Pastor McCulley was asked to pray about moving to Alaska and plant an Independent Baptist Church near Eielson AFB.  After praying about the matter, he and his family moved to the Fairbanks area in the fall of 2000.  At first, a core group of people met together for prayer & Bible study on Wednesday nights.  Then, the group started meeting on Sundays and Wednesday in April of 2001.  After just a short period of time, the group was able to be self-supporting and officially organized into Pioneer Baptist Church in Oct. 2001. Pioneer Baptist Church acquired some land along the Richardson Highway in the Fall of 2002.  Right away Pioneer Baptist Church began clearing the land so construction of a church building could begin.  The foundation was completed in the summer of 2003 and by the end of Fall we had the exterior shell completed.  During the Spring of 2004 we had a workcrew from a church in Florida come and help us hang drywall.  We were able to move into our building and begin holding services in July of 2004.   We purposed to avoid a lot of debt, so we have built slowly & in phases, as the Lord provided the resources.  The Lord has been so very good to us.  He has provided blessing after blessing which has enabled us to have slow & steady growth.  He has given us nice facilities and a solid group of believers that really love the Lord.