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Ralph Dodge, born in January 1907, was raised on a farm in Iowa. Tragedy struck the summer he graduated from high school when his father was killed at a railroad crossing. He farmed with his brother that year, and then, despite his love of farming, decided to go to college. I took him five years to get through Taylor University. The depression was at its height, and he worked on the college farm to earn his way through. Graduating in 1931, he went to Boston University School of Theology to become a minister. After graduating in 1934, he married Eunice Davis, his college sweetheart. After early pastorates in the USA, the young couple accepted the call to the mission field and went to Angola, Africa in 1936. Their first five-year term in Angola was challenging. Ralph’s work was rewarding in that he established the kind of strong relationships with African co-workers that characterized his ministry for the rest of his life. However, he had serious health problems, with attacks of malaria recurring at frequent intervals. Eventually he suffered an attack of “Blackwater fever,” a serious complication of malaria that is still often fatal. A veteran missionary nursed him through the acute attack somehow, and he gradually regained his health. In 1941, the family returned on furlough to the United States, and then had to remain for four years because of World War II. During that time, Ralph pastored a church and then earned a doctoral degree in Anthropology. In 1945, the family returned to Africa. During much of the next five years, he was involved in starting many new churches and schools in northern Angola. This proved to be a prelude to his later work in Africa. Ralph was elected a bishop in Africa in 1956. Before that, the Methodist church had sent bishops appointed in the United States to Africa. Recognizing the growing maturity of the church in Africa, Ralph did all that he could to transfer church power and leadership to a new generation of African leaders. Rhodesia, as it was then called, was segregated, and that cultural pattern carried over into the church to some extent. Ralph broke the pattern, both by example and by his writing and executive decisions. One of his actions was to send as many qualified Africans as possible to the United States for college and higher degrees. Ian Smith’s white supremacist government saw this, and evidently feared that African leadership in the church would lead to demands for a greater role for African leadership in society and politics. That fear was so great that Ralph Dodge was expelled from Rhodesia in 1964. He was shocked, for his goal was social transformation, not governmental overthrow. Even though he had to work in exile from Zambia, Ralph was re-elected bishop in 1968. He resigned, saying it was time to elect an African to that position. Ralph and Eunice retired to a twelve-acre mini-farm in Springfield, Missouri. He had gardened all his life, and this was a return to his first love. Even after retiring from the farm in 1980, he kept gardening actively to age 98. The garden was an apt symbol for him. He loved to work the land, and regardless of how bright or difficult circumstances might seem, he always remained well grounded. Although he was a highly educated man, and had achieved the pinnacle of success in his profession, he remained a man of simplicity who was always kind but straightforward in his actions. Ralph Dodge died on August 8, 2008, mourned by all who knew him. I was proud to call him Dad. |