Slain pastor was a don - Widow calls for his killers to repent

The violent past of slain pastor Michael Spencer came full circle last Saturday night when his life was cut short by gunmen in Old Harbour, St Catherine.

Spencer, 41, was once a feared don from Gordon Pen, but he had traded his life of crime for the pulpit, becoming a minister who passionately spread the gospel to those still entrenched in the underworld. His grieving widow, Apostle Martha Spencer, is convinced his brutal killing is connected to his dark history.

"I believe is him past come back to him. Maybe a somebody who know him just buck him and decide to unalive him but he wasn't killed because of what he was doing presently. I don't know because him nuh mix or anything, and him friend dem glad that he changed his life. Dem respect him and my husband was always interceding for gunmen because he was like them before," Spencer said.

In a display of faith and forgiveness, Apostle Spencer is calling for her husband's killer to give his life to God. Speaking from her Old Harbour Glades home yesterday, the grief-stricken widow said, "I pray that no one will trouble him because the Bible says all vengeance belongs to God and maybe the killer will be a next pastor or apostle."

"I know that Jesus Christ of Nazareth love the killer with an everlasting love, but the sin of killing, God don't have anything to do with that. My greatest wish is for the killer to get saved and come taste and see that God is good."

Police reports are that about 8 p.m, Saturday, Spencer, who was the pastor of Overflow Anointing Pentecostal Gospel in Old Harbour, was doing business at his stall in the town along West Street when he was pounced upon by two men who shot him repeatedly. The pastor was assisted to the Spanish Town Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

The attackers fled the scene, but Apostle Spencer prays they will run into God's embrace. Her late husband had openly testified about his criminal past.

"Him testify to gunmen that he was a former gunman and him even call the crew that him use to be into. Him never hide nothing and him tell gunmen seh if God can save him, He can save them. Him say from him get the shot, something shift in his life and he was not interested in even going anywhere. He said something different had taken over his body. When him start come church, I minister and talk with him," she said.

The late pastor survived a gunshot wound to the face, an incident he described as a turning point in his life. By 2021, he was ordained as a pastor and began ministering to the very people he once stood among in the streets.

"My husband is a former don from Gordon Pen and he testified about that. It wasn't something that him hold dung. I was a former bad girl too, but him change his life from 2019 and he was ordained as a pastor in 2021. Him filled with the Holy Ghost and was all over, even at street meetings, spreading the gospel," she said.

On the day of his death, Spencer spent the afternoon renovating his church. He returned home around 5 p.m. and told his wife he was going to their stall to make a few sales, hoping to repay a loan. Two hours later, she received the devastating call. Rushing to the scene, she was met with the heart-wrenching sight of her husband's body.

"I saw him lying flat on his belly, looking lifeless," she recalled, her voice cracking. "I fainted right there."

Meanwhile, reflecting on their five years of marriage, Spencer described her late husband as the "best man ever" and her soulmate. "I've been through men, so I know what I'm saying. He was my everything and a great father. He was a changed man, and everyone knew it."

Though the pastor's death was violent, she believes God's hand was at work.

"Mi nuh glad say mi husband dead, but if the gunshot did miss him and him no dead, who knows if him wouldn't turn back and go look fi who shot him," she said.

"So God just make it connect and took His son home," she said.