August 19 Today in OPC History

On this day in 1962, Mike and Sue Frangipane were married. Growing up in Brick Township around the central New Jersey shore, the two met at a basketball game when Mike was 16 years old and Sue was 15 years old. A month after their marriage, Mike enlisted in the US Air Force and served a year tour on Okinawa. Eventually, he was posted at Keesler ARB, Biloxi, Mississippi where he finished his service.

Mike and Sue then returned to Toms Rivers, New Jersey where Mike took a job as an electronics technician. Neither were believers at the time. Sue grew up believing that God existed, but didn't act upon that belief. Upon their return to New Jersey, Sue started to attend the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod (RPCES) church back in Brick Town and came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Mike at first was resistant, but the Lord worked in his heart and he also believed. A few years later, Mike was called to the eldership at that church and soon after he began to express a desire to go to seminary. They moved their family to Hatboro, Pennsylvania, where Mike worked the midnight shift at Johnsville Naval Air Development facility while he attended classes at the Reformed Episcopal Seminary in Philadelphia. After graduation, Mike accepted a transfer to a Field Servce contract at Wright Patterson AFB (WPAFB) in Dayton. Ohio. Again, he worked multiple shifts at the base and attended Cedarville College during the day.

Mike and Sue at the same time started attending Redeemer OPC in Dayton, which was led at that time by Pastor Lawrence Eyres. When Pastor Eyres accepted a new call in 1982, the congregation called Mike to be its pastor. He would faithfully pastor Redeemer OPC for the next 22 years until retirement from the ministry in 2004.

Mike and Sue have two adult children. Son David has two children, Casey and Michael, and daughter Michele has five children, Natalie, twins Aaron and Tyler, Lydia and Evan.