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A year ago, Yvonne Vanderslice wasn’t sure if her husband, Rick, would still be alive today. (Reporter Photo/Keith McCoy)

Rick Vanderslice overcame a terminal cancer diagnosis to enjoy a new home with his wife, Yvonne. (Reporter Photo/Keith McCoy)

From left, Yvonne Vanderslice, Rick Vanderslice and Werner Beiersdoerfer visit in the Vanderslices’ kitchen. (Reporter Photo/Keith McCoy)

The Vanderslices’ new home replaced a dilapidated house the couple had lived in for decades. (Reporter Photo/Keith McCoy)

It took only a few months for volunteers and professionals to design, plan and build a new home for the Vanderslice family. (Reporter Photo/Keith McCoy)

Scott Masters, center, helped spearhead the effort to build a new home for Rick Vanderslice, left, and Yvonne Vanderslice when Rick was diagnosed with cancer in 2015. (Reporter Photo/Keith McCoy)

Yvonne and Rick Vanderslice relax on the front porch of their newly built home in Alabaster. “We’re out here all the time,” Yvonne says. (Reporter Photo/Keith McCoy)

A miracle in action

A few months before volunteers began working to build the Vanderslices a new home, Rick was faced with a decision.

Although Rick declined to learn his life expectancy when he received his cancer diagnosis, he knew the outlook was bleak after having a discussion with a pastor in his hospital room.

“I kind of knew what was coming when (the pastor) hold me I had to get right with God, and I needed to do it now,” Rick said. “But I wasn’t ready to do that. That’s not something, to me, that you can just turn on and off.”

Rick thought about the pastor’s words for a few months, but based his decision on what he was hearing from above.

“I could see that God was talking to me through everything he was blessing us with,” Rick said. “And one day, probably about one or two months later, I felt it was time to get right with God.”

After dedicating his life to Christ, Rick began a long battle against the cancer plaguing his body. While volunteers worked to construct the family’s new house, Rick was undergoing aggressive chemotherapy and taking powerful medications in an effort to defeat the disease.

Suddenly, his prognosis began to change.

The tumors in his lungs, and on his rib, shoulder blade and spine began to shrink, and his chance of survival began increasing.

In early October 2016 – almost exactly a year after he received a terminal diagnosis – Rick underwent a CAT scan revealing he was cancer-free.

“I just looked up and said ‘Thank you, Lord.’ I didn’t know what else to say,” Rick said as a smile spread across his face. “The doctors said I still had one spot the size of a raisin, but it wasn’t active. They declared me cancer-free.”

Today, the Vanderslices are enjoying life in their new home while Rick is working to make a full recovery.

“I still get dizzy sometimes, so I don’t drive. I’m still sleeping a lot,” he said. “I’m in the process now of finding a church that’s right for me.”

Since building the Vanderslices’ home, the Jesus Works ministry has gone on to complete many more projects in the community, such as renovating aging homes and even securing a new mobile home for a woman who was living in a dilapidated house about a mile down the road from the Vanderslices.

Battling cancer and seeing a community come together to help his family has not only given Rick a stronger faith, it has brought him a peace about whatever lies ahead.

“I’m ready for whenever the time comes. I know I’ll be back with my mom and dad and the sister I never knew,” Rick said. “I thank God every day for everything he has blessed us with. Not only with the house and being cancer-free, but also for the friends we’ve gained through this.”

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