Dr. Joshua Paxton Competes at the Transplant Games of America
Dr. Joshua Paxton, Department Chair of Ministry Studies and Director of the Burnham Center for Global Engagement, returned from Denver this summer with five medals from the Transplant Games of America.
The Transplant Games of America is a national athletic event for organ and tissue transplant recipients, living donors, and donor families. This year’s games drew approximately 12,000 participants from across the country. Paxton competed as a member of Team MO-KAN, representing Kansas and western Missouri, and earned two gold medals and three bronze medals in track and field and bowling events.
“I was privileged enough to come away with five medals,” he said. Gold medals came in the mixed 4×100-meter relay and 4×400-meter relay, while bronze medals came in the 1,500-meter race walk, the 800-meter race, and doubles bowling alongside his brother.
Behind those accomplishments is a story of God’s provision through the generosity of others.
Paxton and his brother were both born with Alport syndrome, a genetic condition that causes progressive kidney failure. His brother received a kidney donated by their father. Paxton received his first transplant in 1998, shortly after graduating from high school, when his aunt donated one of her kidneys. After that transplant was rejected a year later, he spent another year on dialysis before receiving a second transplant in 2000.
That second transplant came through an unexpected act of generosity.
“I had a second kidney transplant from a lady I was going to church with,” Paxton recalled. “She actually walked up to me after church one day and said, ‘So how do I get tested to donate a kidney to you?’”
She did, and twenty-six years later, that gift continues to sustain him.
The Transplant Games are about much more than athletic competition. For transplant recipients and donor families alike, the event is an opportunity to celebrate the gift of life and to honor those whose generosity made it possible.
“The Transplant Games are a celebration of life,” Paxton said.
This year’s gathering also set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of transplant recipients and living donors assembled in one location, with 966 participants joining together for the achievement. While the medals are a meaningful accomplishment, Paxton points toward a wider perspective.
“As we say at the games, everybody is a winner because they’re still alive,” he said. “There’s a reality there where just the fact that we are alive and that someone has, in a very dark moment of their life, chosen to give the gift of life to others, is the celebration.”
For Paxton, the experience reflects both gratitude and stewardship. Every race completed, every relay run, and every medal earned stands as evidence not only of perseverance, but also of the extraordinary generosity of organ donors and their families.
Students who know Dr. Paxton as a professor of Ministry & Intercultural Studies see him in the classroom each week, but his story reaches beyond academics. It is a testimony of God’s sustaining grace, the compassion of others, and the special opportunities to reflect on God’s faithfulness that can follow a life-changing gift.