Part 9 (1/2)
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 inst.i.tution 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 inst.i.tution 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 compa.s.sion 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 amba.s.sadors. 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 inst.i.tution, 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 inst.i.tution 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 inst.i.tution, 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d, 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 inst.i.tution 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 fis.h.i.+ng town of Sookden, Denmark, a great storm arose. As is the custom in fis.h.i.+ng towns, boats put out to sea at high tide for better fis.h.i.+ng 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.
In those days there were no motor boats. They were all sailboats, generally three men to a boat. This time, however, they had gasoline motors on the boats and from twelve o'clock until three o'clock one boat after the other returned, some of them full of water, barely getting to sh.o.r.e. Forturnately the wind was blowing toward the sh.o.r.e or they might not have made a safe landing.
I was staying at the home of Brother Morton Petersen. He and his crew had not returned as yet. It seemed that most of the population of the town was standing on the hills looking for his return. I heard someone say to his wife, ”Marie, do you expect Morton to return?” She answered, ”He has been out so many times and has come back, and I expect him back this time.” He generally went farther out than any of the fishermen because the farther out the fish were supposed to be larger and better.
We stood out there for two hours or more. About five o'clock someone said, ”I see a dark spot out there.” A little later someone else shouted, ”I see a spot, too!” And then we began to see the spot more and more often, and at last they came safely to land--and not a bucket of water in the boat.
On our way home I asked Brother Petersen how he had gotten along. He said, ”When we realized the storm was on hand we packed up our fis.h.i.+ng lines and I ordered my partner to take care of the motor and I myself took charge of the rudder. My partner was a saved man but we had a boy who was not saved.
I ordered him to be ready to dip out the water if any got in the boat.”