Our History...
Introduction | view Timeline
 Helen and the girls in 1979, ready to fly to the Alaska bush to join Dan in Port Heiden. |
In July 1979, after completing two years of Bible school and learning to fly an airplane, our family of four moved to the little village of Port Heiden on the Alaska Peninsula. Our house was an old reconstructed WWII quonset hut with a bedroom added on the back of it and a chapel added on the back of that.
I had gone down several days ahead of Helen and the girls to clean it up a bit and get it ready for living in it. After hauling out junk and dirt and a few other things for a day or so, Helen and the girls arrived. Tianna, almost 5 years old at the time, took a good look at the quonset and said, "Are we going to live here?" The answer was yes, and we did for the next four years.
After digging the well deeper and doing some plumbing we had running cold water to the kitchen sink. Within a few more months I was able to scrounge up an old hot water tank and plumb it up to the oil cook stove and finally have running hot water to the sink.
The next challenge was to get a real shower working for us. You may wonder what an "unreal" shower is. Well in our case it was a galvanized metal washtub elevated to about six feet above the floor of a small metal shower stall. Fastened to the tub was a faucet, and hanging below the faucet was a gallon can punched full of holes. A "shower" consisted of heating several gallons of water in the tub on the stove, then lift the tub up into position, hang the can up, undress, turn on the faucet and enjoy a nice long 3 minute shower.
 Our daughters Tianna and Karmen in front of our first village home, a remodeled quonset hut. |
Well that was then and this is now. A lot has changed in over twenty years. We now live in Homer in a nice house we finally finished in early May 1999. We now have four children and three grandchildren. We now have gray hairs and fewer of them. One thing that has not changed, however, is our sense of God's call to the village people of Alaska.
– Dan Buckwalter
Timeline | back to Introduction
1973-- Dan and Helen Buckwalter were a young married couple with one small daughter, Karmen, when they left family and friends in Pennsylvania and New York and moved to the faraway state of Alaska and settled in the off-road community of Kodiak, a beautiful but somewhat isolated island. Dan worked in construction and he and Helen became involved in the Kodiak Bible Chapel, helping with children's and youth ministries. Their second daughter, Tianna, was born in August of 1974.
1977-- Their increasing desire to be involved in full time Christian ministry led them to enroll in a two year course at the Alaska Bible Institute located in Homer, Alaska. They put their vehicle loaded with their belongs on the ferry and took a commercial flight to Homer.
1979--After Dan's graduation in March, they began preparing for a move to the Alaska Peninsula to serve as missionaries in the small village of Port Heiden . Before leaving Homer, Dan obtained his pilot's license in anticipation of someday having an airplane to enable him to minister in other villages on the Peninsula and other remote areas of the state. The family moved to Port Heiden in July, shipping most of their household goods via air freight. Both the house, a reconstructed military quonset, and the chapel were still under construction so Dan put his carpentry skills to good use in upgrading the facilities before winter set in. By Thanksgiving he had rigged up running hot water, a major improvement!
1980--In March Dan was ordained as a minister of the gospel by Alaska Village Missions board, their sending organization, at their home church in Homer. They returned to Homer again for a few weeks in late August to await the arrival of their son, Daniel, who arrived a bit late on September 18th. After the extended wait the family was anxious to get home to Port Heiden so they flew back to the village when Danny was only six days old. Later that fall the Lord provided them with a single engine Piper Cherokee 180 which had seats for four adults. This airplane served them well until the children got a little bigger.
1984-- On a trip "outside" in the summer they made a search for a Piper-Cherokee 6 and were able to purchase one in Georgia. Dan and a friend from Ohio flew the plane back to Alaska and Helen and the children returned by commercial flight. This airplane has served them well in the ministry over the more than twenty years since.
1985--The family moved to Homer and the girls were enrolled in the local Christian School. Dan continued doing outreach to the Peninsula villages, being gone for a week or more at a time while Helen concentrated on the needs of the growing family. The opportunity to adopt a baby boy came unexpectedly in December of 1985, and John was added to the family several days before Christmas. But that's another story!
1990--The home they were living in was sold by the owners so they moved into a house on the Alaska Bible Institute Campus where they both served on maintenance and helped in other numerous duties for seven years while Dan continued outreach to the villages, sometimes taking students or other teams to assist in ministry.
1993--A very busy year with increasing ABI responsibilities and daughter Karmen's wedding to Jesse Classen in August and daughter Tianna starting college at Bethel College in Indiana.
1995-- They became grandparents to Weston Dale Classen in March! This year the village Vacation Bible School program was begun. Teams formed by volunteers from the local church were led by an ABI graduate and ministered in five villages. Dan provided the transportation and Helen advised the teams. In subsequent years they have done the planning and provided transportation to villages where they have contacts. As parenting responsibilities decreased Helen has taken a more active role in training teams and has been out for two or three weeks assisting or leading teams each summer.
1997--Dan and Helen discontinued their services at ABI and moved to temporary housing in a mobile home in Homer while they began building their own home on West Hill. In November they founded the non-profit organization, Northern Harvest, as an instrument to continue in village ministry.
1999--They finally finished their home and were able to move in during April, with many, many thanks to many people who helped in large and small ways along what seemed like a long road to completion! Dan was glad to be done with working on the house and was able to devote more time to village outreach. Their second grandchild, Seth Joseph Classen was born to Karmen and Jesse in July.
2000--No VBS this summer due to engine failure and a forced landing at Chinitna Bay while flying the first team out of Homer. Praise the Lord that they landed safely and help and shelter were nearby, even though they had to land on a remote beach in the wilderness of Alaska! The airplane was seventy days on that beach until all repairs were completed and Dan was able to fly it back to Homer. A miracle and a story that will be posted on this site in the future!
present--Dan continues as a circuit-flying pastor in a number of villages on the AK Peninsula during the fall, winter and spring. He is called upon to officiate at weddings, funerals, and baptisms, as well as the usual duties of leading Bible studies, counseling, etc. In the summer when villagers are preoccupied with fishing, he usually works in construction to supplement the family income. The Lord has provided for them faithfully through years of village ministry. Their desire is to continue to serve as long as the Lord gives health, strength and provision.