Part 6 (1/2)
One evening Brother Ahrendt said to me, ”Brother Susag, I'm hungry for some eggs; let's pray the Lord to send us some eggs.” I replied, ”How can we expect to get eggs out here? I haven't seen any chickens around here, nor in the bush where I have been.” ”Well,” he said, ”the Lord can bring them from somewhere.” That evening on our returning from service we found something setting on the table covered with a newspaper. Brother Ahrendt lifted the paper and found a tiny basket with five eggs in it! I said, ”You get three of them; you prayed and had faith while I only said, amen.”
THE READING ON THE SIGN POST CHANGED(?)
One day Bro. Ahrendt was out advertising the meeting. His last call was at a schoolhouse, and from there he wanted to go to Bertha intending to take a short cut through the brush to the highway. On coming to the highway, he saw a signpost pointing in the direction he was going, which read, ”One mile to Hewitt.” ”Well,” he thought, ”what won't boys do changing the road signs?” He walked on a few steps and saw a little town not far away, then he realized that he had been going north while he thought he was going south. The boys had not done any harm. He was mistaken in his sense of direction.
One year Brother H. A. Sherwood was the evangelist at the Minnesota State Camp meeting which was held at Saint Cloud. A large, roomy church building was used for the services. The heat was record-breaking that year, and on one of the hottest afternoons when Brother Sherwood was expecting to preach as usual, the heat was so intense that he was physically unequal to the occasion, and so it came about that at Brother Sherwood's urgent request, Brother Allison F. Barnard (who, with Mrs. Barnard, was attending the meeting) consented to preach in his stead that afternoon.
As Bro. Barnard came into the pulpit the Holy Spirit came upon him and upon the whole congregation in such a way and in such measure as I had never seen in any service. The heat in the chapel moderated at once, but outside it was as hot as ever. It was as though the dear man was ”out of the body”
and there was no trouble at the altar of prayer for seeking souls to receive their heart's desire. They prayed through! So, again, the Scripture was fulfilled, ”Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”
Speaking of Brother Sherwood, I loved that big little man in the Lord. On one occasion he was the campmeeting evangelist at Morden, Manitoba, Canada.
The Lord used him mightily and when the meeting was over it was arranged that wife and I should take him with us in our car to Grand Forks, North Dakota. It started to rain and did really pour down. The first forty-five miles the roads were nothing but black gumbo, and we used eight gallons of gas driving that forty-five miles.
Brother Sherwood sat in the back seat, praying all the time that we would not get stuck in the mud nor slide down into the ditch, and when we reached the gravel road in North Dakota he said, ”Brother Susag, will you stop awhile so we can have a thanksgiving meeting right here, that the Lord has heard prayer and protected our lives!” And that is what we did. Brother Sherwood then said, ”Bro. Susag, will you accept an admonition from a younger man than yourself?” I answered, ”Any time, Brother.” And he said, ”This is the second worst automobile ride I ever had in all my life. Will you promise me never again to start out driving when the road is as bad as this?” My reply was: ”h.e.l.lo! h.e.l.lo! h.e.l.lo! Who is this? Brother Sherwood?
What do you want? Your wife sick? What, dying? Yes, I'm starting out right away; I'm coming as fast as I can.” Whereupon Brother Sherwood reached out his hand and said, ”Brother Susag, forgive me; how quick a man can be to ask a promise of a man without thinking!”
Once I was called to attend a meeting north of St. Cloud, Minnesota. There were about thirteen ministers there. It was among a people who were called, ”The Free.” Some three of their leading brethren had heard the Truth, and they were the ones who had sent for me to come. The ministers and the majority of the people were opposed to our teachings. When the offering was divided among the ministry, those three brethren, who were on the board, gave me $38.00.
But after I had taken the money I could not keep it on my person. I tried my best, but even when in my overcoat pocket the money burned me, so I gave it back to the brethren. A brother was going to drive me to the nearest railroad station, and when I had taken my seat in the buggy ready to go to town, these three brethren came and gave me fifteen dollars, saying, ”We have given much more in the offering than that,” and they felt that the fifteen dollars would not burn me. So I took the money and thanked them for it and we went on our way to town. As I put the money in my pocket it still burned me. I had to take it out again and lay it on the bottom of the buggy. I told the driver to take it back and return it to the brethren. He said, ”They will not know what to do with it now that the meeting is ended.” I told him of a young minister who was sick and in need--to take the money to him. I was needing the money badly, even the $38.00, as I was without money to pay my way home.
As we crossed the railway track coming into the town near the depot, I asked the man to let me off. As I was walking up to the station a man, whom I did not know, came along beside me and pressed a five dollar bill into my hand, and that was enough to take me home! A number of people took their stand for the truth in that meeting.
THE LORD STILL HEARS PRAYER
At a Ministers' Meeting at Tulare, California, in 1945, while the noon lunch was being served, I was sitting in the chapel with my head bowed on the chair in front of me, praying for a certain amount of money, not expecting any money at that meeting. Soon I felt the confidence that the Lord had heard prayer and dismissed the matter from my mind. A few minutes later a man came and sat down beside me and said, ”Say, how do you get your expenses; do you get a salary for traveling around this way?” I answered, ”No, I have no salary; I pay my expenses as the Lord puts it into the hearts of the brethren to give to me.” ”Well,” he said, ”the Lord told me to come over and give you this.”
And he handed me the very amount I had been asking the Lord for!
Brother Renbeck and I were holding a meeting out near Kellys, North Dakota.
After the service one afternoon I saw Brother Renbeck sitting in a corner of the room weeping. I went over to him and asked him what was the trouble.
He said, ”I am weeping because there were not more sinners in the meeting to get saved, for if there had been more there, more would have been saved.” To which I replied, ”Keep on weeping.”
MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN DEALING WITH DEVIL POSSESSION
Another time we were holding meetings near and in Fosston, Minnesota. It was said of us that ”those preachers are of the devil.” One evening a man came to the meeting who had blood poisoning in one of his knees. In getting to the meeting he used a long pole to help support himself. He wanted to see those preachers who were ”of the devil.” When he arrived the room was full and there being no chair for him to sit on, I gave him mine. When we knelt down to pray I laid my hands on his knee and asked the Lord to heal him and he was healed instantly.
A few nights later a man came to the service who was possessed with devils.
He was frothing at the mouth and acting like a madman. As I took hold of him and laid my hands on him we almost wrestled. I commanded the devils to come out of him, and I told the Lord I would never let Him go until He delivered the man, and he was finally delivered by the Spirit of the Lord.