“After the prayer, a new ankle with joints and flesh gradually grew back.”

By Eli Bondlid

“Prayer to God is the only thing that helps. If I had listened to the doctors, who recommended amputation and fusing my foot, I would be disabled today. But I am 100% healthy, have no pain, and wear completely ordinary shoes,” says Werner Eriksen.

Werner lives in Børselv, known as Pyssyjoki in Kven and Bissojohka in Northern Sami, a village by the Porsanger Fjord, 37 kilometers northeast of Lakselv in Porsanger Municipality, Finnmark. Despite turning 72 in March 2023, he is still working full-time.

72 years old and still working full-time

“I run Børselv Taxi. I drive both a taxi and a bus. With the pension payouts being as low as they are today, you can’t afford to do anything other than work. That’s why I’m working ten extra years. As long as I have the health for it, I have to keep going,” says the energetic 72-year-old.

He joined the military at 19. From around the age of 21, he started working with cars and machinery, and at 24, he started his own company. Among other things, he has driven a regular bus route between Lakselv and Veidnesklubben. He has also driven a school bus in Børselv for schoolchildren, and a tour bus for cruise tourists to the North Cape, among many other things.

“I am not a trained mechanic. I have an adult son who is. But after working with cars and machinery for a long life, I’ve gained a lot of experience and can handle most things,” he says, adding that he gets up at 5:00 every morning to go to work. He’s happy as long as he has the health to do so.

Involved in a bad accident in 2012.

On November 27, 2023, Werner called Svein-Magne Pedersen to ask for prayer for his type 2 diabetes, which he had developed in recent years. The 72-year-old then told Pedersen about a fantastic miracle he experienced 12 years ago, and how that miracle is the reason he is still fully employed and capable of working today. There are many powerful stories of healing that Pedersen hears about long after they occur.

“On February 15, 2012, I was outside my house and was about to take a drive with the tractor, a Ferguson 35, 1963 model. It was snowing and minus 12 degrees outside,” Werner recalls. He had chains on the tractor wheels.

“Suddenly, my scooter pants got caught in the chain on the left rear wheel. I was pulled with the wheel and was thrown around three or four times in a tumble. The wheel stopped when it hit the gravel. I grabbed a knife from the tractor’s toolbox and cut myself free.”

“The foot was hanging together by the skin.”

He tells that he lay on the ground. The descriptions are intense.

“Bone fragments and pieces of flesh lay on the ground. The meat had been ground up and was lying in the snow. Crows and magpies came to eat the bones and pieces of flesh from the left ankle, which was completely shattered. The shin and foot were held together only by the skin and some muscles.”

“Werner managed to crawl over to the house, which was a hundred meters away. He was able to call the ambulance in Lakselv.”

“They came and put me on a stretcher. I was taken to Lakselv. There, a Sea King helicopter was called in. The bone was broken, tendons were torn, and there was a lack of flesh and bones. There was a military doctor on board, but he didn’t dare touch my foot. I was offered morphine.”

“Originally, I was supposed to be transported to the National Hospital, but it was too far away. Instead, I was sent to the University Hospital of Northern Norway in Tromsø. That was lucky, because there was a Serbian war doctor working there who had worked for Doctors Without Borders and had dealt with many severe injuries before.”

Refused to amputate the foot

Werner was operated on for five hours. He lost three liters of blood. He remembers when he woke up after the surgery.

“The Serbian doctor came in to examine my foot and smelled it to determine if it was dead. He concluded that there was life in the foot but said there were no guarantees. A Norwegian doctor suggested amputating my left leg just below the knee, but I refused to let them do it. They also wanted to insert a metal ankle, as I was missing one, and fuse the foot so the joint movement would be gone. But I didn’t want them to do that either.”

Called for Prayer Instead

Werner explains that his general practitioner wanted to put him on disability benefits. However, he threw the approval letter from NAV straight in the trash. He describes the expression on the NAV employee’s face, who had probably never experienced anything like it before.

Werner says he had heard about Svein-Magne Pedersen and called to request prayer three times during the three months he was in the hospital in Tromsø.

“The first time I called was three or four days after I arrived at the hospital. Pedersen read a verse and prayed for me. I also called Pedersen’s devotional phone line several times. Three or four days after I was prayed for the first time, I felt a ‘crawling’ and tingling sensation in my ankle. After the first prayer, the pain disappeared, and I no longer needed medication! I had pins in my foot, but it no longer hurt.”

“A new ankle with joints grew out.”

“After some time, I had an X-ray of my ankle at the surgical outpatient clinic. The doctor who looked at the images fell completely silent. So I asked what he saw. He replied, ‘Yes, Eriksen. You were absolutely right to refuse stiffening and amputation.'”

“For the image showed that a new ankle with bones, flesh, and joints had started to grow!! The bones emerged as knobs on both sides.

Werner had orthopedic shoes made at the orthopedic workshop at UNN. He says the Serbian doctor wanted to order special shoes for him from China. But soon, he was able to go and buy shoes himself at Eurosko, and he could discard his crutches.”

“The doctor had never seen anything like it.”

“The doctors told me not to put too much weight on the new ankle, but I put 100 percent weight on it. It started to itch more and more around the ankle. It kept getting stronger.”

After three months, Werner was able to go home.

“X-ray images from the hospital showed that a new joint had formed in the ankle, along with a bone on each side.”

“What did the doctor say when he saw the X-ray images? Did you tell him about the prayer?”

“The Serbian doctor said that he had never experienced anything like it in his entire medical practice. I told him about the prayer and said, ‘There is nothing else that helps.'”

“That’s why I am completely healthy today.”

“My father could stop blood and remove pain with words. But he was no longer alive, so I contacted Svein-Magne Pedersen. I know that such things help, but you must have faith. I tell many that prayer is often the only thing that helps. Blood can be stopped with words so it becomes like jelly. Inflammations and tumors disappear through prayer,” says Werner.

 

He concludes that if he had listened to the doctors, he would be disabled today.

– But because of prayer, I am 100% healthy today. I don’t use any prosthetics. I can wear regular shoes and work full time. I can do everything I want and lift heavy things, says the energetic 72-year-old, who claims that the previously injured foot has better blood circulation and mobility than the right, uninjured foot.