Personal Experiences of S.O. Susag | Page 3

In the meantime I took off my coat and hung it on the back of a chair.
In the inside pocket of my coat I had my billfold containing about one
hundred dollars, all the money I had, and also my valuable papers.
When I went to reach for my money my billfold was gone. The saloon
keeper seemed to know what had taken place and handed me five
dollars. I had no work as there was none to be found. It was the custom
in those days for the saloons to give a free lunch with a glass of beer. I
went at noon every day and bought a glass of beer so I could have the
free lunch that went with it. I lived that way for about two months.
During the late winter I got a job at night work, which consisted of
pushing loads of stone in a wheelbarrow for the building of the Stone
Arch Bridge over the St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River for the
Great Northern Railway Company. The planks upon which we had to

walk became very slippery and on one trip the man ahead of me slipped
back in the wheel of my wheelbarrow upon which I had a large stone.
The force of his fall threw both stone and wheelbarrow into the river.
The man behind me, seeing what was happening, flung himself face
down over his wheelbarrow, and in the dark, grabbed me as I was going
over the plank into the river. He caught me by one of my arms and held
me until help came and I was pulled out. I was hanging from his hands
about fifty to seventy-five feet above the river.
After that experience I could not make myself walk those planks
anymore, so I was again out of work and so terribly discouraged. A few
nights later I walked onto the Tenth Avenue bridge intending to jump
off into the river to end it all. As I took hold of the railing someone
from behind me called out and said, "When you jump, your troubles
will begin." I looked, to see the man who had spoken but there was no
one on the bridge. The way he spoke had sent a chill through me. It was
after eleven o'clock at night and I seemed to realize that it was the Lord
who had spoken to me.
After sometime in America I found that I was still the the same young
man as before in Norway. It seemed that I was unable to do better.
Thinking to improve matters, I decided to go to school and study for
the ministry. After two semesters in the college certain things happened
which turned me into an infidel. I quit school, went into business and
got married. Soon after I contracted tuberculosis of the lungs, and the
doctor said there was no help for me, as both my lungs were like soup.
During the depression of 1892 I lost all I had. In my sinful condition I
called on God and He healed me.
We then moved to the farm and one afternoon a young man came to
our home and asked me to attend a service with him that evening. In
answer to my query as to what kind of service it was to be, he informed
me that two women evangelists were conducting the meeting. I replied
that I was not in favor of women preachers but I would go with him as I
was not afraid the women would hurt me. As a matter of fact, it was
through these women that I was partly awakened spiritually, but did not
yet give up my infidelity.
One evening I was very tired and sleepy and went to bed at precisely
nine o'clock. I went to sleep at once and had a dream. I dreamed that I
had become a minister of the gospel and that I was traveling all over

the United States and Canada, as well as in a number of European
countries. Hundreds of souls were turning to the Lord in the meetings
and many healings and miracles were performed. It would take a long
life to accomplish all that I saw done in my dream. I awakened and felt
so refreshed and rested, that I thought it was morning and put on the
light but found I had been in bed JUST TEN MINUTES! I did not sleep
anymore that night but spent the time in meditating on my dream which
convinced me that there must be within the human body a positive
something that would continue to live forever and my infidelity
vanished.
A few months later (March 12, 1895), the Lord spoke peace to my wife
and me at the same