By Steve Rees, Special to ASSIST News Service
SWAZILAND, SOUTHERN AFRICA (ANS – August 22, 2015)
-- The fulfillment of a 31-year-old prophetic word spoken by an
Oklahoma pastor to a machinist and his worship-leader wife in 1984 is
leading them to say like the lead character in The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz, “I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.”
Indeed, Swaziland, a small,
landlocked monarchy in southern Africa,is a long way from Buhler,
Kansas, but Tracy and Becky Spencer are planning to build their second
home in Swaziland – this one for orphans of HIV/AIDS. They believe like
Dorothy, the Kansas farm girl in the 1900 children' s novel and 1939
film, “There's no place like home.”
The Spencer's vision for
building Christ-centered orphanages in Swaziland, where 50 percent of
men and 32 percent of women are infected with the deadly virus, looks
and sounds like it's the fulfillment of a prophecy given to them by an
Oklahoma pastor more than three decades ago during a home Bible study.
John Hollar, who today is
director of Christ For The Nations in Dallas, Texas, looked directly at
Tracy Spencer in 1984 and said, “You will be a father to many more than
your eyes can see.”
At the time, the Spencers had
four children in their home and one was on the way. The family
eventually grew to eight - four adopted and four biological children –
but it hardly numbered as far as the eye can see.
The Spencer's home and
ministry, Grand Staff Ministries, Inc., is located in rural Kansas and
has grown from a sponsorship program for orphaned Swazi children in 2006
to a nonprofit Christian charity that's drawing support from across the
United States and in South Africa.
And their Kansas home, believe it or not, is as much part of the 
Spencer's ministry as a future orphanage in Swaziland and sponsorship of orphans.
Spencer's ministry as a future orphanage in Swaziland and sponsorship of orphans.
This year Grand Staff Ministries, Inc. (GSM) -- http://www.grandstaffministries.com --
received sizable cash contributions – one from a widow in the United
States – to build an orphanage in Swaziland and two offers of land from
benefactors in South Africa. The American woman, a Swazi pastor and
apostle, and Christian leaders in South Africa have told the Spencers
they want to help fulfill the prophetic word and vision.
In July 2015, the Spencers
traveled to Swaziland again, this time to see a large parcel of land
next to a Christian school administered by an African apostle. Pastor
Solomon Fasmande told the Spencers, who were in Swaziland to
“prayer-walk” the acreage, that he wanted to give it to GSM for an
orphanage.
While there, the Spencers
learned from an American couple doing ministry in Swaziland that they
recently purchased land from a local chief – and all of them believe the
tract is compatible for an extension of Grand Staff's prophesied
ministry vision.
Praying about where to build is
as high a priority for the Spencers as is registering the planned
orphanage as a non-governmental organization, and the finalization of
architectural plans it. Experts in both fields have offered their
services to fulfill the prophetic vision.
“So
we are content and eagerly anticipating the fulfillment of ‘His’ dream,
not just ours,” Becky Spencer says. “We know the one in our hearts
comes from 'Him' because of the sure, prophetic word but it is not
always clear at first.”
Until 2006, when the Spencers
traveled to Swaziland on a missions’ trip, they pondered Hollar's words.
There, in Swaziland, the Spencers saw untold numbers of children
orphaned by HIV/AIDS, and wondered if they were Tracy's prophesied
family.
“From the standpoint of the
first time ever going on an overseas mission trip, it was very
life-changing,” Tracy Spencer says. “Just everywhere you turn there are
kids on the streets, chasing your car, asking for help.
“Lots of them are complete
orphans or living in an orphanage or on their own,” says Spencer, who
was also struck by the orphans’ inability to obtain an education like he
had been denied as a teenager.
Back home in Kansas, sitting on
their front porch praying about how Tracy might become a spiritual
father to Swazi children, the Spencers both saw the same vision,
simultaneously.
In what Becky Spencer calls an
open vision, she and Tracy saw their home transformed into a haven for
burned-out pastors, tired Christians, troubled marriages and weary
travelers.
The vision became the footprint
vision for Grand Staff Ministries, Inc., a group of nonprofit
missionary endeavors that extend from Kansas to South Africa.
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, cares
for abandoned, orphaned and vulnerable children who are like lost
lambs, says Becky Spencer. “The Good Shepherd's staff is grand enough to
care for each one – through sponsors,” she says, explaining the
ministry name.
Since 2006, GSM has provided
money for educating 209 Swazi children – several of whom have graduated
college or trade school in recent years – with support from American
sponsors. Sixty-one children are currently in school, courtesy of
sponsors. Five more are pursuing post-secondary training.
The Spencers admit they've lost
track of the number of trips to Swaziland but not the people with whom
they've “fallen in love” over the last nine years of ministry.
In 2010, 20 percent of the
homesteads in Swaziland – or 195,000 children - were without adults
parents, due primarily to deaths from AIDS. Four years earlier, when the
Spencers first visited Swaziland, 11 percent of the homesteads were run
by orphaned children – a more than 10 percent increase from 2006.
Today, an estimated one-half
million people in Swaziland are infected with HIV; untold numbers don't
know they're infected because of the stigma associated with the disease.
Some people visit Christian medical mobile units after dark to receive
anti-retroviral medications to avoid suspicion of their HIV status.
Others refuse to be tested and receive life-saving drugs.
As real as the emotional pain
HIV/AIDS produces in orphaned kids, so is the spiritual hunger back home
in Kansas, where ministry begins.
The Spencer's residence, at one
time a nursing home dating back to 1895, was converted to a bed and
breakfast within a year of their inaugural trip to Swaziland. It, along
with Tracy's work as a manager of trained machinists and Becky's
speaking, writing, and worship activities, helps support GSMs' budget
and is itself a form of evangelism.
The Spencers saw their first guests in 2007 at what had been home for 23 years.
An admitted perfectionist,
Becky Spencer had exquisitely furnished three bedrooms of the home for
the people she and Tracy saw in the shared vision.
When the first guests arrived –
an unmarried couple and two women who requested that they sleep
together – the Spencers didn't turn them away, nor did they refuse to
share their Christian faith with them over breakfast.
In the silence, she heard the
still, small voice of the Holy Spirit say, “You saw hurting Christians,
but I see a hurting world.”
In addition to travelers, the
Spencer's seven grown children and numerous grandchildren sometimes
occupy the 110-year-old homestead during visits - or out of necessity
when they've no other place to go except back to dad and mom's place.
Becky Spencer says her family has its share of dysfunction, and every
member needs and finds God's grace at home.
“I
believe the Lord has called the Spencers to Africa because of the words
spoken to them, their individual experiences, as well as their Godly
input into the lives of their children and grandchildren,” says Dana
Siscoe who, with her husband Clark, first celebrated a wedding
anniversary at Grand Staff B&B.
An author, speaker and worship
leader, Becky Spencer supports the Swaziland vision with financial
offerings she receives from engagements at Christian conferences,
churches and retreats, as well as under girding the household budget.
Amid mixed audiences, Becky
Spencer invites men and women to sponsor Swazi children at either $25 or
$50 per month levels, enabling GSMs' sponsors to pay for students
uniforms, tuition, books, fees and lunches.
She notes that donor
contributions go directly to Swazi children – not to administrative
costs like with bigger child-sponsorship programs. World Vision and
Children s Cup are two ministries helping to meet children s needs in
Swaziland but committed resources are still needed. Statisticians have
used the word extinction to describe Swaziland's future.
“There are children in Swaziland who aren't being helped by any other organization yet,” Spencer says.
The Spencers, who call
themselves “ordinary people who only want to serve Jesus”, have steadily
gained donor support in the United States and among pastors and
churches in Mangcongo, Luhlokohla, Manzini and Motshane. They partner
with GSM to reach Swazi children in need.
With multiple offers of land
from Christian leaders in Swaziland for more than one orphanage, there's
no shortage of money to build the first one, thanks to Barb Haley who
in 2014 and 2015 promised enough cash to complete a 1,540-square-foot
building for homeless or abandoned children.
Haley, who had just received a
large insurance settlement after her husband's death, was planning to
use a significant amount for a major home renovation until she attended a
Christian conference where Becky Spencer talked about GSM and one Swazi
girl in particular.
“I decided right then to give
every penny of that money to the ministry to help fund this new home
(for orphans),” says Haley. “I feel so blessed to know that God is
allowing us to be a part in this undertaking,” says Haley. “I can
honestly say I have nothing but joy when I think of the project ahead.”
Becky Spencer spoke about Angel; a Swazi girl whose mother began locking her out of the home beginning in the third grade.
Eventually abandoned by her
mother, Angel lived with her grandmother until she died. Now reunited
with her mom, Angel reluctantly lives with other siblings from different
fathers, but she frequently runs away. Nobody knows Angel's birth date
but, when Becky Spencer's daughter sponsored her, Angel assumed Sara
Nolan's Jan. 7 birth date.
It's believed that Angel is 13
today but, because birthdays aren't celebrated in Swaziland and the
dates are irrelevant, nobody knows for sure her age. One thing is
certain, Becky Spencer says: A future orphanage will be named after
Angel.
“Maybe ‘Angels Watching’ as in
all day all night supervision of the children. The idea is that the Lord
saw them first and he sends angels to keep watch over them,” says
Spencer, adding that Haley and the GSM board will have input into the
name of the first orphanage.
Building orphanages is vital in
changing the course of Swaziland's future, Becky Spencer says, but the
success of sponsorship is profound, already. The benefits are evident in
the lives of Swazi men and women who've reversed downward spirals
education and connection to people who make it happen with prayers and
finances.
Swazi Colane Nkambule, who is
nearing his 30th birthday, in 2014 graduated college with a degree in
broadcasting and media, thanks to the financial support of his American
sponsor Penny Takeda. A GSM supporter from southern California, Takeda
saw Nkambule’s promise in secondary school and chose to maintain her
investment in his life through university training.
Hired by the company where Nkambule completed his internship, his success defied the odds stacked against him.
Orphaned and uncared for by
immediate relatives, Nkambule lived on the streets of Swaziland's
capital city, Mbabane, for five years, stealing food from street
vendors. His mischief devolved further into alcohol and drugs and
probably would have drove him to the grave if not for the Christian
ministries – including GSM - that helped Nkambule beat his addictions.
Changed dramatically by Jesus
and through relationship with Takeda, who consistently prayed for him,
Nkambule gushes with gratitude for GSM, Swazi pastors and sponsors. He
says they provide needy Swazi children the opportunity to live a
responsible, honest, productive life.
Nkambule’s achievements are
incentives, the Spencers say, for them to continue fulfilling the
prophetic words and vision for their ministry and its foundational
verse, Isaiah 58:10, which states: “Spend yourselves on behalf of the
hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise
in the darkness, and your light will become like the noonday.”
Photo captions: 1) Angel with
Pastor Sambo (From Ashley Nelson). 2) Becky with a Swazi girl. 3) Becky
helping local Swazi boys cook wieners. 4) Becky's husband Tracy with
Swazi friend. 5) Steve Rees.
About
the writer: Steve Rees is freelance Christian journalist who loves the
church and writes about how it engages the culture and works toward
fulfilling the Great Commission. He lives in Longmont, Colo. and attends
Resurrection Fellowship, a nondenominational, missions-driven church
that honors all the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the five-fold ministry
offices. The church is in Loveland, Colo. Rees formerly worked as a
newspaper reporter and was among the first journalists who wrote about
Promise Keepers before it spread nationwide from Boulder, Colo. He can
be contacted by e-mail at steverees@peoplepc.com
** You may republish or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)
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