Magrete's Testimony (By Josh Kuperus)

(Another version of this can be found at http://icskona.com/ )

Grassroots News Report

Can you imagine not being able to walk without crutches for twelve years, then waking up one day to go and run with your husband in the evening? 

An event similar to this happened to Magrete Stensby, a staff worker on the University of the Nations. Magrete's problems began in 1988 when doctors diagnosed her with multiple sclerosis, an incurable disease causing damage to the spine and brain and resulting in physical and mental disability. Over the years, her condition worsened, as she went from walking around in crutches to sitting in a wheelchair. Many days she did nothing but lay in bed since she did not have the capability to do anything else. Twelve years passed like this and her condition grew worse and worse.

Just before the year 2000, Magrete, along with her husband Thor and her family, came to Kona, Hawaii, to do a Crossroads DTS (Discipleship Training School).  As part of the training, each student in the DTS had the requirement to journal weekly. Magrete, with no thought to the symbolism or clue as to what would happen in the next year, chose the theme "Step by Step Into the Year 2000" for her title page, simply because it sounded nice. For a woman who could not walk without crutches, the idea of "Step by Step" represented more of a spiritual statement to her than a physical statement.

At least that was what she thought.

"On the  day before the millennium," Thor Stensby, Magrete's husband says, "she was having her quiet time. Six o’clock in the morning. She was sitting in the bathroom, because that was the only place you could have a light on without waking up our kids. And God told her that ‘Today you’re going to put your crutches away’. And this was the day before millennium. So it was literally “Step by Step Into the Year 2000.”

She stood up, got out of the bathroom, and walked to the University’s kitchen area to get breakfast. When Thor came back home from his work duty, he said “she had been walking to breakfast, and had gotten the breakfast. That evening we went for a three mile run together. That was the first time in twelve years she could move without crutches or wheelchair. And she was totally okay.”

In conclusion, Magrete Stensby’s story is a wonderful testimony as to the healing power of God. Even now, twelve years later after being healed, she still has MS (Multiple Sclerosis). However, she can walk perfectly fine.