Grace L. Ingulsrud

From prairie homesteads to pioneer evangelism, from raising children in a foreign land to dealing with the tragedy of debilitating disease, Grace Ingulsrud’s telling of this missionary story bears witness to how God strengthens and preserves those who serve him. This is from the cover of the book Grace wrote called Heeding the Call: A Missionary Memoir (2001). Grace died on October 25, 2024, just one day before her 97th birthday.

Grace was born in Blumenhoff, Saskatchewan, located south of Swift Current. Her parents were Jacob and Agnes Nelson. She was sixth in a family of nine children. Two were brothers, six were sisters. In her farming community, she grew up close to other relatives and she was especially close to her cousins. After High School, she attended the Lutheran Collegiate Bible Institute for two years. Some of her sisters also attended and they pooled their musical skills to create the Nelson Trio. They sang at churches and various events.

Because of the post-Second World War demand for teachers, she attended Moose Jaw Normal School and taught in one-room schools in Southern Saskatchewan for about six years. As a devout Christian, she sensed the call to serve in overseas mission work. To do so, she needed more specialized training. She chose the Lutheran Bible Institute to study in their missions course. As her one-year training was coming to an end, she applied to the Evangelical Lutheran Church, headquartered in Minneapolis, to serve as a lay missionary. She was accepted and assigned to Japan.

Grace hated leaving her family to whom she was very attached; yet she made the leap in giving her life of service in a foreign land. In the end, she served in Japan for 33 years. She first had to spend nearly two years studying the Japanese language in which she became proficient. She initially served as a parish worker in Numazu, at the foot of Mt. Fuji for about five years.

In the same mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, there was a pastor who lost his wife to illness and was left with three children. After a time, Pastor Lars Ingulsrud proposed to Grace Nelson. She accepted and not only became a wife but a mother of three children Ruth (10) John (7) and Faith (6). Soon, she had two children of her own, Joel and Leon.

Once the final child was born, Grace and Lars were assigned to the city of Toyota, the site of the large auto company. There they worked with industrial workers as well as management. Grace taught English to executives of the Company, together with teaching the Bible to women’s groups. They were instrumental in starting two new congregations in the city.

After the children had left home, Grace’s husband began showing symptoms of memory loss. As an experienced missionary herself, she began taking over her husband’s work as he was less able to carry on. They retired in 1987 and moved to Forest Lake, Minnesota. This proved to be a quiet environment for Lars. Yet his condition worsened and in 1994, he entered the Ebeneezer Home in Minneapolis. The task of caregiving a spouse with dementia, as Grace writes in her book, was more challenging than mission work. Lars died in 1999.

In 2006, Grace moved from Forest Lake to Greenhouse Village in Roseville. There she attended classes at Luther Seminary as well as St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church where she was active in several women’s groups.

In 2017, Grace celebrated her 90th birthday. All her children gathered to celebrate together with many friends and relatives. Soon after that birthday, she herself began showing signs of memory loss. In 2018, she moved to The Heritage at Lyngblomsten, but less than two years later a fall made it necessary for her to move into the Care Center at Lyngblomsten. There she received most excellent care until she died on October 25.

A memorial service will be held at St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church, 2323 Como Ave. St. Paul, MN 55108, on Monday, October 28 at 2 pm. A graveside service will be held at the Scandinavian Cemetery, 1516 8th Street South East, Forest Lake, MN 55025, on Tuesday, October 28 at 10 am. Memorials can be offered to St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church or Luther Seminary.