Missions

Missions

Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church

A church that supports World Wide Missions. Fulfilling the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18 - 20) by sending forth messengers of the Gospel is very important to Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church. Much of our annual budget supports home and foreign Mission projects such as the SBC Cooperative Program, Campus Crusade for Christ, Christian Radio Stations, the Gideon's, Culpeper Pregnancy Center and much more.

Each year, we honor the life and work of Annie Walker Armstrong (1850-1938) when we give to the annual offering for home missions named after her. As a tireless servant of God and a contagious advocate and supporter of mission efforts throughout the world, Annie Armstrong led women to unite in mission endeavors that ultimately led to the formation of Woman’s Missionary Union, for which she served as the first corresponding secretary.

Annie believed in Christ with all her heart, but it was her hands that expressed that belief in tangible ways. She spent a great amount of time typing and handwriting letters in support of missions. Many of these letters were quite lengthy and all were filled with conviction that more could and should be done in our mission efforts. In 1893 alone, she wrote almost 18,000 letters! Annie also never hesitated to use her hands to reach out to hug a child or distribute food and clothing and the Word of God to those in need. Her hands held her own Bible as she studied to know how best to share God’s love with others. And, most important, Annie was a woman of prayer, folding her hands in prayer to intercede for the missionaries and for those they were helping discover Christ.

Annie rallied churches to give more, pray more, and do more for reaching people for Christ. As we continue to unite to make her vision a reality in North America today, we can be confident that her legacy will also be ours.

Baptist History and Heritage Brochure: Annie Armstrong: Shaper of Missions

WMU Biography of Annie Armstrong

A Day with Annie Armstrong

Maryland Women's Hall of Fame - Annie Armstrong

Southern Baptist Historical Commission -- Annie Armstrong

For further information on the life of Annie Armstrong, we suggest the following resources, available from Woman's Missionary Union or LifeWay Christian Stores.

Lottie Moon

Lottie Moon

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Lottie (Charlotte) Moon

(b. Viewmont, Albermarle County, Va., Dec. 12, 1840; d. Kobe, Japan, Dec. 24, 1912). Missionary in Tengchow and Pingtu, China, for nearly 40 years; instrumental in instigating first Christmas offering, 1888. She was educated at Virginia Female Seminary (later known as Hollins) and at Albermarle Female Institute, Charlottesville. She was converted in the spring of 1859 in a meeting by John Albert Broadus, then pastor at Charlottesville. She taught at Danville, Ky., and Cartersville, Ga. She volunteered for missionary service in Feb., 1873, in response to a sermon on the text, "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest," and she was appointed to China, July 7, 1873, by the Foreign Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention. In 1888 she wrote to the Baptist women of the South, pleading for reinforcements. The first Christmas offering in 1888 provided three additional missionaries. She spent 14 years in China before taking her first regular furlough. Toward the end of her days, she suffered with her Chinese people in the terrible famine. She gave all she had. In the time of deepest trials she wrote, "I hope no missionary will be as lonely as I have been." Literally starving, she grew steadily weaker. Before Christmas, 1912, Cynthia Miller, faithful nurse, started back to America with Lottie Moon; death came to the frail missionary, Christmas Eve, while the ship was at harbor in Kobe, Japan. The present Christmas offering for foreign missions, sponsored by the W.M.U., is named for Lottie Moon.

Biographical Sources:
Allen, Catherine. The New Lottie Moon Story, 1980.
Lawrence, Una Roberts. Lottie Moon, 1927.
"Lottie Moon." Shapers of Southern Baptist Heritage pamphlet series. Southern Baptist Historical Society.

Archival sources in Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives.
Moon, Lottie. Missionary Correspondence. AR. 551-2.

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