Mission Fields

The foreign mission fields the Winchester Church of Christ is currently supporting are in Russia, India, Brazil, Scotland, Zambia, University Christian Student Centers - MTSU, Tennessee Tech University and University of Tennessee.

Russia Mission Field

Our Russian missionary work started in 1992.  The missionary group went to Kirov, Russia, a city with a population of 500,000, located 600 miles northeast of Moscow. 

Today there are active congregations in Kirov, and also in Kirov-Chepetsk; a city approximately 35 miles from Kirov.  Until now neither congregation has had a permanent meeting place.  They have had to rent a place from a private firm or an individual.  If any outsiders complained about noise, i.e. singing, teaching, fellowship, etc., the Church would have to move to another place.  (In 13 years the Kirov Church has had to meet in 12 different places.)  In 2005 the Winchester Church of Christ purchased a permanent meeting place for the Kirov Church of Christ.  It is in a new building and truly a blessing for them.  Now they are permanently established.  They have an auditorium that can seat approximately 80, classrooms for children's classes, office for the Minister, and cloak room.  The Kirov-Chepetsk church still does not have a permanent meeting place but, hopefully, will in the near future.

The Church in Kirov is a strong congregation of around 60 members which meet every Sunday for worship.  They also meet every week-night, except Saturdays, for Bible study, men's classes, ladies classes, prayer meetings, and fellowship.

Maurice and Linnie Batchelor return to Kirov every year to study with and to strengthen the Church.  Maurice meets with the adult classes each night for Bible study.  Linnie meets with the children's classes and ladies Bible classes.  They also visit kindergartens, orphanages, schools and colleges to conduct Bible studies.

India Mission Field

Lyle Starnes started the India evangelism and benevolence in January 1980 in a four week trip.  He returned in January 1982 for five weeks.  In 1982 the opportunity for  the ongoing work of evangelism and leadership training started.

Since January 1999, Lyle Starnes has been traveling to India twice a year for a few weeks each.  The work is divided into three main areas: benevolence, leadership training and evangelism.

In the area of benevolence, the work has been to identify orphans without good care and establish a good home for them under Christian administration.  To date, three different homes have been established for the care of 72 children.  Plans are in the works to provide help to hundreds of disadvantaged children with temporary assistance with food, clothing and  medical care without having to move them from their remote villages and families.  As funds are made available, clothing, shelter and food are being provided for lepers and Christian widows.  During the January 2001 trip, blankets were provided to 200 lepers and saris for 100 widows.  Also, temporary help is available to Christian brothers and sisters with serious medical need.

In the area of leadership training, hundreds of leadership training seminaries have been conducted.  A school without walls has been organized to provide a two year comprehensive training program to enable leaders to be mature servants in the kingdom.  The program has over 250 graduates. The students do not receive any stipend or scholarships to attend.  We provide only teaching material and the instructor. Many graduates have become evangelists and have converted hundreds over the years.  Forty new churches have been established within the last 4 years. 

Evangelism is conducted as Lyle Starnes travels to new villages.  He preaches the gospel to whoever will listen.  Over the years, hundreds have responded and have been baptized into Christ.

Brazil Mission Field

Randy and Kathy Short and two sons Alex and Anthony moved to Recife, Brazil in August of 1980 to begin their work as missionaries. (Amanda, their youngest was born in Brazil in 1982.) From 1980 to 1990 they worked with a team of missionaries including 5 other men and their families. In that period a downtown church of 250+ was started and expansion into other parts of the city, the state and the Northeast region was begun. (Note: Recife has 3 million+ inhabitants. When the team arrived in 1980 there was no church of Christ in the Northeast.)

In 1990 the Shorts returned to the states and helped in the establishment of the North Cape church in Cape Girardeau, Missouri overseen by the Macon Rd church of Christ in Memphis, Tennessee, the congregation where Kathy grew up.

In 1997 the Shorts decided to return to Brazil to work with strengthening families, additional church plantings and in training men to be gospel preachers. Randy grew up in the Winchester area and has many friends at the Winchester church of Christ. It was at this time that the church decided to have a part in Randy and Kathy’s work in Brazil.

In February of 1998 the Shorts returned to Brazil and immediately began work on planting a church in Boa Viagem, the area of Recife where some 200,000 people call home. They also submitted a plan made in conjunction with leaders of the church in Recife for a full-time training program to the Bellevue church of Christ in Nashville. That plan was accepted, funded and in July of 1998 a full-time evangelist-training program was begun.

The training program called Ebenezer has graduated 11 regular students and 6 special students in its first 4 years of existence. An additional 6 students should be ready to graduate by July of 2003 and a record number of new students is scheduled to begin classes in January of 2003. The great need for such a program is easily seen when considering that the Lord’s church has grown from 0 congregations in early 1980 to 52 at present (10 alone in the greater Recife area). Well-prepared men are needed to fill these and pulpits of other congregations constantly being planted.

The school is closely connected with the new church planted in Boa Viagem. This church hopefully will have the school’s oversight and bulk of its support in the future. The church there is growing using a radio outreach (funded by World Gospel Radio) in conjunction with a public outreach called the School of the Bible. This program invites people to come in from the community and take Bible courses. Classes easily range from 25 to 50 in attendance. A healthy harvest of souls is expected to come from these classes in the coming years. The church at present has an average attendance of 50 and just recently added 3 members by baptism.

Summary submitted by Randy Short.