This Prophetic Word Is Uniting Nations Around the World
“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.
The Siscoes travel to Buhler several times a year—both to relax at the B&B and to help with ministry fundraisers. When they’re staying at the B&B, the Siscoes serve as prayer warriors for the Spencers, who, like most families, have warts.
“They are all about doing the redemptive work of Jesus—loving people where they are at by showing them grace,” Dana Siscoe says.
“They have a gift for loving people where they are at, showing them grace, and building relationships in the name of Jesus. Tracy and Becky honestly want to see peoples’ lives healed and changed through a personal relationship with Jesus,” says Siscoe, who doesn’t mind the three-hour drive across Kansas to visit or help the Spencers.
“When I first heard Becky talk about Swaziland over breakfast, I knew the Lord was building a lifelong friendship with the Spencers because Clark and I have a heart for missions. We know the work they are doing in South Africa is for the children, for the Lord and for the glory of God’s kingdom,” she says.
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. The offerings also help under gird 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 needs in Swaziland but committed resources are in short supply. 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 U.S. and among pastors and churches in Mangcongo, Luhlokohla, Manzini and Motshane. They partner with GSM to reach needy Swazi children.
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. I can honestly say I have nothing but joy when I think of the project ahead,” she says.
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—like Colane Nkambule—who’ve reversed personal, downward spirals education and connection to people who empower them through prayer and finances.
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 him throughout his university training.
Hired by the South African 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: “And if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall rise in obscurity, and your darkness shall become as the noonday.”
