“God’s Delays Have a Purpose” 

We all know in our heads that this is a true statement but getting that truth into our hearts during a frustrating season is a whole other matter. 

Richard Todd was one of seven children and was ready to serve the Lord however He led.  Arriving at Baptist Bible College in its first decade of existence, Richard knew the Lord was calling him into missions. It was not until his senior year that Richard met missionary to Argentina, Jim Strickland,  and before too long, he knew for sure that Argentina was the field to which God was sending him. Richard had it planned out:  after graduation in May 1960, he would move directly to Jacksonville, Florida where he would complete his missions internship as an associate pastor with his friend, Bill Askew.  He would still need to complete his missions concentration back at BBC after his internship, but that wouldn’t take long. 

However, there was an unexpected delay of plans in those final weeks of his senior year.  Because of an issue with a few class credits, Richard did walk as a graduate at the end of Fellowship Week that May, but he did not receive his diploma.  He still had to stay and take classes in summer school to complete his graduation requirements.  This delay meant he wouldn’t arrive in Jacksonville to begin the next step of his journey toward Argentina until fall.  What in the world was God doing? 

But that very Saturday, following graduation, the Lord began giving sneak peeks to Richard as to His intention for this frustrating delay.  That Saturday, Richard happened to ride the city bus back to campus with a young lady he’d met in the fall shortly after she began her freshman year at BBC – that young lady was Lynda Brown.  Richard and Lynda began chatting as they completed the bus ride and, as they exited the bus, Richard shared why he was staying for summer school and Lynda shared that she was staying on campus in order to keep her job.  They dated off-and-on that summer, but she didn’t think anything would come of it since she knew he was moving to Jacksonville in the fall.

Sure enough, once he moved to Florida, she didn’t hear anything from him for a few months, despite his friends on campus still hinting that she’d hear from him soon.  But once he did start writing to her in mid-November, the letters never stopped, and their friendship soon blossomed into love.  He proposed to her by phone, and the next time they saw each other was at the following Fellowship Week in May 1961, as she completed the second of her three-year program.

God’s delay in his senior year, courtesy of the infamous Dr. Woodworth, led Richard to his helpmeet for the next 54 years.  And what a helpmeet God had prepared for Richard! 

Lynda trusted Christ at age 11 and surrendered to do whatever the Lord wanted her to do, except missionary service.  Her family was small, and the thought of leaving her family was a staggering thought. So, when Lynda enrolled at BBC, she decided the elementary education certificate was the best option for her.  That spring changed everything.  During a class, something a professor said completely caught Lynda off guard and she rushed back to her dorm room as soon as class was dismissed.  Dropping to her knees by her squeaky metal bed, Lynda surrendered to missions, even if God took her to the remote jungles of Africa.  By the time she met Richard, Lynda already knew for sure God was leading her to serve Him as a missionary.

After a July wedding at Lynda’s home church in Statesboro, Georgia, Richard served as youth pastor at her home church for the next eighteen months as they started their family and readied themselves for their training for missionary service.  It was a delay of sorts, but it allowed them some precious time with her family.

In those first eighteen months of marriage, Richard and Lynda welcomed their firstborn son, Rick, into their family, giving her parents sweet months with their first grandbaby.  They were happy and proud of Lynda and Richard’s willingness to serve the Lord as missionaries, but the personal sacrifice of grandbaby time was just that:  a sacrifice.

In the fall of 1963, Richard and Lynda headed back to Springfield for Richard to complete his concentrated missions course and for Lynda to complete the third year of her teaching course.  Richard pastored a church in Preston, Missouri, 50 miles outside Springfield.  Because of the ministry work Richard had already done, they were approved as BBFI missionaries that following May of 1964, during the same week that Lynda graduated. Two years of deputation followed, along with the arrival of their second child, Mike. 

At the same time the Todds were leaving for Argentina, Lynda’s only brother was heading to Vietnam with the Army.  It truly was a heart-wrenching time for her family, as the future loomed long and unknown before them all.

Travel to Argentina back in the mid-60’s was quite an adventure, especially with little ones in tow, a trip that Lynda said she was glad she did only when she was young! They traveled by boat on a voyage that took 20-23 days with ports of call in San Juan, Barbados, Brazil, Uruguay, and finally Argentina.  Exactly one month to the day after their arrival, young Rick celebrated his fourth birthday, and three days after that, little brother, Mike, turned one.  Ministry has been in their blood ever since!  Baby three, a sweet bundle of joy named Angela, joined their family in the next few years.  As is often the case, missionaries suffer the same heartaches as anyone else, and they grieved a miscarriage following Angela’s birth.  Lynda thought the Lord was done blessing them with children, and figured God had decided she was too busy with language school and the demands of the ministry to have any more children.  But the Lord surprised them with twins ten years after the miscarriage.  Today, all five children are serving the Lord in various ministry capacities both here in the States and in Argentina, along with many of their grandchildren. 

God’s Delays Have a Purpose.  During those ten years between babies, Lynda became more proficient in her Spanish, mostly thanks to listening to her children who mastered it easily.  By the time the twins, Brian and Scott, joined the family, Lynda was ready to homeschool the oldest three children, and the years flew by in a whirlwind of ministry trials and triumphs.

The Todds had begun working with Jimmy and Marie Strickland as soon as they arrived in Argentina.  The Stricklands had arrived on the field five years prior and had begun a church in the city of Castelar, 18 miles west of Buenos Aires.  Some of the church members lived farther out, and before too long, the Todds were able to birth a church with those families in San Antonio de Padua.  This church became the base for their next 50 years of ministry!

The Lord graciously allowed Lynda’s parents the blessing of welcoming Lynda and her family back on their first furlough as well as their soldier son back from Vietnam at the same time.  Their willingness to trust the Lord with their children is a wonderful example for believing parents today.

By human standards, some of the more notable works that God did in Argentina through the willing hands and feet of Richard and Lynda Todd were the start of a Bible Institute, an active camp ministry, two more churches, and an annual fellowship meeting for pastors and missionaries in and around Argentina.  All but one of these ministries are still growing and thriving today.

The two churches, one in Padua and one in Libertad are now being shepherded by national pastors and continue to thrive.  The members in the third church were able to be joined into the other two churches, as the care of it by itself was too much for the national pastor that tried to divide his time between it and another church plant.  For many, many years, Richard and Lynda spent their Sundays leading a Sunday School and Morning Worship service at Padua, then Sunday School and afternoon Worship at Libertad, and then Sunday evening service back at Padua. Even after those ministries were turned over to the national pastors, they continued to mentor them and provide ongoing encouragement to those young ministers.

Once the first church building was built in Padua back in the late 1960s/early 1970s, the Todds and Stricklands launched a Bible Institute that provided training for both men and women preparing to be ministers and church teachers.  It has since become a seminary. 

The youth camp, Campamento Bautista Marcos Paz, was founded in January of 1974 and was a very difficult project in the early years as they had to make do without many vital supplies.  But over the years it grew and became one of the Todds’ favorite ministries as they saw countless lives redeemed and transformed. During camp seasons, the camp still hosts children’s camps, youth camps, and family camps, as well as retreats for singles, men, ladies, and pastors/missionaries.  In January 2024, the churches came together to celebrate the camp’s 50^th anniversary, and Lynda was thankful and honored to be able to fly down and attend the festivities.  She rejoices at the progress the camp has made under the leadership of their son Mike and daughter-in-law Sandy as well as daughter Angela with her husband, Rickey Freeman.

The fellowship meeting of pastors and missionaries is called Fundamentalismo, (the Fundamental Baptist Congress) and has been hosted annually for over 40 years.  This Fellowship Week-style of meetings encourages and ministers to hundreds of national pastors as well as missionaries from several countries. 

Looking back through some prayer letters, it was shocking to read of a break-in and assault in their mission field home in July 2005, that Richard and Lynda suffered at the age of 67 and 65, respectively.  The thieves thought for sure that the Todds had great wealth, being Americans, and when they could not find much money or jewels, they proceeded to beat and threaten both of them together and separately.  The police weren’t much help when they were called.  Lynda shared that while they were tied up and sitting in the shower where they had been shoved, thinking they were going to die, waiting for help, they were at peace in the midst of it all.  During the delay, while waiting for help, God made Himself real to them and gave them His peace.  And they continued serving the Lord in Argentina for ten more years!

Leaving the mission field in 2015 was a very difficult transition for Richard and Lynda in some ways.  They had hoped to continue living and one day die on the mission field if the Lord allowed, but the onset and progression of Richard’s Parkinsons disease and a deteriorating heart condition made it clear that their ministry service on the field would one day require a move back to the States.  Richard and Lynda continued praying and serving and staying close to the Lord during that season of waiting for the Lord’s guidance, and one day the Lord made it quietly clear to Richard that it was time to go.  With a spirit of acceptance, in spite of the grief, the two made their way back to Florida where three years of doctor appointments, surgeries, and physical therapy awaited them.  Finally, on the night of January 12, 2019, not quite a month after his 80^th birthday, Richard was welcomed home in Heaven, passing peacefully in his sleep.

Lynda now waits daily on the Lord, resting quietly in Him, enjoying updates from each of their children and grandchildren, even great-grandchildren.  She enjoys visiting them when possible, in spite of her rapidly failing eyesight.    When asked what she would tell young missionaries today, Lynda shared the precious promise of Romans 8:28, explaining that “It doesn’t matter what it is, but if the Lord leads you into it, there’s a reason for it.” Lynda reiterated what they learned that summer when graduation didn’t go as planned, what they learned in the 18 months of waiting to finish their missionary preparation, and what they learned every time they experienced a ministry or family delay of any sort: “Be patient, stay close to the Lord, and pray a lot. If He’s put you there, He’s put you there for a reason and He’ll be right with you all the time.”

That spirit of acceptance, that trust that delays have a purpose in God’s plan, is what has given Lynda the peaceful heart she exhibits daily as she waits on the Lord. 

“Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” – Isaiah 26:9b

-written by Janette Lange