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Missions Discipleship

3 LOTTIE MOON CHRISTMAS OFFERING PROJECTS FOR STUDENTS

December 2, 2019 /

Encourage your students to bring awareness to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (LMCO) this winter with one of the following ideas.

 

1. CHRISTMAS COOKIE CHALLENGE

Cookie Maker was one of Lottie Moon’s nicknames while she served as a missionary in China. Lottie baked cookies to win the hearts of the children and families who were frightened of her.

Plan a Christmas Cookie Challenge for your students. Better yet, help them plan it for themselves!

What You’ll Need

  • Students from your church and any friends they would like to invite. No baking experience needed.
  • A recipe! Challenge your students with Lottie Moon’s tea cake recipe!
  • One or more kitchens in which to bake and decorate, and adults to supervise. Consider dividing students into teams and sending them to work in different kitchens. You could use this as a way for others in your church to get to know your students better and for students to get to know their family of faith.
  • Ingredients. Your challenge could include the students shopping for the ingredients before going to someone’s home to bake and decorate.
  • Baking and decorating supplies.
  • Supplies to package cookies in small bags to be “sold” to church members for a gift to the LMCO.
  • Judges and a place for judging to take place (especially if the teams work in different locations). This could take place the same day as the challenge or the day after. For instance, if you conduct the challenge on a Saturday, have your students set up a Christmas Cookie Challenge display at your church for Sunday. At the display, church members and visitors could vote for best cookie decoration awards in a variety of categories and give a donation to receive a bag of cookies.

 

2. HELPING HANDS TO DECK THE HALLS

Over the course of her time in China, Lottie Moon dressed like the Chinese people and spoke Chinese. She was respectful of Chinese culture and gained their acceptance. Because of this, she was able to share God’s love with them.

Encourage your congregation to “rent” your students for a few hours during December to help decorate for Christmas or take down decorations after Christmas. All proceeds will go toward your church’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

What You’ll Need (and Need to Do)

  • Students from your church and any friends they would like to invite.
  • Flyers, emails, bulletin inserts, bulletin board display, or other forms of announcements for your church. Have your students create these! Include in the announcements a list of Christmastime chores that students will provide and dates and times students are available or how to contact students to arrange the day and time.
  • Have students develop a list of facts about Lottie Moon and the Christmas offering to share with individuals and families as they work.
  • Decide how you will handle “pro bono” work. Work with church staff to determine people (homebound, disabled, elderly) who need help but from whom you would not necessarily seek a donation. Consider having other church members give to the offering on behalf of these persons.

 

3. WRITE LIKE LOTTIE

Lottie Moon was eager to share about her experiences on the mission field. She wrote many letters to the Southern Baptist churches that were supportive of her work. She urged them to understand the plight of a missionary. She shared about the culture and the needs she recognized. She described missionary life. She also encouraged them to continue giving to missionaries and for they themselves to go on mission.

Have students write “Christmas letters” to the people in your church that explain what the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is and who Lottie Moon was, and encourage them to give to the offering. You could add this activity to a Christmas party for your students.

What You’ll Need (and Need to Do)

  • Students from your church and any friends they would like to invite.
  • Information about Lottie Moon, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, and why it’s important to support missionaries. Check out IMB’s Lottie Moon page here and IMB’s LMCO page here. Be sure to include information about your church’s LMCO goal, and how or when your church takes up the offering.
  • Stationery or other paper, envelops, stamps, address list.
  • Decide whether the letters will be handwritten or printed from a computer. If you print out the letters, be sure to have students sign the letters.
  • Have each student or groups of students draft letters. Include this or another quote from missionaries regarding the LMCO: “The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering has supported everything we have done on the mission field for over 26 years. Lottie Moon dollars bought the 4-wheel drive pickup that carried us in and out of the refugee camps. Lottie Moon funds also paid for the fuel!”—Burt and Susan Galvin (names changed), IMB personnel

 

Libby Quigg enjoys writing for WMU and teaching children to play guitar. Her husband, Jesse, is also a musician and teaches high school students. They homeschool their three kids—Veni, Ocean, and Atlas.