*Loving Him forever,

Lin Reynolds

Feb. 2017

I was born in Manteca, California in 1974. My dad was pastoring a church there. Born on Monday, came home Tuesday, and was in church Sunday of that week and have continued to this day. When I was 17 months old we moved from CA to Cincinnati, Ohio where my dad accepted the call to pastor another church.

In the 52 years of his pastoral and evangelism ministry from the East to West coast and Northern and Southern states, 38 of these years he proudly shared in his sermons the conversion of a 5 year old boy, who he “loved more than life,” he would say. That young boy was his son, Lin Allen Reynolds. That’s me and here is when I come in to share my salvation testimony.

We were having a week of revival meetings at our church in Cincinnati. One night after the service was over, my dad took the evangelist out to eat and take him to his motel. My sister, who was 15, went out with the teens for fun and desserts. My mom and I went home to the parsonage. She fixed us a snack. Afterwards she assumed I would be tired and should get ready for bed. I went upstairs to my room and put my Spiderman pajamas on and made my way down to the family room, making my grand entrance doing my Spiderman imitation. I was not interested in going to bed. I told mom I wanted to talk to her. We both headed for the big stuffed chair. A chair we all enjoyed. I sat on mom’s lap and we began some fun small talk. Then I told mom I wanted to tell her something. If you know my mom, she does like to talk, but she was ready to listen. I made several attempts to tell her, but I would pause and say nothing. She assured me that I could tell her anything. With that, I told her I wanted to get saved. She hugged me and told me she loved me and how happy she was that I shared with her the good news. She said, “we don’t have to wait until the revival service tomorrow night, we can pray right here to be saved.” For a few minutes I didn’t say anything and neither did mom. Then I broke the silence and said, “I think I’ll just wait until I’m 6 or 9 and get saved.” We talked awhile about that long waiting period. Then I slid off her lap down by her side in that big stuffed chair. I still didn’t want to go to bed. We sat for a while and talked about many different things. Then I told her I wanted to get saved now. Mom hugged me again and we knelt by the big chair. I prayed saying I was sorry and asked Jesus to come and live in my heart. I believed He did and I jumped up with lots of energy and told mom I would be back in a few minutes. I ran upstairs to the bathroom, washed my face and hands, wet my hair, combed it down slick and flat, then parted it almost in the middle. Next, I reached for dad’s favorite after shave cologne, Brut, and splashed it all over me. Mom said she could smell it all the way downstairs. I came running back to her smiling and happy and jumped in to the big stuffed chair again. I knew I had been saved and Jesus was living in my heart and I wanted to look good and be good for Jesus.

It was 10:30 P.M. now and we were still in the big chair thanking Jesus for hearing my prayer. Then dad opened the front door and said, “Wowee, I smelled Brut before I turned the door knob.” He asked me why I was still awake and why I was slicked up and smelling so good. My mom and I shared my conversion with him. He began crying, picked me up, gave me a big hug and a kiss, thanking the Lord for what had just taken place. My sister came home and we gave her the good news and she gave me happy hugs and kisses too. We were all excited.

That next Christmas I gave dad a bottle of Brut. This coming Christmas, 2017, I will have given dad 38 bottles of Brut. It’s a special gift, a reminder of what happened that awesome night. That night, I chose to take the journey loving and following Jesus every step of the way to heaven. It is a challenging journey, but also rewarding.

From the night of my conversion, 1979, I have never wavered from my love and walk with the Lord and the path I chose that night in the “big stuffed chair.”