Chapter 8

As for me, I was not acquainted in the city and did not know where to go to raise a penny. We prayed until two o'clock, then I said to Brother Nelson, "We do not need to pray any longer; the Lord says He will attend to it." We went to bed for about an hour and a half. We went to the depot and Brother Nelson bought his ticket, then I ordered mine and put what money I had in the window of the ticket office. While the agent was counting the money, a man came running very fast into the waiting room and stuck his left hand right in front of my nose through the ticket window and left two dollars there, then turned and went out so fast that I had no chance to thank him. Brother Nelson looked at the man, and then asked me whether I knew him, but I had never seen him before, nor had Brother Nelson. The lesson I learned from this incident was that it is better to depend upon the Lord than on well-to-do saints.

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On arriving home I told wife of the incident. She at once asked me whether I was sure it was a man who brought the two dollars. I said, "To me he looked like an angel, and he would have looked so to you if you had been in a like fix."

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ANSWERS TO PRAYER

Once, when home for two or three days I was suffering pain in the region of my heart. At every beat it would seem to say, "Kelly, Kelly, Kelly." (Kelly was a place in North Dakota, about 260 miles from home. There were a few saints in the community who might be needing help). I was very sick and I told my wife how badly I was feeling. She said, "Perhaps the Lord wants you to go to Kelly." The next day the pain was still bothering me, so I sat down and wrote to O. O. Holman and said, "I am sick; if the pain in my heart does not soon stop I will be at your station Sunday at ten o'clock." This was in the month of August, the busy season for farmers. The pain did not stop, so I started out. When I had gone about one hundred miles from home the pain left me.

Having to change trains at Grand Forks and there being no train for Kelly until the next morning, I decided to go and stay over night with Brother C. H. Tubbs. At the parsonage I met Brother Newell, a minister, Brother Shave and Brother Niles, deacons of the congregation there, and a sister who was visiting.

They all exclaimed in surprise at seeing me appear at that time of the year and wanted to know the reason for my being there. I really felt sheepish about telling them. Kelly was only fifteen miles from Grand Forks and they had not heard of there being any serious trouble there.

After I had told them how I happened to be going to Kelly, Brother Tubbs turned to his wife and said, "Mary, you preach tomorrow; I want to go along with Bro. Susag and see what is going on." His wife said, "Charles, I am going along, too." Then to Bro. Newell he said, "You take the morning service tomorrow," but he also declined as he, too, wanted to go with us. And Bro. Shave made the same reply; he wanted to go to Kelly. But when Bro. Niles was asked to preach at the morning service, he kindly consented to take charge. In the morning I started out for Kelly with three ministers, one deacon and one sister accompanying me.

I am generally quite talkative, but I did not do much talking those fifteen miles, wondering what the people would think if, when getting there, we should find nothing unusual the matter. When the train stopped at the station I waited for all the folks to get off first. As I looked out of the window I saw Brother Holman standing on the platform weeping, looking at the people as they got off the train. Then I came. I went to him and asked him why he was weeping. He said, "We have been praying the Lord to send you to us and today I started for the station, confident that I would either meet you in person or that I would get a letter," and taking the letter from his pocket and holding it up, said, "and here I have both!" Then he told me that his wife was very ill, possibly dying, and that they had been praying the Lord to send me to them.

It was three miles out to their home in the country and Bro. Holman had only a one-seated buggy, so the two sisters drove and we preachers walked.

The good Lord heard prayer and healed Sister Holman. Also, an old lady of ninety years of age was baptized at this time.

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On another occasion I was asked to come to Grand Forks to hold a revival meeting. On my arrival there I found that the pastor was having trouble with his eyes so that he had to stay at home in a dark room. Services started Friday night and it seemed that the whole congregation had become cooled off. This was made clear to me, so I preached three sermons--one on Friday night and two on Saturday. But it looked as though the condition grew worse instead of better as a result of my preaching.

Saturday night I had a dream. I dreamed that the Lord had sent me there to gather the sheep back that had wandered into a man's field and were tramping the grain down. Then I picked up one stone and threw it at them to try to get them back. I picked up another stone, and then threw the third one. They seemed now to be frightened worse than ever. This discouraged me and I said to the Lord, "What shall I do?" He said, "Speak gently to them."

Then I went into the field myself and called "Sheep! Sheep!" to them, and they began to gather together and it wasn't long before I had a nice bunch of sheep up on the highway. I asked the Lord why it was I couldn't get them together without my going into the field myself, for I preached His word to them. "Yes," He said, "you preached My Word to them, but it was the way you preached it." So Sunday I made my confession to the congregation and weeping, asked their forgiveness, and every one was brought back to the Lord, and a few sinners who were in the audience were also saved.

Through the week of services thirty-eight persons came from different states and Canada for healing--and there were some very serious cases. The night before the day we had set apart for the praying for the sick, I prayed from eleven o'clock that night until four o'clock in the morning in a dark room. When I got up from my knees the Lord stood before me and made it clear to me that He was going to heal every one of those who had been prayed for.

After all were healed and it was time for the services to close, a little nine year old girl came and sat on the altar bench. I went to her and said, "What do you want, Sophie?" In reply she said that she had seen how the Lord had healed the eyes of Sister Hobert and that now she wanted the Lord to heal her and set her eyes straight. (Her eyes were badly crossed).

On returning to the city some eight months later, I was invited to take supper with Brother and Sister Amondson, Sophie's parents. They had a number of children who came around me, and I wanted to know where the little girl was whose eyes were crossed and for whom I prayed several months before. A little girl spoke up and said, "Don't you know me? I am Sophie." I then asked her to tell me about her healing.

She told me that she was prayed for on that Friday night, and the following Monday she was starting out to school without her glasses and her mother, who was not saved, seeing her without her glasses, said, "Sophie, don't forget to wear your glasses!" Sophie answered, "Mother, I was prayed for at the revival meeting Friday night and I do not need my glasses." Her mother said, "Nonsense, come and get your glasses." But Sophie ran away to school!

That forenoon the teacher asked Sophie to read, and when she got up she said, "Sophie, haven't you your glasses with you?" (She knew Sophie had not been able to read without her glasses.) Sophie answered, lifting her hand, "Teacher, I was prayed for at the revival meeting Friday night and I do not need my glasses!" and her eyes were straight!

A number of years later I met Sophie with her little girl. She was a lovely looking woman and was happily married.

* * * * *

I was baptizing a number of people in the North Sea, outside of Lokken, Denmark, among whom was Sister Swenborg, from Tiste, whose eyes were so crossed that she could not help herself at all without wearing her glasses. A big crowd was there, mocking and throwing sand at the saints. I had just baptized Sister Swenborg, and as she was coming out of the sea I heard a shout going up from the saints. They told me that as the sister was coming out of the water with lifted hands and looking up to heaven praising God, a halo of glory was shining around her head--and her eyes were straightened and she was a changed woman from that time. The mob stopped their mocking on seeing this demonstration.

After the service the next Sunday at Tiste, Sister Swenborg made the request that everybody meet her the next Tuesday afternoon at two-thirty o'clock at the boat landing as she had something of interest to tell them.

A big crowd gathered on Tuesday afternoon, and the sister climbed up on a large box holding her glasses in her hand and said to the people, "You all know me and my parents who live about six miles east of town. Before I was big enough to wear glasses it was necessary either for me to have someone lead me or to pull me in a little wagon or sleigh. I was saved recently in a meeting held by Bro. Morris C. Johnson and last week I went to Lokken and was baptized, and as I came out of the water my eyes were straightened. Here are my glasses," she said, holding them up and telling what they had cost, "Here they go! I don't need them anymore!" and into the sea they went. Then, opening her hand bag she took out a needle and said, "This is the finest needle on the market," and took thread and threaded it before the eyes of the astonished crowd.

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For a number of years I had suffered with appendicitis and during a meeting I was holding in company with Bro. Carl Arbeiter at Plum Coolie, Canada, I had a severe attack which lasted two days and two nights. The third night I was so tired and worn out that I went to sleep in spite of the pain. I woke up hearing myself say, "Don't stick that knife into me." The appendix was swollen to about the size of a small hen's egg, and I felt it was going to burst. There was no time to get anyone to come and pray so I laid my own hands on my body and said, "Lord God Almighty, if you do not help me now I am gone." It burst, making a noise like the shot from a small shotgun. I then turned over to my other side and went to sleep at once and have never experienced any bad effects nor had any attacks since. In relating this experience to three doctors later, two of them laughed and made fun of me, but the third one said, "Hold on, hold on; this man has never lied to me yet." He said it could have burst into the intestines, the poison passing out the natural way. And if not, the Lord God could take care of him!

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Once I had a stroke. Half the left side of my body down to my knees was affected. I could not sit up, neither could I lie down. I stood on my knees beside the sofa for two weeks. I was prayed for several times but was not healed. And I was to start a revival meeting at Hereford, Minn. the Thursday of the second week that I was sick.

Sister Hedricks came over often and prayed for me. When on the second Friday she came and I was no better, she asked me whether I had sent to Anderson and to the Scandinavian Publishing Company at St. Paul Park to have them pray for me. On telling her I had not done so and explaining to her that I had no faith for my own healing, I said, "I could pray for your healing if you were sick, but I have no faith for myself, and I have always preached that when folks were saved they should have faith to pray for their own healing, so I do not want to bother the folks to pray for me." "Well," she said, "aren't you humble enough to tell them that you have no faith for yourself?" I answered, "All right, you pray for me and I will think it over." The next day I asked wife to write to these two places, and when she had written and sealed the two letters I was instantly healed! Wife sent the letters.

After getting healed I decided to go to the revival meeting at Hereford, but there was no train going there until Monday and it was in the month of November and very cold. And it was at the time when the automobile first came into use. One family in the congregation at Hereford had a Ford furnished with a top and side curtains, another family had a Buick (called a gentleman's car), and it had no top nor even a windshield on it.

I found out later that the owning of these cars had caused some little friction in the congregation. In fact, some had said that nobody could have one of those machines and still be a Christian. But they had decided to leave the matter until the time Brother Susag should come and he would help them out.

When we were leaving my home to drive to town to take the train for there, it was really cold. I said to my wife, "Let's go back in the house and ask the Lord to send a man to meet me at Elbow Lake, with a car having a top on it and side curtains"--for I was still very weak. On arriving at Elbow Lake I went to the post office and wrote a card home--I would have had to change trains there if no one had come to meet me--and as I came out of the post office I saw a man across the street--walking in the direction I was going. He looked at me and I looked at him, wondering, then he came running across the street and exclaimed, "Now I know why I came to town today! I am here to drive you to the meeting. I had left my car in town to have a little work done on it, not intending to use it until after the meeting."

Then he went on to say, "We live six miles from town, and this morning as I was working around the barn the Lord said to me, 'You go to town and get your car.' My wife said, 'John, leave that car alone; don't go to town.' But I told her that the Lord said, 'You go and get the car.' And I came as fast as I could get here."

He took me to the service. Bro. E. G. Masters was preaching, and when he had finished speaking he asked me to come to the pulpit and tell how the Lord had healed me and how it was that I managed to get to the service. I related the whole story, telling how I had prayed for someone to meet me who had a. car having a top to it and side curtains to keep out the cold. I then added that I was so glad the Lord had lots of cars; that as for me, I never expected to have a car of my own for I did not think that I would ever be able to afford anything like that. That settled the car difficulty in the congregation--and I was entirely ignorant of the fact of there having been any trouble! Today I am using my ninth car.

That meeting was a real success. Brother Masters, for a number of evenings, had offered a brand new eighteen dollar Bible to any preacher, professor, presiding elder or bishop that could come into the pulpit and prove that we were not preaching the Bible. He gave them five minutes to come to the front. One family belonging to a certain denomination sent for their bishop and he came. After the service was over and the family had taken the bishop to their home, they asked him why he did not get up and prove that we were not preaching the truth so as to get the Bible. The good man answered, "After those two men were finished speaking there was nothing to say. They preached the Bible." Brother Masters spoke on the "White Horse of Calvary" and used the blackboard to illustrate his meaning.

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Brother Peter Peterson of Hoboken, New Jersey and I held some meetings together up in a newly settled district of northern Minnesota. Our offering for two weeks services was one round fifty-cent piece.

While there we had a call to go to the insane asylum, at Fergus Falls, Minnesota to pray for a Brother Weegan who had lost his mind. After entering the institution we were locked in the cell with him and on bended knees with our hands uplifted toward heaven, we began to pray and all of a sudden he was restored to his right mind. We knocked on the door to have the attendant came and let us out. As we were going out of the door Brother Weegan pushed his head between us and the attendant and said to the man, "You might just as well let me out, too, for I am as rational as these two preachers now, and I will not hurt you any more."

Then I asked the attendant whether there was a man in the place by the name of John Lukesen of Irving, Minnesota, and he told me there was such a man there. I told him we had ten minutes to spare and asked him whether we could go in and see him without first having to go to the superintendent's office for permission. The man lifted his hands and said, "You can see anyone in this institution since this one man has received help from you."

He then proceeded to give us information about the one we wanted to see. He said, "When Mr. Lukesen first came here we had to have him in a padded cell and he got so bad that we had to tie him to his cot and now he is like a wild cat and nothing but skin and bones; he won't be long for this world."

When he opened the door to the cell, there I saw my neighbor lying on his cot and he surely did look like a wild cat, as the man had said! The compassion of the Lord Jesus came upon me and I lifted my hands toward heaven and called aloud to him, "John Lukesen, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I serve, makes you well!" And he was well! Shortly after this, he was sent home.

We planned to go from there to Hereford, Minnesota. At Evansville where we had to change trains, we inquired of the station agent when the train for Hereford would be leaving. We were informed that there would be no train leaving for that place before Thursday at three o'clock. We were told that only two trains a week went from there to Hereford and this was Tuesday--a long time to wait!

Brother Peterson said, "Let us go out and pray." After we had prayed we returned to the depot and asked the agent when the train for Hereford would be leaving. He answered gruffly, "I told you Thursday afternoon at three o'clock." "All right," said Brother Peterson, "Let us go out and pray." After praying we went back the second time and asked the agent the same question; and this time he was really gruff. And he surely informed us that there would be no train leaving before Thursday afternoon at three o'clock. Again, Brother Peterson said, "All right, let us go out and pray."

We went out once more into the grove to pray and Brother Peterson did the praying: "Lord, the President can get a special pullman train any time he wants it and he is only the president of the United States; and here are we, Brother Susag and I, Thy ambassadors. We are not asking Thee for a pullman car--we will be satisfied with an old caboose--the distance is only 30 miles; so Lord, won't you please talk to the agent?" We both said AMEN.

On returning to the agent for the third time, Brother Peterson said to him, "When will that train be ready for Hereford?" In a very mild tone he replied, "I have been thinking about it and I will shove a few box cars and a caboose together and send you fellows out." And we both said, "Thank you, sir." And so the Lord answered prayer and sent us home on a special train!

When wife and I got saved, my brothers and families and wives quit writing to us, and in four years we seldom heard from them. One evening a letter came from my sister-in-law telling us that my brother had lost his reason and had been sent to the insane asylum at St. Peter, Minnesota, and asking me to come at once. Not having any money on hand to go with, I went to a near neighbor and showed him the letter and asked him if he would loan me fifteen dollars so that I could go to Minneapolis and also to St. Peter. He told me that he would do that even if I were not able to pay him back. The next day I went to Minneapolis to my sister-in-law and her five children. Jerome, the oldest boy, seven years of age, said, "Uncle, are you going to bring Daddy home?" I said, "Son, I cannot bring your Daddy home, but Jesus Christ whom I serve will bring him home."

My sister-in-law related how it all happened. She went for her pastor and my brother-in-law, a professor in the Lutheran college. When they came Jerome said to them, "Won't you pray like Uncle Swen does?" They had evidently talked about our praying even though they did not write to us. After they had gone his wife had to let my brother out-doors and he ran four blocks without a thread of clothing on--until a policeman captured him.

I went to St. Peter, and Dr. Tumbleson, the president of the institution, refused to let me see my brother. I told him that I must see him; that as a minister of the gospel I had a right to go where a doctor could go. But he still refused and called in two other doctors who said to me, "Your brother is not only insane but is seriously ill and we do not expect him to leave this institution alive." To which I replied, "Then so much the more do I have to see him; and if you continue to refuse to let me see him you will have two Susags in this institution, for I will stay until you grant me the right to see my brother." Finally relenting, they sent for a man to take me to see my poor brother.

As I entered the cell in which he was confined my brother did not know me. He was walking around the room more like an animal than like a man. I knelt down in the middle of the floor and prayed. After a while he came and put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Swen, how does it come that you are here?" I said, "I have come to help you, Mike." "Thank you, I am glad you have come; something got into my head and I lost my mind. How is my family?" I told him they were all well and had sent their greetings to him. Then the man who had brought me in took hold of me and ordered me out.

But I was satisfied. This was the 22nd of March and I fasted from one meal every day for seventeen days and some days I would touch neither water nor food telling the Lord I had promised Mike's wife and his children that I was going to bring the husband and daddy home; and, "Jesus, I will give you no rest until you do so."

On the eighth of April during morning worship the Spirit of the Lord revealed to me that the Lord had heard our prayer and that my brother was perfectly well! I jumped up from my knees and ran around the house shouting the glory of God. Wife thought, "Here is another crazy Susag," but Brother Enos Key, of Red Key, Indiana (who had come to hold a meeting) was with us and he said, "Praise God, Brother Susag has the victory!" And three days later I received a letter from Doctor Tumbleson giving us the good news that on the eighth day of April the nurse went to take food to my brother and found him perfectly well in mind and body. And that he was doing bookkeeping for the institution and could come home any time only for the customary red tape it would take a few days before he could come. In a short time he was home and well.

* * * * *

On one occasion when I was holding a meeting at the fishing town of Sookden, Denmark, a great storm arose. As is the custom in fishing towns, boats put out to sea at high tide for better fishing conditions; forty-two had gone from here about two o'clock in the night. Toward morning the storm broke and on into the forenoon it became very fierce. Some of the older people were telling of a similar storm they remembered of some forty years before when thirty-eight boats went out and such a storm blew up. If I remember correctly, not one boat returned.