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Viborg, South Dakota native and author Joy Ibsen returned home for Danish Days 2009 to present her new book “Unafraid” that includes a slice of Viborg life Michigan Author Job Ibsen visits Bethania Cemetery aka West Cemetery near Viborg, South Dakota where several generations of her family are buried including grandfather, great-grand parentsPhoto by Don Lenef Author Joy Ibsen visits Turkey Ridge, SD location where her great-grandfather Mads Ibsen homesteaded after 1893 DepressionPhoto by Don Lenef Young Danish Folk Dancers from Author Joy Ibsen's late father's Sunday School performed traditional dancingPhoto & videos by Don Lenef(Viborg, South Dakota) - Michigan Author Joy Ibsen returned to her childhood hometown during Danish Days 2009 to present her latest book “Unafraid” that includes a slice of Viborg life.From a great-grandfather forced to live in a local cave during a depression in the 1890s to a father who pastored two area churches after a stint protecting Danish royalty, Ibsen's Viborg heritage is as colorful as the bright red and white Danish flag.Author Joy Ibsen's books: "Unafraid" and "Songs of Denmark"During Danish Days, Ibsen led a Songfest on Saturday, July 18, 2009 using her popular first book “Songs of Denmark: Songs to Live By” that was followed by a PowerPoint presentation about her book “Unafraid” and then signed her books for friends, former neighbors and local residents.“I read a chapter from Unafraid and explained its Grundtvigian philosophy,” said Ibsen, whose presentation included her family history and stories based in Viborg.A 1958 graduate of Viborg High School, Joy's new book “Unafraid” has many stories about the years she lived in Viborg. The late Rev. Harald Ibsen (left) relaxes in his Viborg study; Our Savior's Lutheran Church (center) in Viborg; Our Savior's Danish Gymnasium Hall (right) in Viborg circa 1925“Unafraid” is co-authored by her late father Harald who served Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Viborg and the Trinity Lutheran Church in Gayville, SD (near Meckling) from 1948 to 1960.Ibsen died in 1972 at age of 74.“The book is co-authored by my (late) father because the sermons are the basis of the book and the thoughts and ideas are his and they are very relevant to today's world,” Ibsen said.Joy Ibsen brought “some of the Danish influence” and organizers were“excited to have her back again this year,” said Danish Days co-chair Julie Hartmann.“My mom grew up in her dad's church,” said Hartmann adding many of her relatives attended Harald Ibsen's Viborg services.Danish Folk Dancers on July 18, 2009 in Viborg High SchoolPhoto by Don LenefYoung Sunday school students from her Rev. Ibsen's one-time church (Our Savior's Lutheran Church ) comprise the Danish Folk Dancers who performed traditional dances at Viborg High School during Danish Days just prior to Ibsen's appearance.While going through an old wooden file cabinet in her mother's home, Ibsen rescued her late father's sermon notes.The sermons were given in small town and rural churches in four Midwest states with his longest service in Viborg.Her stories in “Unafraid” are fiction but begin with autobiographical stories mainly from Viborg.The 225-page paperback book is published by Wipf and Stock Publishers of Eugene, Oregon. Each of the 36 chapters in “Unafraid” starts with a portion of her father's sermons followed by the thoughts of parishioners and what is going on in their lives.Transcribing her father's sermon notes was a challenge, because they were in note form and created on an old Danish Royal typewriter with its Danish symbols and letters.After graduating from Viborg High School, Ibsen received arts and humanities degrees from Grand View College in Des Moines and Shimer College in Chicago.Ibsen is now a writer, piano teacher, musician, lay minister in the tiny northern Michigan hamlet of Trout Creek.“Unafraid” is on sale at the Viborg Museum.“Songs of Denmark” is available along with CD by the Grand View College Kantorei for $39.95.The CD alone is $10. The 1890s homestead (left, center) of Mads Ibsen in Turkey Ridge; Author Joy Ibsen visits West Cemetery to visit graves of her grandfather Lars Ibsen and great-grandparents Mads and Margrethe IbsenPhotos by Don LenefDuring her visit to the Viborg area, Joy Ibsen visited her great-grandfather Mads Ibsen's old homestead and visited her family plots at the West Cemetery.“I consider Viborg my hometown because that's where I grew up from third grade through high school,” Ibsen said.“I always visit the West Cemetery where my great-grandparents, grandfather and many other relatives are buried," she said.The Ibsen family's deep South Dakota roots include her great-grandfather Mads Ibsen who settled in Viborg (formerly Danneville) in 1889 which then had a population of 50 families. Joy Ibsen's great-grandfather Mads (left); Joy Ibsen's book "Unafraid" (collage top left) that's co-authored by her late father Rev. Harald Ibsen; Author Joy Ibsen (collage top right) of Trout Creek, MI; (collage bottom left) Author Joy Ibsen's grandparents Lars and Mathilda Ibsen, and Joy's father Harald Ibsen, Age 4 in South Dakota. His parents are holding sister Ingeborg; and (bottom right) the Rev. Harald and Asta Juhl Ibsen (Joy's parents) in Viborg, SD in 1957, and author Joy Ibsen (right sitting on grass), and her brother David (now of Portland, OR) and sister (left sitting on grass) Karma (now of Urbana, IL). Father Harald Ibsen died in 1972. Mother Asta Juhl Ibsen died in 1993.During Danish Days, Joy Ibsen visited her great-grandfather's homestead on 100 acres of unplowed prairie that included a small stream near Turkey Ridge where he built an 8 by 12 foot wooden shack with a slanted roof.“He bought the farm for $600 by making small payments to a former homesteader who was losing her rights to the property,” Ibsen said.Ibsen hopes to one day find the cave near Spring Valley where her great-grandfather (Mads) and two of his sons were forced to live during the winters of 1892 and 1893 after a beleaguered railroad project's contractors twice went broke. Mads and Margrethe Ibsen and their children:Back Row: Frederick, Lars, Grethe, Villads, JanusFront Row: Ida, Mads, Margrethe, Ingeborg, JensThe Depression of 1893 was one of the worst in American history and the unemployment rate exceeded ten percent for half a decade, according to historical records“It's my hope to sometime find the cave,” said Ibsen. “He had no money and would not accept charity so he dug out a cave in the side of a hill,” Ibsen said. “They only had a table, bench and a bed.”A 50-page family history poignantly includes a story about a Methodist shoemaker celebrating Christmas in the cave with Mads and sons.“They cooked and ate the Christmas dinner, played cards, sang and danced,” she said.“The conservative visitor forgot himself while waltzing with Mads and it dawned on him he was holy man who was not supposed to dance. He ran out of the cave like a whirlwind.”1960 photo of 25th wedding anniversary of Rev. Harald Ibsen and Asta Juhl Ibsen at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Viborg, SD.Photo by “Click” Hans, a popular Danish photographer in Viborg.“Click” earned the nickname because he was always clicking photos.Ibsen's father Harald – the co-author of “Unafraid” - was born in Irene, South Dakota in 1898, but moved back to Denmark at the age of six (1904) with his mother Mathilda, sister and baby brother after the death of his father Lars from tuberculosis, a disease that would kill millions of Americans including many Viborg residents.While living in Denmark for 20 years, Harald Ibsen served in the Danish Royal Guard at Amalienborg Palace.He returned to Viborg two decades later (1924), only to leave again seeking work including a stint as a construction worker at Yellowstone National Park.Ibsen graduated from Grand View Seminary in Des Moines, Iowa and became pastor of six Midwestern churches during the 40s, 50s and 60s. 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.“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 and literature at the University of Chicago and completed the theological education program in Episcopal lay ministry at the University of the South school of theology in Sewanee, TN.The mother of three grown children and two grandchildren, Ibsen says 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 raising children was different from many fathers as shown in his comments at the weddings of Ibsen and her sister, Karma.“We always enjoyed having Joy as a guest in our home,” said Harald Ibsen.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.”Several titles for her second book were mulled over but Ibsen named it after the Danish hymn “Unafraid” one of the 48 songs in both Danish and English in her first book “Songs of Denmark.”“Songs of Denmark” was presented to Danish Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary by Grand View University President Kent Henning during a ceremony in March 2009.The hymn “Unafraid” was “sung in the Danish Resistance during World War Two – a time of terrible danger,” Ibsen said.“Unafraid doesn't mean a person is problem-free and it surely doesn't mean to be reckless,” Ibsen said.“Today's society is bombarded by all kinds of fears and we need to learn to live unafraid with confidence and hope.”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 retired Lutheran Bishop Emeritus Harry Andersen of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Northern Great Lakes Synod in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (U.P.).Ibsen is currently working on two other books including “Hatchings” that describes “experiences of death and how it is similar to birthing.”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.Chapters in “Unafraid” are based on Harald Ibsen's other churches including St. John Lutheran Church (1960-1965) in the Danish village of Kronborg, NE; Immanuel Lutheran Church (1942-1948) in Kimballton, IA; and from 1936 to 1942 at the Diamond Lake Lutheran Church in Lake Benton, MN and the Hope Lutheran Church in Ruthton, MN.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 IbsenP O Box 43Trout Creek, MI49967Call: 906-852-3479email Author Joy Ibsen--- Author Joy Ibsen official website---Joy Ibsen social and photograph websites:Author Joy Ibsen on FacebookAuthor Joy Ibsen on TwitterAuthor Joy Ibsen on myspaceAuthor Joy Ibsen on Word Press blogAuthor Joy Ibsen on bliptvAuthor Joy Ibsen on youtubeAuthor Joy Ibsen on FlickrAuthor Joy Ibsen on Photobucket--- Wipf & Stock Publishing:“Unafraid” by Joy Ibsen and Rev. Harald IbsenWipf and Stock:Author Joy Ibsen bioWipf and Stock:Harald Ibsen bio---Joy Ibsen, Editor of "Church and Life"Joy Ibsen bio on "Church and Life" 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 --- Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig: Joy Ibsen writes about four principles of GrundtvigianismNikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig aka N.F.S. Grundtvig, Danish bishop and poet info on Wikipedia and Britannica websites: ---Pine Mountain Music Festival:Joy Ibsen serves as vice president of the Pine Mountain Music Festival board of directors ---Media coverage 2006-2010:Omaha World-Herald Preview story on 8-21-09 about Author Joy Ibsen talk to the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn IAL'Anse Sentinel newspaper preview story on Author Joy Ibsen book signing on July 30, 2009 at North Wind Books in Hancock, MISuperior Chronicle story on “Unafraid” on 6-18-09Iron Mountain Daily News brief on upcoming book signing at Finn Fest 2009 in Covington, MIJoy Ibsen honored in her childhood home newspaper Yankton Press-Dakotan in July 2008 during annual Danish Days festival for first book “Songs of Denmark"Joy Ibsen first book “Songs of Denmark” is mentioned in story by Des Moines Register because book was presented to Danish Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary by Grand View University President Kent Henning during a March 2009 ceremony. The story "Danish royalty pay visit to Grand View" by Cynthia Reynaud appeared on 3-25-09 (requires subscription to read)--- The book “Unafraid” is sold online by publisher and numerous Windows Booksellers website and other sites:TargetTower BooksBoone Bridge Books

• Release Date

  Sep 1, 2009

• Runtime

  02:56