Clyde Dotson

The villagers warned him that his hammock was in a dangerous location — in the pathway of elephants. He reminded them that his God was bigger than the elephants.

DECADES OF SERVICE
1950s, 1960s, 1970s

MINISTRY EMPHASIS
Evangelism & Church Planting

AFFINITY GROUP
Sub-Saharan African Peoples

The villagers warned him that his hammock was in a dangerous location — in the pathway of elephants. He reminded them that his God was bigger than the elephants.

It was a warm summer night in the Gokwe Valley (of modern-day Zimbabwe) and Clyde was tired and ready to retire for the night. He had been riding his bicycle most of the day, talking with the village chiefs about starting a new mission. Now it was time to hang his hammock and mosquito net under a Mopane tree. The villagers expressed their concern about the animals that roamed the area, particularly the elephants. Clyde responded, “My God is bigger than the elephants and he will protect us.”

Camping out was nothing new to Clyde. He had been raised on a farm and felt quite at home roughing it. While at Rusitu Mission, he had taken long treks into the remote villages of Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique), camping out and bartering with the villagers for food. He had also camped out for three months at the Sanyati Reservation while building a temporary house for his family. Each time, he had survived wild animal attacks, snake bites and many of the diseases common to living in the bush.

In the area of Gokwe, there were thousands of tribesmen who had been forcibly relocated to this isolated reservation from the Zambezi Valley where the Government was building the Kariba Dam near Victoria Falls. These people who lived in isolation, fear and superstition were desperate for medical help, schools, roads and the light of God’s love. And so it was, that on this January night in 1954, Clyde had come to the valley to offer help and hope to the people living there.