Old sermons; modern mesage: Michigan Author Joy Ibsen explains what inspired her new book "Unafraid" at hometo

Part One (of three): In her hometown Trout Creek Library, Michigan Author Joy Ibsen starts explains inspiration for new book "Unafraid" that's set in the 40, 50s and 60s with surprisingly modern message thanks to her father - a Danish-American pastor who died about 35 years ago.



Writer Joy Ibsen honors father with her new book "Unafraid" - Ibsen's first book "Songs of Denmark" recently presented to Danish royalty



(Trout Creek, Michigan)- 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.

Danish-American pastor Rev. Harald Ibsen is the lead co-author of his daughter's second book "Unafraid" that was just released in paperback just before Father's Day 2009 by Wipf and Stock Publishers of Eugene, Oregon.

Ibsen died in 1972 at age of 74.

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 the thoughts of parishioners listening and what is going on in their lives.

A Lutheran pastor, Harald Ibsen had rural churches in Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska.

"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.

From protecting a castle as a member of the Danish Royal Guard to being a construction worker at Yellowstone National Park, Rev. Ibsen's career was as unusual as his parenting style.

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 con