Lowell Lundstrom remembers a different Cape Girardeau when he last visited the city 34 years ago.

"There was a more wholesome look when I was here in 1961," said Lundstrom, 55, an evangelist who will be here March 19 through 26 to hold nightly crusades at the Show Me Center. "But that wasn't just Cape Girardeau. It was like that in almost every city I visited."

The lines were more clearly defined then, he said, adding: "Right was right and wrong was wrong. Now something only seems right if it achieves an advantage; something is only wrong if it hurts someone."

In the years that followed his first visit here, Lundstrom witnessed the deterioration of the American family and with it a depreciation of moral and spiritual values.

"When I was in New York a while back, someone told me to take my wedding ring and watch off or they would be taken from me by someone on the street," he said. "It's hard to believe that someone feels it is their right to steal from another person. But that's what we've become."

What gives Lundstrom hope, however, is hearing from people who have attended his crusades. Many say he has changed their outlook on life.

"When someone tells you that your meeting helped them find the moral compass and get back in touch with God, you fell like you've done something worthwhile," Lundstrom said, adding that people are finally saying they have had enough and more and more people are deciding that right and wrong are important in their lives.

And, Lundstrom is hopeful because people are seeing they need more than an hour in church to get in touch with God and have a meaningful life.

Lundstrom heads the national Impact America outreach, an organization based in Minneapolis and employs some 400 workers and has three full-time directors.

"This is an exciting thing for me," Lundstrom said, interrupting the interview on a few occasions by standing up and walking around the room. He said it helps him think better.

He wove humor and a myriad of anecdotes into serious discussions about one of his main topics: "What's happening to America."

"What greater thing could I be involved in than to spend an exciting, guilt-free life of helping others and still end up in heaven in the end," he said.

Lundstrom, the Lundstrom Singers and Band, and the entire Impact America team will perform during the eight-day series of events at the Show Me Center. Admission is free. Nightly events will begin at 7:30. A registration fee is required for the "Lovers of Life" marriage seminar that will take place Saturday morning March 25 from 8:30 to 12:30 p.m.

Lundstrom became an evangelist April 7, 1957.

He remembers the time: "It was 9:30 p.m. on a Sunday. I will never forget that white church in Sisseton, S. D."

At the time, Lundstrom was 17 trying to be a country rock'n'roller and "not living a very good life," he said.

After nearly being killed twice in automobile accidents, he decided he needed a drastic change.

"I said `God if you're really there, come into my life,'" he said.

The result was a feeling of inner warmth and cleanliness.

"I felt like I was scrubbed inside out with Ivory soap," he said. "I knew right then that I had something to tell."

He has been telling it for 37 years with his wife, Connie.

"I decided that rockin' with Jesus was a whole lot better than rollin' downhill with the Devil," he said. "Most of the rock stars of my era are dead, but I'm still on the road 300 days out of the year doing what I was meant to do: spreading the word of God and enjoying every minute of it."

Lundstrom has written 15 books, 600 gospel songs, and has recorded 62 albums.

"Message for America," a 30-minute radio broadcast aired on as many as 170 stations for 21 years. The half-hour television show "The Lundstroms" was carried weekly for 12 years.

He can be heard daily on "Lowell-Live," an hourlong talk radio show which is co-hosted with daughter Lisa.

Lundstrom's crusade deals with a different topic each night. "The first night is the family, the second, youth, the third, patriotism, etc.

The event is being sponsored by more than 30 churches in the Cape Girardeau area.