Spotlight: Church of Christ planted in Nashville … Zimbabwe

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GWERU, Zimbabwe — “Grace, peace, and love to you and the brethren there on behalf of all of us here at
Nashville!”

That sounds like a message from a U.S. church to one of its mission points in rural Africa. It’s not.

It is the intro of a newsletter from Ishmael Mutichu in the southern African nation of Zimbabwe. He ministers for a “young and budding congregation in the bustling city of Gweru,” he told The Christian Chronicle. The church meets in a medium-density suburb known as Nashville, across the street from “the famous Nashville High School,” he said.

Thus the name: Nashville Church of Christ.

Mutichu and his wife visit and study the Bible with prospective Christians and with those who have fallen away from the church, encouraging them “to be steadfast in faith regardless of all the hardship the churches now face because of the backsliding economy, insecurity and high cost of all things in the country,” he said.

They also support a congregation in nearby Shurugwi and its preacher, Michael Kasimu. Kasimu and his wife, Samandra, recently graduated from Bear Valley Bible Institute’s extension school in Zimbabwe.

“Jesus said, ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,’” Mutichu said, quoting the Great Commission from Matthew 28.

“Nashville,” he added, “is part of the answer to this commission.”

Filed under: Africa missions Bear Valley Bible Institute Gweru International Ishmael Mutichu Michael Kasimu Nashville Church of Christ News Top Stories Zimbabwe