"No. 2 in a series 'Meet Your Minister'" from the August 9, 1956 Door County Advocate
HARD AT WORK — This is the Rev. Albert Harke, pastor of the Sister Bay Moravian church
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No. 2 in a Series
'Meet Your Minister'
This is the second in a series of articles on Door county ministers written by the Rev. I. Dean Jordan of Sturgeon Bay's First Methodist church.
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Rev. Albert Harke of Sister Bay Moravian church was checking cherries in the orchard of one of his parishioners when we stopped to visit. With a duck-billed cap, well-worn jeans and cherry-stained hands he looked quite different from the neat, professional appearing man of our ministers' meetings. Joking at his appearance Mr. Harke explained the change.
"Most of my congregation are orchard people. When cherry picking time comes church activities practically stop, except for Sunday services. Even they drop sharply in attendance. One of my people needed some orchard help, and I had the extra time, so here I am. It is a refreshing change from the press of running a church."
"What do you normally do for relaxation?" I asked.
"We don't have any special activities. There's the garden. We start off ambitiously with that, but along about the last part of July when we got involved with helping with the cherries, or seeing some of the things that people drive hundreds of miles to see in Door county, the garden just kind of gets out of hand.
"We bought some fishing tackle recently. Now the boys and I are learning how to bait hooks and all that. Haven't had time yet to do much fishing, though."
Mrs. Harke had driven over to the orchard with me to find Mr. Harke. Their children had come too: Gary, who is 8 years old, G1en age 6, and 2 year old Janice. Mrs. Harke spoke.
"We like to go for drives. We also enjoy hiking along the beach, but Janice is too small to do much of this. After I've been around the house all day I like to get out to avoid a penned in feeling. Gary didn't think too much of this during school. He told us once: "I'm away all day. I want to stay home in the evening."
Gary added, "When I ride the bus all day I don't want to go for a ride in a car."
Mrs. Harke smiled and continued, "Now that school is out Gary likes to get away, too."
Speaking of Gary Mr. Harke remembered the time when Gary was just old enough that the family had started coming to church. I had just finished preaching," he recalled, "When Gary got away from Lois and came waddling down the center aisle. He was too small to climb the stairs to the pulpit, so he stood at the foot of the steps, held out his arms and called "Daddy," Lois had to come get him.
"The most embarrassing experience I have had, though, occurred shortly after I started preaching. I was new in the community. A couple came to be married. They were strangers to me, but their papers were all in order, so I married them. It wasn't until the local newspaper carried a long column with big headlines about the wedding that I discovered this couple had just been to court, and had been ordered by the judge not to be married for a month. Fortunately, my church people were understanding, and the situation didn't cause any grave trouble. But it was embarrassing!"
"What led you to become a preacher?" I queried.
"I've always expected to be one," he answered. "My father was a minister, and his father before him. Ever since I was a small child I had no other intentions."
"Does it live up to your expectations?" "Yes, it does. The thing I like most about it is the opportunity to help people get along better together. It is really a pleasure when through your efforts people are reconciled to one another, or find they take greater pleasure in each other's company."
"So far our children haven't had any feeling of being different because of being preacher's children," Mrs. Harke answered a question along this line. "Sometimes when we get awfully busy with church meetings, and can't, have the usual half-hour or so of story-time before they go to bed. They complain about it, but otherwise they ate just like anybody else's children.
"Al enjoys the children immensely. When he comes in in the evening Janice will pat the floor and say 'Boor, Boom.' She is ready to play."
"There was the time a visiting dignitary thought I spent too much time with the children," I chuckled Mr. Harke. "He had come for a series of meetings, and was staying in our home. Both of us took special care to keep the children from bothering him. After he left he rewarded our efforts by telling my superiors I that I was neglecting the church for my children.
"We have devotions with the children mostly at bed-time. We've tried reading them in the morning, but Janice keeps interrupting. We've been reading them some of Mary Alice Jones books. We may sing a hymn. Then we say our prayers."
Mrs. Harke smiled and said, "We have been reading them stories from Spence's "Get Thee Behind Me." I don't, know whether it has a good or bad effect. The other day, recalling an incident from the book, Gary asked me for some tea leaves so he could roll himself a cigaret!"
Gary made no comment on this. He had walked over to pick some cherries. Since the pails of cherries were stacking up Mr. Harke had to get back to work.
We left knowing that the next time we saw him he'd be in preacher's clothes again.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
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