Annie Armstrong
If you have spent any amount of time within a Southern Baptist church it is very likely you have heard the names of two women who helped to change the face and nature of how missions work is done. Charlotte “Lottie” Diggs Moon made the bold decision to set aside her life of comfort, tradition, and status for the sole mission of bringing Christ to the people of China. Each year at Christmas Southern Baptist congregations take up an offering collection that is designated for the international missionaries that are sent out by the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board. Through this offering as well as other specially designated funds the missionaries on the international mission field are fully funded and are given the opportunity to pour their lives into the mission God has called them to without having to worry about coming home and raising their own funds.
Another woman that Southern Baptist’s focus on is Annie Armstrong.
Annie Walker Armstrong was born in 1850, just ten years after Lottie Moon. She professed faith in Christ at the age of 19 and devoted herself to the support of mission work around the world. While Annie did not leave the country to bring Christ to those abroad as Lottie did, she did find herself devoted to mission work here on North American soil. Annie’s heart for mission work, her letter writing and fund raising campaigns, and her ability to speak to a group of people ultimately led to her becoming a co-founder and first corresponding secretary for the Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) in 1888.
Annie Armstrong, through the establishment of the WMU and her letter writing campaign collected the first Christmas Offering for international missions, a total of $2,833.49 that was sent to Lottie Moon to aid in the mission work she was doing in China. Throughout Annie’s time as the head of the WMU she traveled extensively, all on her own dime, never taking a salary from the organization. Her travels put her in the path of missionaries all through the United States where Annie would hear their stories, take those stories back to congregations and share the ways they could continue to support those doing the hard work.
In 1906 Annie stepped down as the head of the WMU, but she remained faithful and active to her devotion to mission work as she served in her local church in Baltimore, MD. In December of 1938, the same year the WMU celebrated it’s 50th anniversary as an organization, Annie Armstrong celebrated her own homegoing and was embraced by the arms of Jesus. Although the Easter offering had been established in 1895, the Women’s Missionary Union recognized and honored Annie’s lifetime of work and dedication to missions by naming the offering taken up for home missions in her honor in 1934, just four years before she died.
Each March-April Southern Baptists now come together and collect offering monies to be used for North American Missions through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. Just as the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is used to help international missionaries do the work God has called them to do in countries all around the world, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering helps to provide funs for North American Missionaries supported and endorsed by the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board. These are the missionaries who are planting new churches in our densely packed urban areas, missionaries who are working hard to replant/revitalize dying churches, and sending the next generation of called individuals into the mission field on summer trips to aid in the work that is being done.
So this year, as you gather for Easter to celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, take some time to pray for the missionaries scattered throughout North America and consider donating to this special offering so that they may continue to do the work God has called them to without the stress of paying the bills, putting food on the table, or wondering how the ministry will get off the ground.
For more information about the Annie Armstrong Easter offering or to donate online visit: https://www.anniearmstrong.com/