U.P. Author Pens Book Honoring Her Father

Northern Michigan Author Joy Ibsen releases second book “Unafraid” in time to honor her dad on Father's Day; First book “Songs of Denmark” presented to Danish Royalty during recent U.S. visit.

TROUT CREEK, MI - Story by Greg Peterson - Thursday, June 18, 2009 - While going through an old oak file cabinet in her mother's Nebraska home, Upper Peninsula Author Joy Ibsen of Trout Creek, Michigan rescued her late dad's sermon notes and that led to one of the nicest gifts a daughter could give for Father's Day.

Danish-American pastor Rev. Harald Ibsen is the lead co-author of his daughter's second book “Unafraid” that was just released in paperback by Wipf and Stock Publishers of Eugene, Oregon. 

Each of the 36 chapters in the 225-page book “Unafraid” starts with one of her father's sermons written during the 1940s, 50s and 60s followed by autobiographical and fictional account of what many pastors wonder – the thoughts of parishioners listening and what is going on in their lives.

A Lutheran pastor, Harald Ibsen had rural, small town churches in Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska. Ibsen died in 1972 at age of 74.

“Unafraid” was released just in time for Father's Day 2009 (Sunday, June 21).

“On Father’s Day I think about how lucky I was to have a dad like mine,” said Ibsen, a writer, piano teacher, musician, lay minister.

Ibsen rescued the sermon notes that had Danish symbols and letters because her father used an old Danish typewriter.

The mother of three grown children and two grandchildren, Ibsen say her parents “have been models for my own parenting.” The Ibsen children were anything but the traditional “preacher's kids” due to the unconventional child-rearing views her dad held in the conventional 1940s and 1950s. Her dad's view of the world was different from many fathers as shown in his comments at the weddings of Ibsen and her sister.

“We always enjoyed having Joy as a guest in our home,” Harald Ibsen said. Joy Ibsen said “dad believed children are 'guests' who during their growing up years, lived with parents, who help and guide them but we were not expected to fulfill the dreams of our parents.”

“Of course, we had to comply with house rules because 'guests' don’t track in mud or stay out unreasonable hours,” Ibsen said of her upbringing. “Welcome 'guests' always lend a hand, help out, and they certainly don’t get spanked.”

Well-known Christian author Dr. Walter Brueggemann described Ibsen's father as “fresh in his thought, puckish in his style and grounded in faith” during his endorsement of “Unafraid.”

“We may thank the daughter for letting us know her remarkable father,” Brueggemann wrote. “Harald was unafraid as an immigrant who lived in a venturesome way.” Brueggemann and others have said the book is relevant today because some of the same issues discussed by Ibsen's congregation members are the same today including the bad economy, war, child-rearing difficulties, terminal illness, death of spouse, career choice, marital problems and loss of faith.

Endorsements of “Unafraid” were also written by St. Olaf College religion professor L. DeAne Lagerquist and and retired Lutheran Bishop Emeritus Harry Andersen of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Northern Great Lakes Synod. “Unafraid doesn't mean a person is problem-free and it surely doesn't mean to be reckless,” said Ibsen, who is vice president of the Pine Mountain Music Festival board of directors. Several titles for her second book were mulled over but Ibsen named it after the Danish hymn “Unafraid” in her first book “Songs of Denmark” that has 48 songs in both Danish and English.

Published in July 2005, “Songs of Denmark” was presented to Danish Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary by Grand View University President Kent Henning in March 2009 in a ceremony covered by the Des Moines Register. The hymn “Unafraid” was “sung by the Danish Resistance during World War Two – a time of terrible danger,” Ibsen said.

“Nevertheless one can live with confidence, and hope. Today's society is bombarded by all kinds of fears and we need to learn to live unafraid.” Ibsen said her father did not require his children to practice his religion and encouraged them to seek their own spirituality.

“Because my Dad was a Lutheran minister, we went to church every Sunday, but when I went away to college, to my surprise he suggested that I attend other churches so that I would be exposed to different faiths,” said Ibsen, who holds arts and humanities degrees from Grand View College in Des Moines and Shimer College in Chicago.

“He wanted his children to have a religion that was chosen, real and meaningful to them because that was much more important than appearances,” said Ibsen, who did graduate work in religion at the University of Chicago and studied Episcopal lay ministry at the University of the South school of theology in Sewanee, TN. In one of his sermons, Harald Ibsen said “the primary task of parents is to help their children understand the purpose of their lives.” That sermon “says it all” about her father's view of parenting, Joy Ibsen said.

“Fathers and mothers are not to mold their children, but rather to listen to them, be attune to their strengths, respect them, help them realize their God-given purpose in life, allow them to make mistakes,” Ibsen said. “How else do we learn life’s hard lessons and walk a different path than what the parents might have chosen.”

While his parenting was untypical, Harald Ibsen “was an athletic, outdoor person” who “loved to hunt, fish, hike, play golf, and always had an amazing garden,” Joy Ibsen said. “These are important values for me,” Ibsen said. “Every time I play golf I still think of my Dad, although he was much better at it than I am.”

“By his not asking me to be like him, I am more able to understand and honor who he was apart from me, and to celebrate differences between other people in my world,” Ibsen said.

“In many ways, I try to be like him. On the other hand, I honor our differences.” Ibsen is currently working on two other books including “Hatchings” that describes “experiences of death and how it is similar to birthing.”

Ibsen has book signings scheduled through August in several towns near where she grew up and held her first public appearance on June 7 in her hometown Trout Creek Library. Ibsen will appear at North Wind Books in Hancock at 4 PM on Thurs., July 30 and in the “Art at the Market 2009” summer art show at the UP Made Artist Market in Covington from 10 AM to 2 PM on Saturday, June 27.

“Unafraid” can be purchased from the publisher at the $29 normal retail price. The book is briefly on sale for $25 from the author and will be in U.P. bookstores including North Wind Books in Hancock and the Ontonagon Herald offices.

Ibsen is the editor and columnist for “Church and Life,” a publication of the Danish Interest Conference through the ELCA. An original member of the interfaith U.P. EarthKeeper environment group, Ibsen is a lay minister with the AELC Lutheran Church and an organist at Trinity Lutheran Church in Trout Creek, MI. She served as president of the Danish Immigrant Museum and is a participant at the Danebod Folk School.

Sermons used in “Unafraid” are from Christmas, New Year, Epiphany, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost, Trinity, and Advent. The sermons were given by Rev. Harald Ibsen at six churches in four states: The Diamond Lake Lutheran Church in Lake Benton, MN; Hope Lutheran Church, Ruthton, MN; Immanuel Lutheran Church, Kimballton, IA; Our Savior's Lutheran Church, Viborg, SD; Trinity Lutheran Church, Gayville, SD and St. John Lutheran Church, Marquette, NE.

St. John's Lutheran Church is located in the Danish village of Kronborg, NE (no post office) and is located three miles east of Marquette, NE, the closest town and the official address for the church.

Rev. Ibsen belonged to the American Evangelical Lutheran Church (AELC), formerly the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church, that merged into the American Lutheran Church (ALC) in 1962 that merged into the ELCA in 1987.

Ibsen manages Danamerica, a Danish-American website about her first book “Songs of Denmark.”

Photographs in “Songs of Denmark” are by National Geographic photographer Sisse Brimberg and a 70-minute CD of the songs was produced by the Grand View College Kantorei.

Joy Ibsen contact info: Joy Marie Ibsen, P.O. Box 43, Trout Creek, MI 49967, 906-852-3479, joyibsen@jamadots.com .

Author Joy Ibsen official website: http://www.joyibsen.com

Joy Ibsen and/or story related internet sites:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/

JoyIbsen Twitter: http://twitter.com/

AuthorJoyIbsen youtube: http://www.youtube.com/

JoyIbsenUnafraid bliptv: http://unafraidthebook.blip.tv

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joyibsen

Photobucket: http://s650.photobucket.com/albums/uu227/

JoyIbsenUnafraid Wipf & Stock - Unafraid: http://wipfandstock.com/store/

Unafraid_Life_Lessons_Sermons_to_Live_By_and_Tales_of_Listeners_Learning_to_Live_Unafraid Wipf and Stock - Author Joy Ibsen: http://wipfandstock.com/author/33662

Wipf and Stock – Harald Ibsen: http://wipfandstock.com/author/33807

Joy Ibsen, Editor of Church and Life: http://www.churchandlife.org/credits.htm

Danamerica is the official website of Ibsen's first book “Songs of Denmark: Songs to Live By” with color photographs by National Geographic photographer Sisse Brimberg.

Produced 70 minute CD by the Grand View College Kantorei Danamerica: http://www.danamerica.com

Danish Royal Family: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_Royal_Family

http://danishroyalwatchers.blogspot.com

Grand View University, (formerly Grand View College) a four-year, liberal-arts college affiliated with the ELCA in Des Moines: http://www.grandview.edu 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_View_University