MUNCIE, Ind. (BP) – “Wasn’t brain cancer enough?” Melissa Reynolds asked her husband Bruce, resting her head on his shoulder. “Now we have to lose our son.”
Bruce, senior pastor of Old Town Hill Baptist Church in Muncie, Ind., and Melanie had learned their firstborn son Blake, a Delaware County Sheriff’s Department corporal, had been killed responding to a disabled semi-trailer on an icy patch of Interstate 69 North. As Blake stood outside his patrol car taking photos of the accident, an oncoming out-of-control semi-trailer slammed Blake’s car into the sidelined truck and fatally injured Blake, a witness told responding officers.
Blake was the firstborn son the pastor prayed as a teenager to have one day. It was Blake who had noticed something wrong nearly four years earlier as Bruce was diagnosed with melanoma in his brain.
“I told everybody, ‘I’m fighting because I want to see grandkids.’ And so when Blake got married, my wife and I (said), ‘Yes, we’re almost there,’” Bruce told Baptist Press. “And that’s the heartbreaking thing. We’ll never have grandkids from Blake. We’ll never have those little Blakes running around.”
As the Reynoldses grieve and seek God’s intended lessons from their loss, Bruce told Baptist Press he is certain of at least one outcome of the tragedy. The Gospel bore fruit at funeral and visitation services Nov. 21 and 22, and continues to bear fruit among those who knew Blake.
“Our mourning is different, and we were able to share why that was different,” Bruce said, estimating that more than 1,000 people heard the Gospel at various services, including government and community leaders and hundreds of law enforcement officers. “I have no doubt there were some, maybe many that came to Christ that day.”
Two law enforcement officers prayed to receive Christ during a Nov. 23 worship service at Old Town Hill Baptist Church, he said, and since then, Bruce has dedicated three babies to the Lord because their parents were changed by Blake’s legacy.
Blake had been with the Delaware County Sheriff’s Department for three years where Bruce has served five years as chaplain. Many knew of Blake’s faith, his younger brother Dustin said at the public funeral Nov. 22 in the Delta High School gymnasium.
“I want all of you to understand Blake’s heart and to know the amazing big brother he was to me, and to several others,” Dustin said. “He did the right thing simply because it was the right thing. He was good for the sake of good. He didn’t need attention. He didn’t need recognition. Blake just wanted to be of service.”
Dustin issued a Gospel invitation at the funeral, as did Bruce, several representatives of the sheriff’s department, Blake’s pastor Rory Bond and Blake’s widow Allie. In addition to a private funeral at Bruce’s pastorate, a public viewing was held at Grace Baptist Church (Independent Baptist) in Muncie, where Blake and his wife Allie served the Lord.
Allie and Blake married in June, sharing just five months of matrimony before his death. They were together long enough for Allie to learn that Blake brought light into the dark corners of the night shift. They customarily told one another they’d see each other the next morning when Blake left for work.
“We honor the sacrifice he made, but most of all, we celebrate the Savior he served. Though his earthly watch has ended, his eternal one has just begun,” Allie said as she mourned. “To live is Christ and to die is gain. Jesus conquered death, and because He lives, so does Blake.”
Blake’s father-in-law David Eddelman, affiliated with Gideons International, would give Blake cases of Bibles to distribute. One of those Bibles was found along I-69 after the crash, likely thrust from Blake’s car upon impact, Bruce said. Several deputies told Bruce that Blake would often text them a scripture at the beginning of their respective shifts.
“Just think about this as the night goes on and know that Jesus loves you,” Blake would tell his fellow officers.
Law enforcement was a spiritual calling for Blake, who served in the military before entering law enforcement. Blake loved his job and helping others, Bruce told Baptist Press.
“There wasn’t anything else he could do that would fulfill him,” Bruce said. “He and I have had conversations, and I tell all the guys, being in law enforcement isn’t much different than being a pastor or a minister. You have to be called to it. And if you’re not called to it, it’ll chew you up and spit you out.”
Blake was God’s gift to his parents. In turn, the Reynoldses dedicated Blake as a baby to the Lord.
“What we knew was that he was a gift from God, and being a gift from God, we wanted to say, we give him back to You Lord to do with what You desire,” Bruce said. “In all honesty, today was not part of that. Parents should never have to bury a child. But here we are.
“I know my son is in heaven. I have no doubt.”
In his role as chaplain, Bruce is comforting Blake’s fellow officers as he himself also mourns.
“The quandary that I was in was that I also knew the guys in the department were hurting too, and I still had the role of chaplain as their pastor,” he said. “So I quickly transitioned or tried to transition from a mourning father to a chaplain to the guys in the department and to love on them. They were hurting immensely.”
Many officers encouraged Bruce to take a break from work.
“I didn’t take off any Sundays. What am I going to do? Just sit around the house and mope and cry?” Bruce posed. “In my opinion, we’ve got to be about the Lord’s business. And that helps ease the pain, I think. When you lead somebody to Jesus, that takes away the pain.
“It almost makes … well, it does. It makes it worth it.”
But why did Blake have to die, the couple still ask God. What is the spiritual lesson in the pain and loss?
“The answer’s been, ‘Stand back and watch Me work.’ I do know when you’re in the ministry, you’re on the front lines of the battle, that there is always a spiritual battle that rages around you,” Bruce said. “You have an enemy that wants to destroy your life. How much of that is the warfare? How much of it is God just testing, God trying to grow me to make me a better person, to make me a better husband, a better father, a better friend? Is it both?”
The unexpected tragedy ushered in a message to fellow officers.
“This has really opened the door more so for the opportunity to share the Gospel in a real personal way, where now it’s hit home that one of their own has paid the ultimate sacrifice and that the next day is not guaranteed to us,” Bruce said. “I’ve been able to take that pain and share with them that there is a God that walks through this with us if we’ll let Him.”
As Melissa continues to discuss the tragedy with God, Bruce said the two have reached at least one conclusion.
“There are law enforcement officers killed every year in this state and throughout this nation,” he said. “Why would we be any different?”
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