The mission of the London Missionary Society among the Matabele may be said to have commenced when Robert Moffat first visited Mzilikazi, on the banks of Moriko river, in 1829, shortly after the King and his tribe had settled in that district after their migration from Zululand. Moffat paid a second visit to them in 1835 and stayed with them two months, and the King agreed to receive missionaries to teach his people. 

Before long, however, the immigrant Boers and the Matabele came into contact, and Mzilikazi and his warriors began their forward march into the wilderness, ultimately finding their way to what has since been known as Matabeleland. Dr. Moffat visited Matabele in their new home in 1854, and was very heartily welcomed as an old friend.

From that time down to the present a staff of missionaries has constantly been maintained in the country. The outward success of the mission during the rule of Lobengula was exceedingly small. Christian teaching conflicted entirely with the most cherished ideas of the people and aroused the suspicion of the autocratic King. Not a few were known to have received Christianity, and not a few of the children were taught the elements of knowledge, but it was impossible to carry on schools with any prospect of permanence, and an open confession of Christianity meant death. With the change of Government the mission and the people enjoyed a new freedom, which it was hoped would have proved to profitable. 

By 1899 four stations were occupied;  these are hope fountain, Centenary Farm, south-west of Hope Fountain, and Bulilima, among the large Kalanga tribe on the west side of the Tegwane river. The London Society tried to establish an Industrial Training Institution at Hope Fountain, being convinced that, if the natives were to become permanently useful under the new conditions of life, it would have been quite as important that they should learn habits of regular work and acquire the mastery of tools as that they should learn to read and write.