My name is Frank Stangel. I am married to my lovely wife, Virginia, and we have three daughters.
I grew up in a home that believed that God was the God of the Bible, but alcohol was the lifestyle of our father. It was a turbulent life with abuses and constant moving from place to place. I knew at a young age that God was always with me and I trusted what I knew of Him. We visited churches, most of them very infrequent. I left home at 16 to a life of my own choosing. It was reckless and included substance abuse and anger toward others.
I married my wife at age 19 and was not a good husband. At age 27 we had our first daughter Emily. This is when I began to see my own recklessness and knew it could not go on. I am not sure of the time and date of my conversion, but I remember the circumstance and how it seemed everything in the past came thru my mind and I saw I could not repair the damage. I knew that God was my only hope. There was no one preaching to me, I believe God just presented what I already knew. I agreed with God against myself that I had been doing evil. I started reading the Bible and listening to preachers and finally got a job where a solid Christian began to guide me through the Word. I was baptized when I was 33 years old. It came suddenly and seemed like everything in the Bible was speaking of baptism. I was desperate to be baptized in obedience to the Lord.
My dad died that same year in 2003. It was during this time I really began to seek the Lord to know what He desired for my life. A few years later, in 2008 I believe, a friend invited me to a missionary conference and I decided to go since it was about the fourth time he asked. This is when I met Mr. York and learned about the discipleship training in Bend. We went to the training program about 1.5 years later. We sold what we could and had just enough to move the family to Bend and pay rent and expenses for about 9 months. It was an amazing time of fellowship and growth as I learned more of how to apply the Word of God.
We now live in Spokane, Washington. We have a great group of folks here to go out to the streets witnessing about the Lord Jesus. We let people know the Good News that although we are all guilty of breaking God’s law and do not deserve the least of His mercy, He still sent Jesus Christ to bring reconciliation. Jesus was crucified and died, then buried, but the third day He rose from the grave alive and is now seated on the right hand of God Almighty. Praise be to the God of Israel!