About 1950, Garnett Limani, a Malawian Preacher in the Jali Area, Zomba District, received a copy of a magazine from America named Gospel Tidings. We do not know how this magazine reached Malaŵi. Brother Limani worked with seven or eight congregations under the name “New Testament Church of Christ.” The editor of the magazine was G.B. Shelburne, Jr., a gospel preacher in Texas, USA.

Brother Limani corresponded with Brother Shelburne for several years and Brother Shelburne occasionally sent small amounts of financial help to Brother Limani’s churches. In 1956 W.J. Leach succeeded G.B. Shelburne, Jr. as editor of the Gospel Tidings and Brother Limani corresponded with Brother Leach as well. In about 1957 Brother Limani asked Brother Leach if missionaries could be sent to Malaŵi to help his churches. In 1958 the Ninth Street Church of Christ in Ballinger, Texas, sent an American preacher, Brother C.B. Head, to Malaŵi to investigate the need for missionaries. The next year Brother Head returned to the United States recommending that a permanent mission be established.

The Ballinger church agreed to sponsor a mission and chose Roland and Wanda Hayes and G.B. Shelburne, III, and his wife Ruth as missionaries to Malaŵi. The missionaries arrived in 1961 and purchased a 90-acre estate at Namikango near Thondwe in Southern Malaŵi. The estate was converted into a mission station. A Bible School was immediately opened, offering six courses a year over four years. Students could graduate on completion of all 24 courses. In future years, approx. 20 village Bible School centers would open where students could learn closer to their homes. The mission also operated a primary school near Jali and later opened a maternity clinic at the mission in 1974.

At the time Namikango Mission was established, there were a number of separate groups of Churches of Christ operating in Southern Malaŵi. Some of these groups gradually began working together with Namikango. These included a group of 25 congregations brought to Namikango by George Masangano before his death. Attendance at the Bible School and at training meetings grew rapidly. Presently Namikango is associated with over 1,000 local congregations in the Southern Region plus others in Central and Northern Malawi and Mozambique.

From its beginning Namikango has worked in close cooperation with Churches of Christ missionaries in the various regions of Malaŵi. Namikango has also cooperated with missionaries of the Independent Christian Churches, which come from the same roots in the American Restoration Movement. In Malawi, Namikango also has cooperates with several other Churches of Christ Bible schools, as well as with colleges, medical facilities, and NGO’s of other denominational backgrounds.

In recent years, Namikango has continued its efforts in training Christ centered leaders through leadership trainings and discipleship efforts. Biblical training will continue on campus through the new school, Discipleship Training Institute (DTI), as well launching a new model and curriculum in the villages.  And although its primary interest has always been the training of church leadership, Namikango has continued its educational and medical work and has encouraged local churches in Southern Malaŵi and Mozambique through various ministries: Namikango Maternity Clinic, Ntonda Primary School, HIV/Aids Prevention, Conservation Agriculture Training, Village Savings and Loans, and Women’s Development.