August 23 Today in OPC History

Bill and Mary (LeMahieu) Shaw are celebrating their 63th wedding anniversary today. Mary was baptized and raised as a covenant child at Bethel OPC in Oostburg, Wisconsin. Bill was born into an unbelieving household but was converted through the ministry of a Lutheran pastor in Kohler, Wisconsin. They first met playing together in a band at Kohler Company. When Bill expressed an interest in Mary, her parents encouraged him to join them for Sunday worship at Bethel OPC. Joining the LeMahieus regularly for worship, meals, and family devotions introduced him to the Reformed church and deepened his faith.

Job transfers moved the Shaws to five different states in the first twelve years of marriage, and they enjoyed the opportunity to worship and serve at various Reformed churches. They especially enjoyed opportunities to help with the planting of new Orthodox Presbyterian congregations in California (La Habra and Hacienda Heights), Illinois (Tinley Park), and Ohio (Dayton, Columbus, Mansfield, and Pataskala). Bill served as a deacon in Oostburg; and he also served as an elder in Tinley Park, IL and in Dayton, Columbus, and Pataskala, OH. They are currently members of New Hope Presbyterian in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

When the Shaws, now a family of six, moved to Columbus, Ohio in 1973, they continued to travel 70 miles each way to Dayton every Sunday for four years. The family attended both morning and evening service, enjoying the hospitality of various families in between. Eventually, the Lord raised up a new work in Columbus where Bill served as an elder. Bill and Mary have watched with thankfulness as those two churches have birthed five organized congregations and two church plants in the past 40 years. Their son, John, an Orthodox Presbyterian minister, serves as the General Secretary of the Committee on Home Missions and Church Extension.

Bill and Mary continue to love and serve the church. They have been blessed with four sons, fifteen grandchildren, and recently with their first great-granddaughter.