Books: Personal Experiences of S. O. Susag
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S. O. Susag >> Personal Experiences of S. O. Susag
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One Sunday morning wife and I with two sisters drove to Westlake for the
forenoon service which was held in the home of Brother and Sister Hans
Myhre. After service wife came to me and said that Sister Myhre wanted us
to stay for lunch. But I said, "No, we cannot stay for lunch, the Lord
wants us to go home right away." On hearing this, Sister Myhre came to me
and said, "You have got to stay for lunch." I answered, "Sister, we can't
stay for the Lord told me to go home." She said, "And then the sisters will
not get anything to eat either. Why do you have to go?" I said, "I don't
know, only that the Lord says, go home." "Brother Susag, you are stubborn,"
the sister insisted.
We drove home. Wife went upstairs to change her dress, ready to get lunch.
I sat on a chair meditating on what had taken place. I said to myself, "Are
you stubborn? Why did you come home?" Just then the telephone rang. I
answered and a voice said, "Is this Rev. Susag?" "Yes," I said. "Hold the
line, long distance calling you," he informed me. After a short pause a
voice said, "This is Anna Anderson of Brookings, S. D. Do you remember
promising Grandma H., when you were pastor here, that you would officiate
at her funeral? She died this morning and is to be buried on Tuesday. Can
you come?" I told her I would come. As I turned from the telephone wife
came into the room and I said to her, "Now I know why I had to come home so
quickly, for if they had not gotten in touch with me now, I couldn't reach
there in time for the funeral." She said, "Sometimes you are a little
queer, but I have committed you to the Lord and things always come out all
right."
* * * * *
When Brother August Christofersen of Norway Lake, Minnesota, was down with
double pneumonia I was sent for to come and pray for him. I went and prayed
for him and the Lord raised him up. I stayed for three days, went home and
in three or four days received a phone call to come back. I asked whether
he was sick. They answered, "No, but he wants to see you." I was able to
get a ride almost to his place, and walked the rest of the way. On nearing
his home I turned in to a grove I had to pass and kneeled down to pray for
the brother. The Lord said to me, "You do not need to pray for him now; he
is home with me." On coming toward the house his brother came out to meet
me, and I said to him, "So Brother August is home with the Lord!" He said,
"How did you know?" I said, "The Lord told me over in the grove."
* * * * *
While I was in Denmark I was invited to come to a certain town with which I
was entirely unacquainted. Finally when I found time to go I went without
writing to announce my coming. On arriving in the city I found I had
forgotten both the name and address of my friends. I walked back and forth
on the depot platform, racking my brain, as it were, to come across the
needed address, but I just could not remember it. A man spoke to me and
said, "You seem to be in deep meditation, or in trouble of some kind." I
said, "I surely am." To which he replied, "Sometimes we get into such a
fix; do you suppose I could be of any help to you?" But I answered, "I
don't suppose you can." However, I told him my trouble. He laughed and
said, "Surely you are in bad fix; can't you think of anything?" "The only
thing I can think of," I said, "is that they are the parents of Mrs. Anna
Nelson of Kaas, Denmark." "Well," he said, "you haven't struck it so bad
after all--I am her father!"
When I was pastor in Grand Forks we had in the congregation a mother in
Israel, a German sister who could not speak English. One Sunday evening the
Lord had blessed in a spiritual way. Mother Calm said to Brother Shave, "I
can preach Bro. Susag's sermon in German now." (I had preached in English.)
Bro. Shave said, "You can't do it." But she said, "I can." At that, Brother
Shave raised his voice and said, "Everybody wait a little while." And, sure
enough, Sister Calm preached my sermon, the Germans said, "almost to a
word."
* * * * *
At the St. Paul Camp meeting one time, Sister Aamot came to me telling me
she had lost a five dollar bill, over which she was feeling very badly. Her
husband was not saved. She wanted me to pray that the Lord would help her
find it. She told me she thought she had lost it on her way coming from the
Old People's Home to the tabernacle. It had been blowing pretty hard that
day and she had the bill in her handkerchief.
I went out into the timber to pray, and how the wind did blow! After I had
been earnestly praying that the Lord would help me to find the bill for her
and was getting up from my knees, on looking down into the leaves, lo,
there, between my knees, was the five dollar bill! And the sister had no
difficulty in proving that it was her five dollar bill.
* * * * *
While still in Denmark, one time Brother Morris Johnson and I were holding
a meeting on a farm. As we saw a large, fine looking man coming toward the
meeting place, Morris said, "Let's go behind the barn and pray God Almighty
to convict and save that man this afternoon." And the Lord honored our
faith and really saved the man that afternoon.
* * * * *
I was holding a meeting in Albert Lee, Minnesota and from there was
intending to go to Greenwood, Wisconsin. I looked at my time-table to find
out what the railroad fare would be and I figured it to be thirteen
dollars, so asked the Lord to give me thirteen dollars that evening. At the
close of the service someone put some money in my pocket and I began to
thank the Lord for thirteen dollars. The devil said, "You haven't got
thirteen dollars in your pocket," but I said I had. He said, "Just feel in
your pocket and you will find there is hardly anything there, or take it
out and count it and you will see." I told him that I would neither feel in
my pocket nor count the money for him, and that I had thirteen dollars.
When I got to my room I knelt down and thanked the Lord for thirteen
dollars, and then took the money out of my pocket and counted it and found
I had $13.05. On buying my ticket the next day it cost $13.05! I had made a
mistake in my figuring, but the Lord knew the exact fare.
* * * * *
During the meeting at Greenwood I went out inviting folks to the services.
One day I came to a farm house where the man of the house was ill in bed
with tuberculosis of the spine. I told him that I was a minister and also,
that I believed in Divine healing. When he heard this, he said, "You are
the very man the Lord has sent to me that I may be healed." I said, "I do
not know about that; however, I will pray for you. I am impressed of the
Lord not to anoint you. I will be back on Friday afternoon, and in the
meantime will pray the Lord to show me what to do." With this arrangement
the sick man was satisfied. It was now dusk, and on reaching my room in the
house where I stayed, I knelt down beside a chair to pray for him. As I did
so, a cow and three sheep stood right before me. I did this four times, and
as soon as I would get on my knees here were the cow and three sheep
between me and God, so to speak. So I gave up trying for that time, but the
next day at ten o'clock I went in to pray for him again in broad daylight.
But as I did so, the cow and the sheep were there before me.
On the appointed Friday I went to see him again. He inquired at once what
the Lord had made known to me about him. I told him the Lord had shown me
something but that I did not understand what it meant. He was anxious to
hear what it was, and I related the vision I had had. He said, "I perceive
that the Lord has sent you to be a help to me," and continuing, went on to
say, "We used to live in Iowa on a good sized farm and we were well-to-do
financially. I was very much interested in spiritual work, even to printing
and sending out a number of tracts. But it seemed that my poor soul was
clinging to the worldly thing too much. I was troubled about it, off and
on. However, your vision means that if I only had a cow and three
sheep--which we have--if my soul is clinging to them I can never enter
heaven." "Surely," he said, "the Lord has sent you to help me. Please pray
that I get right with God; that is the main thing." The dear man bitterly
repented and became very happy. The third day following this event he went
home to glory.
* * * * *
I had promised that after this meeting I would go to hold a meeting at
Dallas, Wisconsin, but the Lord impressed me to go home. Knowing no reason
for going home, I bought my ticket only to a certain station where I would
have to change if I went to Dallas, thinking that maybe my feelings would
change before I got there. But there was no change in my feelings when we
got there, so I bought a ticket to St. Paul and from there got a ticket to
Hawick, Minnesota, which is just three miles from my home.
On the street in Hawick, I met a young brother who exclaimed when he saw
me, "Oh, so you got our postal card?" I replied, "I did not get any postal
card." Then he said, "But you got the telegram?" I told him I had not
received any telegram either. "Well, then," said he, "how did you happen to
come home?" I told him that the Lord wanted me to come home, and then asked
him what the trouble was. He told me that my wife was very sick, near to
dying. Then he very kindly said he would take me out home. On arriving home
wife said, "I knew you were coming; I asked the Lord to send you." She was
suffering from an internal malady from which the nurse had told her she
could not recover, and so made up her mind that she was going to die.
Right at this time we received a letter from Brothers Nelson and Niles
requesting me to come and hold a tent meeting for them in San Antonio and
that I should bring my tent with me to hold the meeting in. Of course, I
felt I could not go and wrote them to that effect. Meanwhile, wife had
persuaded me that she was going to die, and being in poor circumstances, I
said to her, "You will not hold it against me, if when you die, I sell out
and take a homestead and so get out of debt, will you?" And her reply was,
"When I am dead you can do what you please."
Just about that time we got a letter from the Brothers Nelson and Niles
telling us they had been praying and the Lord had showed them that Sister
Susag was not going to die. On hearing this, wife said, "The good brethren
do not know any better; I am going to die." (And I was thinking so, too, as
she was getting no help.) More and more I was thinking about the homestead;
but wife told me I had better go to Texas. It seemed almost impossible to
get anyone to come and stay with her and the children, yet she would say,
"We will get along some way and you had better go or else souls will be
lost. If I should pass away before you get back you know where I am going
and if you keep true to the Lord we will meet in glory."
But I did not feel as though I could go and leave her that way. A couple of
nights after I had had this conversation with her I had a dream. I saw a
little table standing beside my bed on which was a kerosene lamp. The light
was just about to go out. It would light up a little and then go down till
it looked as though it was just ready to quit burning. I saw Jesus standing
on the other side of the table with a sad look on his face, pointing to the
lamp and saying, "Your lamp is about to go out." And I awoke from my dream
and jumped out of bed, ran into the next room and said to my wife, "On
Tuesday morning, I leave for Texas whether you are living or dying." To
which she replied, "Praise the Lord for your decision."
The Lord miraculously sent a good sister to our home from Washington. She
arrived the morning I was leaving for Texas. When she discovered the
circumstances, and that wife was sick, she said, "Now I know why the Lord
sent me here, and I'm here to stay until Sister Susag is well."
So I went to San Antonio. This was in the year 1902. At one place where I
had to change trains on the way, I took my grip and walked out on the
platform toward the train I was to take. There I stood and did not get on
the train, and the train pulled out without me. I walked back to the depot,
and the agent asked me whether I had intended to take that train and why I
did not get on it. I simply told him I didn't know why. "Well," he said,
"you fool, you will now have to wait four hours and take a slow train." (I
understood a little later why I was held back from boarding that train.
Only forty-five miles out it became derailed and some forty passengers were
seriously injured and, if my memory is correct, some were killed.)
When the tent meeting was over at San Antonio, Bro. Nelson left with me and
we were expecting to stop over in Hamilton and Kingston, Mo. to hold some
services. As we came closer to the first place Bro. Nelson said, "Here the
saints are well-to-do people." So, I thought, if they are well-to-do we
will not need to spend our time asking God for our car fare, for they well
know that preachers need car fare. The congregation rented a room for us
about a couple of blocks from the depot and we ate our meals in the
different homes.
After the meeting had closed and we had gone to our room at eleven p. m.,
Brother Nelson asked me whether I had received money for our car fare. I
told him I had not; that I thought he had received it all, since he had
been there before. But he hadn't received any. We then decided we had
better see whether we had enough money to take us to the next place.
Brother Nelson had enough for his fare and eight cents over; I was lacking
two dollars. We were to leave on the four-thirty train in the morning, and
now we had to pray the Lord to get us the two dollars!
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.
* * * * *
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."
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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!
* * * * *
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.
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