Cliff and Wilma Derksen know all too well what it's like to receive devastating news. 

In November of 1984, Wilma and Cliff Derksen's 13-year-old daughter, Candace, was found murdered after going missing on her way home from school.

It wasn’t until 22 years later that Mark Edward Grant was charged with her murder. In 2011, after a five-week trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years without parole. The case has since gone through an appeal process, a retrial and ended with an acquittal in October 2017.

The Derken's faith kept them strong throughout all of this, but now they are facing a new battle.

"The last couple of weeks started very innocently. I had some constipation issues. I went into a walk-in clinic, and the doctor there did his thing, and when he did that, he turned to his computer and immediately set up a whole system of getting me into urgent care," Cliff explains. "From there, I had to get an x-ray and CT scan immediately. Once the results were in, the doctor's face was very different looking, very sad and concerned. He said, 'I have bad news for you, you have cancer.' That was the first time I had ever heard cancer regarding me, but the holy spirit gave it to me in small doses."

From there, Cliff was transferred to St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, where he was given a diagnosis of stage four gallbladder cancer with no option for surgery.

"I asked the terrible question that I'd never asked anyone before, how long do I have? The doctor said, with the chemo, I had 8-10 months," said Cliff. "My mind went racing. I was now going to be counting my life in months instead of years."

When the doctor left the room, Cliff pulled out a Bible that Wilma had packed for him.

"I really needed to talk to my God about how this would go together with his plans for me," said Derksen.

The Bible was filled with blue post-it notes that Cliff had prepared for the Spirit room at his church, prophetic words for edification, encouragement and consolation that he had planned to give to others. 

"I took out my Bible and started at the first sticky note, and it was Jeremiah 29:11," said Cliff through tears. "It was very specific about this kind of thing. It just gave me all kinds of ideas, and now I knew what to do during these 10 months."

Since receiving his diagnosis a couple of weeks ago, Cliff says family, friends and the church have been praying for and supporting him.

"We have a prayer line on messenger, and it's just full of encouragement and visions. One of the good ladies said she thought of us and was looking at the snow in her backyard, and she saw nothing but diamonds."

 Although his diagnosis is still fresh, Cliff says there is a reason for it. 

"My job is to believe and trust. If I go to the why thing, the blame thing, the story thing and the what-if thing, it's confusing and drives you nuts. Faith is the way to go," Cliff explains. "You can't outguess God. He has a plan, and we need to rely on that. If we can do that, we can thrive and find joy.

Today on Connections, Cliff shares what it was like to receive a terminal diagnosis, how this has affected his faith and what he and his family plan to do moving forward.
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