Father Brewster, as he was commonly called, of Hereford, Minnesota, was
taken sick and was sick for some time. If I am correctly informed, he was
89 years of age. For a number of days it was thought that he was dead but
the doctor said that he was still living, but he might go almost any time,
and the family sent for me to come and conduct the funeral services. He had
been in a coma for eight days. On arriving I found that the doctors had not
yet pronounced him dead. I went into the bedroom where he lay and stood
looking at him for a few minutes, meditating on the many good times we had
had together in the Lord. Finally I fell on my knees and began to pray.
Suddenly he called out in a loud voice, "Praise the Lord, Brother Susag."
He never moved a hand or a finger, all that he moved was his lips and the
next day he passed away. He had not spoken a word for eight days.
* * * * *
One year when I was the evangelist at the S. Dakota State camp meeting, I
mentioned one day in my sermon that I was very busy and had received enough
calls since I had come to the camp meeting to keep me going for two years.
After the service Brother Geselbeck, the elder of the church, came to me
and said, "Let us go down to the car," which we did. He began by saying,
"I've always had confidence in you, Brother Susag, but today in something
you said, I thought you went too far, so I decided to speak to you at once
as I did not want to lose my confidence in you." I said, "Thank you, that's
fine, brother; what was it I said?" "You said that you had received enough
calls since you had been at the meeting to keep you going for two years,
and this is only the third day!" "Did I say that?" I asked. "Maybe I said
too much, but we will see I have the letters here in my pocket and they are
addressed to Arlington, Route 1, South Dakota." So we took the letters and
read them and found that if I were to hold meetings at each place as long
as they stated in the letters it would have taken me twenty-six months.
Bro. Geselbeck then said, "I knew you were a busy man, but I never knew you
were that busy, and I am glad that I spoke to you!" Yes, if we would all do
that way when something is in question it would avoid a whole lot of
misunderstanding.
* * * * *
I once had a cancer on my upper lip and one day I met Dr. Sandven on the
street of my home town. He stopped and said to me, "You had better come
over to the hospital and we will burn that thing out or else you will have
something." I replied, "I've got something already." "Yes," he said, "but
we may be able to burn it out yet." "Well," I said, "I believe I will wait
on my own Doctor a little while yet." "All right," he said, "if you don't
get rid of it, come over and we will try to help you."
A few days after this I went to Erie, North Dakota to hold a tent meeting
for Sister Bertha Gaulke who was the pastor of the church there. We had
prayer often, but for two nights the pain was so intense it seemed as
though the roots of the cancer were going into my nose and up into my left
eye. The third night I was weeping and praying and finally I went to sleep,
and in my sleep the Lord said to me, "Wake up and take hold of the cancer;
I have heard your prayers and it will come out." I woke up and did as the
Lord directed, and out it came, roots and all!
I have had (and still do have) many dreams. The Bible says, that "... old
men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions." (Joel 2:28).
* * * * *
During the time I was pastor in Grand Forks I needed a fountain pen.
Sisters Hulda and Louise Werstlein gave me five dollars to get a pen, to be
my Christmas present. I sent to my son, who was agent for such things, and
he got me a $7.50 Waterman pen for the five dollars. After the Minnesota
State camp meeting, Sister Moon of Canbee, Minnesota asked me to take her
and her two children home. On reaching Montevideo I met Brother Thomas
Nelson who said he would like to have a long talk with me. I told him that
he could take Sister Moon and the children and myself and we could talk
then as we went back and forth, which we did, but when I arrived home my
pen was gone!
I wrote to the pastor at Montevideo asking him to look in Brother Nelson's
car and around in the grass where the car had stood, thinking the pen might
have fallen out of his car when I took my coat out of his car and put in in
mine. About a week later I got a card saying there was no pen to be found
anywhere.
A few nights later I had a dream. I saw my pen. It was standing up against
a small willow in a bunch of grass in the road ditch; it was very dusty.
Some days after this, as I was on my way to town going north, I passed the
road going west which I had been on when I lost my pen. The Lord said, "Why
don't you go and get your pen?" I laughed to myself, but kept on driving
and again the Lord said, "Why don't you get your pen; why don't you get
your pen?" Finally I had to turn back, and as I did so I said to myself,
"This is a trip that I'll never tell anyone about, starting out for 136
miles to look for a pen in a road ditch!"
After going a mile and three quarters I saw to my left a little willow
sticking up just like the one I saw in my dream. I stopped the car and went
to look, and there stood my pen just as it was in my dream.
We might ask how it got there. The only answer I can give is that I must
have had my coat over the front seat of the car and the coat must have
fallen down, and when I reached for it while the car was going the pen must
have fallen out of my coat pocket in the dark.
* * * * *