Members of the Brethren in Christ Church of Zimbabwe’s diaspora gathered for prayer and support July 4-5 in Hesston, Kan.

The annual Brethren in Christ Diaspora Summer Conference collects Zimbabwean pastors, mission workers and families who now live and work in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Twenty-seven people attended the gathering at Whitestone Mennonite Church, where Ron Moyo is on the pastoral team. He served previously in a variety of roles with Mennonite World Conference and Ibandla Labazalwane kuKristu eZimbabwe (Brethren in Christ Church of Zimbabwe), where he was national youth director before he sought asylum in the U.S. after his religious work conflicted with the government.

Moyo said about 55 people were interested in coming and have legal status in their countries of residence, but several people did not feel safe traveling to Kansas because of the current immigration and political climate in the United States.

Attendees prayed for both the U.S. and Zimbabwe, and their colleagues who could not be present in Kansas.

“A big part of the meeting was the conviction that the Brethren in Christ diaspora is being called by the Holy Spirit to plant churches where they are right now,” Moyo said.

The Zimbabwean BIC Church counts 50,859 members in 288 congregations, according to Mennonite World Conference statistics, and traces its beginnings to an 1894 conference in Abilene, Kan., that launched church planting in Zimbabwe.