Christopher Gunderson was unable to eat the first 16 years of his life and was in desperate need of medical interventions for survival.
But born from chronic simulated evaporation syndrome, a disease in which the gastrointestinal tract cannot absorb food properly, Gunderson experienced a miracle that changed everything.
“I was born… basically, my stomach was completely paralyzed,” he told CBN News. “They called it a complete gastroparesis, and it pumped nothing from my stomach into my small intestine.”
This means Gunderson, as briefly told in CBN’s new documentary, “Supernatural: Miracles,” where he vomits whenever he ate, making nutrition almost impossible.
Want more miraculous stories? Stream CBN’s new film, “Survey on Supernatural: Miracles”
“My parents and doctors needed some research and diagnostic tests and it really made me realize that I’m suffering from total gastroparesis,” he said.
The doctor was forced to insert two tubes into his body. One that got into his stomach decompressed everything he swallowed and tried to process it.
Another tube connected to Gunderson’s small intestine allowed him to get nutrients from the formula. As he grew older and more active, things became more difficult to navigate.
“The bile actually returns to the stomach and causes severe heartburn every day,” Gunderson said. “I have to drain it constantly all night and throughout the day.”
Ultimately, doctors began to fear what would happen due to their lack of nutrition and complications.
“My parents were told many times that the doctors didn’t know how long I would live,” Gunderson said. “They never exposed it to me, so I’m grateful for it.”
Gunderson grew up in a Christian family, but was skeptical that the miracle was still unfolding. Despite that belief, he and his family found themselves at an event in 2011 featuring Bruce Van Natta, a miraculous healing story of being crushed by a truck and survived.
“My mother had heard his testimony and I had been listening to his testimony the whole time, as Bruce had been hearing her tell her to speak to him,” Gunderson said. “He spoke a lot of familiar medical terms that most people really don’t know because of what Bruce went through and what I went through.”
His mom approached Van Natta. Gunderson was not there at the time, but she asked Van Natta if she would pray for her son. Van Natta agreed and told his mother to bring her son the next day.
Little did the family know, but something big was on the horizon.
“The next day, when we were in that church, I had this pulsating sensation in my abdomen that I had never seen before,” Gunderson said. “And I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ And God is preparing me.
At the moment of dialogue with God, Gunderson said he had made a promise.
“In the meantime I had that pulsating sensation… “If you heal me, it won’t be quiet. I will tell anyone, anyone, anyone, about this miracle you did for me,” he recalled.
After Van Natta spoke, Gunderson and his family went to him, and Van Natta put his hands on his shoulder and began praying.
“He began to pray for me, and I began to feel the pulsating sensation I had spoken before, but I fell in love with the 10th,” Gunderson said. “When you bend your abdomen, it’s like a redo.”
He continued. “And in the middle of my prayer I actually felt this lightning electric shock drop from my right shoulder, through my chest, and through my abdomen, like God had bounced my stomach with an impact.”
Gunderson described the experience as “seriously painful,” noting that Van Natta needs to continue praying. Once those prayers were over, Gunderson was unsure what to think.
“I actually played a basketball game that night,” he said. “And after the basketball game, we went out for dinner.”
But something was completely different about this dinner. Gunderson swallowed the whole meal without a stomachache.
“My small intestine didn’t have to take anything except just the formula,” he said. “I wasn’t scared. I was more filled with excitement and joy, and it felt very surreal.”
Over the next few weeks, Gunderson was cautious, but soon came to believe that God had healed him. Soon he weaned from the tube and eventually removed them.
The doctor was shocked to hear Gunderson eating with his feeding tube and then skeptical. But over time, something changed and it became clear that the doctor was overjoyed.
But Gunderson knows that a miracle has happened. This experience completely changed his mind and heart.
“Before my tube I saw God as this high being. “And now I actually have this inner dialect with him.”
Watch him tell the full story. For such a journey, to stream “Supernatural Investigation: Miracle Survey.” Leave a trailer:
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