobong would be tortured for his faith, and Lottie would literally place herself between him and his attackers.

Lottie: You'll have to kill me first! Jesus gave Himself for us, now I am ready to die for Him!

Narrator (Male): Her selfless action prevented disaster, and decades later, the women of the village would point to the very spot where Miss Moon sat day in and day out as she taught them about Jesus.

Once back in Pingtu, Lottie was burdened by even more responsibilities and difficulties. She urgently wrote to the mission board.

Lottie: We are so weak. If we are not reinforced heavily, disaster will follow. Some of us may break down or die.

Narrator (Male): Behind the scenes, help was in process, however. Lottie's pleas for a Christmas offering had resulted in valiant efforts by the Baptist Women's Missionary Union, and more than $3,000 had been raised.

Already the name Lottie Moon was on many lips back in the States, and the offering was enough to finance sending three more missionaries to help shoulder the load. Meanwhile, newly baptized Chinese members continued to suffer.

Martha: Oh, Lottie, did you hear? A new Christian bride was brutally killed because she wouldn't worship the family ancestors and idols. Murdered by her mother-in-law.

Guest (Male): You foreign devils, you die! Go home!

Lottie: You must be strong, Nik Kin. I know you have been beaten, spat upon, locked away, but God will never leave you.

Narrator (Male): And yes, there were victories too.

Lottie: Nik Kin, you're free!

Nik Kin: Ah, Miss Moon, yes, no longer locked in storage room.

Lottie: Oh, what happened?

Nik Kin: Relative's hire nephew Li Shoting read Bible to me. He Confucius scholar. He wanted show me I wrong. So he read and read. Now he Christian too.

Lottie: What? Why, that's wonderful!

Narrator (Male): Li Shoting not only became a Christian but a true missionary to his own country, eventually baptizing more than 10,000 people. However, for now, once the new missionaries from the States were in place and trained, Lottie was finally able to leave on furlough, arriving home completely exhausted, 13 years after her last visit.

After resting for six months to regain her strength, Lottie toured, speaking at Southern Baptist women's groups, telling them of the difficult conditions in China, yet at the same time expressing her respect for the Chinese people.

Lottie: When I first left America as a missionary, I viewed the Chinese as a heathen people. But I have grown to admire and to love them. Please join me in praying that the Chinese will become Christians.

Narrator (Male): By the time Lottie returned to China later in 1893, Tarleton Crawford was back from the States and had indeed set up his own organization, pulling some of his fellow missionaries with him and thus thinning the ranks of those working with Lottie.

Throughout the following years, Lottie diligently served in a variety of ways, regularly working from sunup to sundown. She willingly cut her meager salary since the mission board was in debt, and later agreed to loan them her own money.

She seemed to be everywhere: setting up schools, visiting surrounding villages, encouraging other missionaries, helping as needed at the mission hospital in Hwang-Hsien, shepherding the work in Pingtu, Shaling, and elsewhere, and becoming very well-known for her kindness and generosity to the people.

Guest (Male): There is Lottie Moon, see. She give food to beggar.

Guest (Male): I see. I see how she love us.

Narrator (Male): And Lottie persevered through even more troubled times. First, war between Japan and China when several missionaries were beheaded, and later during the Boxer Rebellion.

The Boxers were a militant group of men who wanted to restore what they felt was China's golden age by destroying all Western influences. That meant big trouble for the Chinese Christians.

Guest (Male): Ah, Miss Moon, Magistrate Wai Sung arrest 13 Christian, falsely accuse of robbery. Soldiers tie men's cues to horse saddles and drag them.

Lottie: They were dragged by their pigtails?

Guest (Male): All way from Laizhou to Laizhou Fu.

Lottie: Are they still alive?

Guest (Male): Still alive. You come, please. Help us.

Narrator (Male): Although traveling away from the port treaty city at such a time was extremely dangerous, Lottie hired an official-looking shensi and borrowed fancy Chinese clothes from a friendly local official.

Thus dressed, with her hair in a pigtail, she sat imperiously in the shensi, hoping to pass for a traveling businessman. Arriving in Pingtu, she was warmly welcomed by the Christians but had to leave soon since her presence placed them in even greater danger.

Many Christians and foreigners were killed, and finally, she had to evacuate to Japan. The toll was heavy. More than 32,000 Christians and 230 Christian missionaries were slaughtered during the Boxer Rebellion. Yet their blood paved the way for a great harvest.

Guest (Male): Christians die with dignity, die with faith. We won't be same. We want know about strong power too. You tell us, please, about heavenly way.

Narrator (Male): After the following long and difficult ten years, Lottie returned to the States for another furlough. Seeing the toll that years had taken on her, people pleaded with her not to return to China.

But Lottie knew that the Chinese people had become her people and China had become her true home. She arrived back on China's soil early in 1904, and through the following years continued to teach and minister to the people.

Little Crossroads became a hub for not only missionaries but also a respite for destitute Chinese people. When a devastating famine struck in 1910, followed by a sweeping plague and a far-reaching revolution, Lottie's days were filled with cooking and caring for the poor and starving.

In fact, it wasn't immediately obvious, even to her closest friends, just how self-sacrificing were her every thought and action.

Guest (Male): Have you really looked at her? She's just skin and bone.

Guest (Male): You're right. Look there. She's giving her own meal to that child in the courtyard. She's been starving herself to feed others.

Narrator (Male): It was true. By then, Lottie weighed only 50 pounds. Soon her strength and reason collapsed, and fellow missionaries lovingly arranged for her to return home.

They carried her onto the ship Manchuria, headed back to the United States by way of Japan. In port at Kobe, Japan, on Christmas Eve, 1912, she roused briefly, whispering the words of the song she had taught to so many of her beloved Chinese people.

Lottie: We are weak, but He is strong.

Narrator (Male): And then Lottie Moon breathed her last. Her life, her mission, her sacrifice, her perseverance, her generosity, and her love for the Chinese people have now in years following become legendary.

The spirited little girl who had been disillusioned about Christianity and even scoffed at the idea of mission service had, through a lifetime of selfless labor, become one of the world's best-known and most beloved missionaries of them all.

Uncle Dan: My, my, Aunt Carole, what a wonderful woman she was.

Aunt Carole: Yes, Uncle Dan, and her gift to the world just keeps on giving. Every year, the Lottie Moon Christmas offering for missions is still received, and over the years has raised more than one and a half billion dollars.

Uncle Dan: Wonderful.

Aunt Carole: It funds about half of the entire Southern Baptist budget for missions.

Uncle Dan: Absolutely amazing. And it just shows what a difference one very dedicated person can make.

Aunt Carole: Very true. And now...

Uncle Dan: Oh, yes, I know, Aunt Carole. Unfortunately, it's time to go.

Aunt Carole: But we hope you'll come visit us this week on our website.

Uncle Dan: Remember, that's at yourstoryhour.org.

Aunt Carole: And that you'll be back right here next time for another exciting story.

Narrator (Male): This has been Your Story Hour, building for a better tomorrow.

Aunt Carole: This is Aunt Carole.

Uncle Dan: And Uncle Dan saying...

Aunt Carole & Uncle Dan: Goodbye everyone! See you again next time.