To a generation fifty years later, grown up on sitcoms, TV news and Hollywood movies, warnings of potential apocalypse may seem quaint and purposeless. However, the roots of the Church of Israel, previously called simply "the Church of Christ," and later "the Church of Our Christian Heritage," were growing in the sincere hearts of Christian men who wanted to get their families "bunkered down" for expected hard times and who knows what else. These men and women paid a price for their faith. Loaded into a 1934 Ford pickup pulling a large cattle trailer, they moved lock, stock and barrel into the Missouri hinterland. Hardly a more remote and hostile area could they have chosen. But through hard work, ingenuity and God's guiding hand, they survived their first winter, counting less than three dozen members of three generations the following spring. They simply wanted to live, raise their families, and worship God as separatists, having many beliefs in common with the early puritans and pilgrims, who were also separatists.

They built a saw mill, felled giant oak trees, cut lumber, and constructed homes and other buildings. One of their first projects was to erect a small church. They worked hard all week; then met with Bibles in hand at church on Sunday, where they prayed, sang, listened to hard preaching and thanked God for His supernatural blessings. Doctrines were fundamentally Christian, though less well defined then than today. Ties with the Morman faith weakened during the 1950's, and were finally broken altogether in 1967. Through study, prayer, divine guidance, and persistent faith, the survivors provided for the next generation. One child of the group was a mere 5 years old when he and others arrived barefoot, and adorned with tattered clothes. His name was Dan Gayman, who today at age 62 leads the Church of Israel as its chief Pastor. In 1945, when Dan was only 8, his farmer father met tragic death. While plowing a field, he was struck and killed by an unexpected bolt of lightening. He left behind his 28 year old widow, Lucy, and seven orphan children. It would be another decade before the electric light bulb and telephone service would come to rural Missouri. Yet young Dan, the oldest boy, assumed family leadership, and through the adversity of those early years proved that a poor Missouri orphan farm boy could make something good, even amidst severe poverty and adversity. He later graduated from the local Schell City high school, then went on to Southwest Missouri State University. There he finished with honors in 1964, and received a Bachelor of Science and Education degree. He continued to do post graduate work.

He had earlier met and married Deloris Allen, born during the late depression in Southern California. Her parents brought her as a baby back to Missouri, where later her bare feet often took her to and from her country school house. Those days are now mostly forgotten, swallowed up by the prosperity of the '90's. Those early years of hardship tested the mettle of the Gaymans and their extended family and church. Older Americans who lived through the Great Depression can attest to such hard times. Out of such affliction, often comes great purpose, leadership, and sometimes a divine calling, as hundreds, even thousands, of seekers of Bible truth will attest today, concerning the worldwide tape, print and counselling ministries of Pastor Dan Gayman and the Church of Israel.

To backtrack a bit, it was after teaching in the Missouri public school system for 5 years, that Mr. Gayman became Principal of Walker High School, Walker, Missouri. From the time he was a boy, Dan had the proclivity of studying the Bible. He was an avid reader, and had the unique ability to comprehend vast subjects quickly. He dedicated himself, in addition to his work as a public school administrator, to do service in the local community. He was invited to preach almost every week at various "Churches of Christ" around western Missouri. There he developed a unique style of Bible exposition and exhortation. In 1976, he and Deloris took a step of faith and quit the public school system. He went full time into the ministry, with no salary. Yet God provided, and the Church of Israel is blessed today with 20 acres of grounds dotted with a 500 seat sanctuary for worship; a church office with book store and church library; two dormitories for visitors; a gymnasium and campground; a large cafeteria/dormitory for servicing larger gatherings, and a second, older wilderness church sanctuary. Weekly attendance varies between 140 and 200, all present by invitation only. The Church of Israel, like many other churches, celebrates closed communion. Annual Holy days are sponsored in Spring, Summer and Fall. Visitors register and come from all over the United States and some foreign countries to attend these festivals.