Missionary profile – Bishop Dave Chikosi

By Mercy Kambura

Bishop Dave Chikosi

A missionary from Zimbabwe to the USA

My dad was a pastor with the Methodist church during colonial times. He didn’t live to see Zimbabwe’s independence. He also didn’t see his son pastoring a church in the West, where the Methodist church began. I’m that son, now a pastor with Metro Grace International Church in Belleville, Michigan.

I grew up around church, but I didn’t develop a relationship with Christ. I saw things in church that turned me off, so I wanted to keep away. One evening, while in my room in high school, I was engulfed by the love and presence of God. It was so strong that it felt like God had walked into the room.

I cried the whole night. In the morning, I didn’t go to school; I went to look for a Bible instead. I looked everywhere, and I couldn’t find one. The irony was, I was studying in a mission school. I knew something had come alive in me. I finally got a Bible. I loved the Word, and my love for the scripture grew.

I began sharing this good news with my friends, starting with my roommate. Some of my friends got saved, and we formed a fellowship of 12 young people. We’d asked for a room to pray in, and an old, haunted house was surrendered to us. Once the prayer meetings started, the house was no longer haunted.

We went preaching on a Sunday with the student body, and a few people were healed. Yet I didn’t know about cross-cultural missions.

I trained as a pilot, and got a job with a local airport in Zimbabwe. God called me to serve in a multi-ethnic church. That was my first exposure to ministry. Through this, I helped plant three churches in Harare.

After leaving my job, I did my master’s in Chicago, USA. My cousin lived in Michigan, and a group of people there needed prayer. So I’d work during the week and go to Michigan every weekend. I saw the need for the gospel there and stayed on.

My advice to aspiring missionaries is to find a good church that’s doing what you’re looking for, one that is involved in sending. Prayerfully find a church that needs you.

A lot of damage has been done by televangelists in US. Preaching in the West requires caution and engaging the intellect to renew it with God’s Word. The pre-evangelism main component has to be prayer.

If you don’t know where to go, pray. Let God burden your heart with a people group. Consider sending a missionary into that people group. People have not heard the gospel and they are hungry for it!