With less than two weeks before the movers arrive to transport their belongings to Juneau, Alaska, Pastor Tari Stage-Harvey, her husband, Kurt, and children Hannah (from left), 7, Sophie, 5, and Elijah, 2, gather for a photograph in her office at Zion Lutheran Church in St. Ignace Wednesday, December 3. "It's not a pastor that makes a congregation, it's a congregation that grows a pastor, and they really have done that for us. They've made me the pastor I am now," said Tari Stage-Harvey of the members of Zion Lutheran Church in St. Ignace.

Now after 10 years of service here, Pastor Stage-Harvey, her husband, Kurt, and their three children, Hannah, Sophie, and Elijah, are preparing to move to Juneau, Alaska, where she will serve at the Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, which has about 150 members.

The move was not planned, say the couple, although relocating to Alaska suits their lifestyle of outdoor life, cooler temperatures, water, woods, and flying.

"It's really a good match," said Mr. Stage-Harvey. "It's a good match for the family; it's a good match for the church in what they were looking for in a pastor."

Pastor Stage-Harvey, who lived in a Tlingit village near Juneau after college graduation, returned to the city last summer on a mission trip with the senior high youth group from St. Ignace. While there, a friend mentioned the opening at the Juneau church and said that she would have been a good match for the position, although it had just been filled.

"I said, 'Good, because we are happy where we are,'" she recalls, but a week later, she received a telephone call telling her that the other pastor turned down the offer.

The family then realized they were interested in living in Alaska. The area is similar to the Upper Peninsula, said Pastor Stage- Harvey, except it has mountains, whales, and glaciers.

"It's a community that I enjoy. It's a neat mix of people," she said. "There are 30 languages spoken in their elementary schools. It's a huge, mixed population for such a small community."

Juneau is a young town with about 30,000 people with an average age of 37. Many people there have resided in the town 15 years or less.

The church she will be leading has a potential for growth, she said, and she is looking forward to reaching out to the native community, one of the goals of the congregation. The church also has a good youth program and it is interested in social programs addressing hunger and poverty.

The family visited the area in early November and she preached at the church. The church council approved, and the congregation, which has been without a pastor for two years, voted November 30 in favor.

During the November visit, daughters Hannah and Sophie made friends and visited the school and are looking forward to their new home.

"I love Alaska and I love Michigan," said Hannah, who plans to stay in touch with her St. Ignace friends by e-mail.

Her goal is to see the Iditarod dog sled race, which she and her classmates monitored last year from St. Ignace.

The Stage-Harveys were married while Tari was a student at Trinity Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. Upon graduation three years later, she had listed Alaska as her preference for a church, but was invited to serve her first pastorate at St. Ignace, which she learned is similar to southeastern Alaska.

She had never been to Michigan before.

"I had never heard of the U.P.," she said. "I didn't know it existed."

Members of her family are avid Ohio State fans, she said, and consider Michigan rival territory. Since her move to Michigan, her family jokingly resolved the issue by considering the Upper Peninsula a separate state.

Leaving St. Ignace will be hard.

"Ten years is a good amount of time," she Pastor Stage-Harvey said. "You get to know people, you get to know their families, you see them through a lot. They learn to trust you and you trust them."

Their children have many surrogate "aunts" and "uncles," said Mr. Stage-Harvey, as the community has become their extended family. Since their relatives live in Columbus, Ohio, which entails a 10-hour car trip with three children, the trip is not taken often.

"The church has become their family," he added, "so that's been a real neat thing."

The closeness of the community will be missed by his family, said Mr. Stage-Harvey. They will miss the people and the close connections St. Ignace offers. He remembers how an unexpected delay one day required a quick call to the school to say he would be late in picking up the children. School secretary and church member Kathy Marshall watched them until he arrived.

"You can't do that in a town bigger than 2,500 people," he said.

Mr. Stage-Harvey has been a flight instructor in Cheboygan for the last four years and is excited at the potential to serve as a pilot for air tours for summer tourists seeking to see Alaska from the air.

"This is pretty much a dream come true," he said. "When I started flying, my one goal was to own a little operation somewhere in the bush in Alaska. This is over 10 years ago when I first started flying."

For the last five years, he has been part of the Emergency Medical Service (EMS). He plans to continue EMS work in Juneau. He also drives a school bus parttime in St. Ignace and has offered to do the same in Alaska.

Pastor Stage-Harvey said her leaving will be good for the church. A new pastor will offer a "fresh set of eyes, a new focus."

"It's been a wonderful community to us," she said.

They will leave St. Ignace Tuesday, December 16, and travel to Ohio to visit family until Christmas Day, when Pastor Stage- Harvey, the children, and her mother will fly to Juneau. Mr. Stage- Harvey will drive with the family dog to Seattle, Washington, then board a ferry for the more than twoday trip to Juneau. The town is only accessible by water.

Pastor Stage-Harvey said she will miss the relationship, cooperation, and communication St. Ignace area churches have established while working together to better serve the community.

She serves as the treasurer of Area Hope, the church-based organization that is under the care of area churches. She is the hospice chaplain. The couple also have been involved with the Watershed Council, an international lay minister school, Earth Keepers, and the Lutheran Church's after-school program and youth program.

People are volunteering to fill the positions and programs.

"That's the nice thing about serving a church that is 100 years old, you know it's survived a lot," she said, "and it will be fine."

A farewell open house for the family will be hosted by the Zion Lutheran Church in St. Ignace Sunday, December 14, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.