Christopher Gunderson spent the first 16 years of his life unable to eat and in desperate need of medical intervention for survival.
But Gunderson, born with chronic pseudo-obstruction syndrome, an ailment in which the gastrointestinal tracts can’t appropriately absorb food, experienced a miracle that changed everything.
“I was born … basically, where my stomach was completely paralyzed,” he told CBN News. “They call it complete gastroparesis, and it wouldn’t pump anything from my stomach to my small intestine.”
This meant Gunderson, whose story is briefly told in CBN’s new documentary “Investigating the Supernatural: Miracles,” would vomit whenever he ate, making nourishment near-impossible.
WANT MORE MIRACLE STORIES? STREAM CBN’S NEW FILM, “INVESTIGATING THE SUPERNATURAL: MIRACLES”
“It took my parents and the doctors several studies and diagnostic tests to figure out that that was truly the case that I had complete gastroparesis,” he said.
Doctors were forced to insert two tubes into his body. One, which went into his stomach, decompressed everything he swallowed to try and help process it through.
Another tube, connected to Gunderson’s small intestine, allowed him to get nutrition from formula — something he relied on for nutrients throughout the first 16 years of his life. As he got older and more active, the situation became tougher to navigate.
“I would have bile actually back up into my stomach and cause severe heartburn on a daily basis,” Gunderson said. “I’d have to constantly drain that out throughout the night and throughout the day.”
Eventually, doctors came to fear what might happen due to the lack of nourishment and complications.
“My parents were told multiple times that the doctors didn’t know how long I was going to live for,” Gunderson said, noting he went septic in the past and had infections. “They never exposed that to me, which I’m grateful for.”
Gunderson was raised in a Christian household but was skeptical that miracles are still unfolding. Despite that belief, he and his family found themselves at a 2011 event featuring Bruce Van Natta, a ministry leader whose own miracle healing story of being crushed by a truck and surviving has led to speeches, addresses, and books.
“My mom was hearing his testimony, and during the whole time that Bruce was talking my mom was hearing God tell her to go talk to him,” Gunderson said. “He was saying a lot of familiar medical terminology that most people wouldn’t really know because of what Bruce had gone through and what I’ve gone through.”
His mom ended up approaching Van Natta. While Gunderson wasn’t there at the time, she asked Van Natta if he would pray for her son. Van Natta agreed and told the mother to bring her son the next day to hear him speak — so they did.
Little did the family know, but something big was on the horizon.
“When we were there at that church the next day I had this pulsating sensation in my abdomen that I hadn’t had before,” Gunderson said. “And I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ And God said, He’s preparing me. And I haven’t really ever heard from God too much before in my spirit. I didn’t know how to … listen to his voice, listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice.”
In those moments of dialogue with God, Gunderson said he made a promise.
“During that time that I was having that pulsating sensation … I said, ‘If you heal me, I will not be quiet about it. I’ll tell anyone and everyone about this testimony, about this miracle that you did for me,’” he recalled.
After Van Natta spoke, Gunderson and his family went up to him and Van Natta put his hand on his shoulders and started to pray — and that’s when Gunderson believes a real-life miracle unfolded.
“He started to pray for me, and I started to feel that pulsating sensation that I was talking about before, but to like the 10th degree,” Gunderson said. “It feels like when you flex your abdomen, which is like over, and over, and over again.”
He continued, “And, then, about halfway through the prayer, I actually felt this lightning bolt electric shock go from my right shoulder, down through my chest, and down through my abdomen, and I felt like God jumpstarted my stomach back up with a shock.”
Gunderson described the experience as “pretty painful,” with Van Natta noting that they needed to continue praying. Once those prayers were over, Gunderson wasn’t sure what to think.
“I actually had a basketball game that night,” he said. “And, then, after the basketball game, we went out for dinner.”
But something was quite different about this dinner. Gunderson swallowed the entire meal without any abdominal pain — the first full meal he had ever eaten.
“My small intestine had never had to take anything on aside from just formula,” he said. “I wasn’t scared. I was more filled with excitement and joy, and it felt like it was very surreal.”
Over the next few weeks, Gunderson was cautious but soon came to believe that God had healed him. Soon, he weaned off of his tubes and eventually had them removed.
Doctors were shocked — and even skeptical — to hear Gunderson was off his feeding tubes and eating. Over time, though, it became apparent something had changed and doctors were elated, despite being unable to explain what unfolded.
Gunderson, though, knows a miracle took place. The experience totally changed his heart and mind.
“Before my tubes, I saw God as this higher being that’s just kind of up there and not really having a deep, meaningful relationship with us,” he said. “And, now, I actually have this inner dialect with Him.”
Watch him tell the full story. For more journeys like this, stream “Investigating the Supernatural: Miracles.” We’ll leave you with the trailer:
