Argyle Paddock

Coming home from Pando Sunday night—just hours before hearing of Dr. Paddock’s homegoing—we stopped at the home of some friends on the north side of Montevideo. We talked, drank carbonated water, and watched tennis. They told me that one of the tennis players is quite good (and quite famous, though I had never heard of him). As we sat I remembered an afternoon a number of years back in the home of other friends. The television was on, and the world was very aware that this was Andre Agassi’s last match. Even I had heard of this man. And this was his day.

We weren’t there to watch tennis, though. We had gathered to say “thanks” to Argyle and Wanda Paddock. We were a small group; only a few people knew we were there; and the crowds cheering Andre didn’t know that the Paddocks even existed. Somehow I have to think, though, that God was more interested in our living-room meeting than in the fame and spectacle that happened to form the backdrop that day.

The Paddocks had loved and served us in many ways, largely in the context of mission trips to Mexico or Spain. We had watched them defy the challenges of their aging bodies, driving vans full of immature youth to take the message of Jesus to the sides of steep mountains, the streets of tiny villages, and plazas of Old World cities. Most of us gathered that day had traveled with them to represent Camp META in Mexico, a vision that Dr. Paddock never forgot.

In one of the messages that we heard Dr. Paddock preach, he raised the question of why a Christian’s rewards will not be given to him immediately upon his arrival in glory. He concluded that one reason must be that even after a person finishes his race, the fruit that he sowed has not yet been harvested. The results are not yet in. He went on to talk about former students who had traveled on mission trips with him and how they were serving the Lord, revealing his interest not only in the immediate effects of these trips but the ongoing results that they had in the lives of the students that traveled.

Dr. Paddock will have to wait for his reward, too. And I think when Jesus’ mission has been fully brought to completion, Dr. and Mrs. Paddock’s privileged part in this wonderful, ages-long Story will be stunning. We’ll see how God made Dr. Paddock—and hundreds of students influenced by him—look like Jesus. And that will be Jesus’ day. I can’t wait.

But now, Dr. Paddock, for a few more short days, we have fruit to harvest from seeds you and your dear wife planted. We go gladly back to work.