SPI Initialization outside of Peripheral_Init()

I am trying to initialize SPI in the On Connect and dis-activate it in the On Disconnect. With the code below, the code hangs in the

do
{
} while (GetBits16(SPI_CTRL_REG, SPI_INT_BIT) == 0); // polling to wait for spi transmission

of uint32_t spi_access(uint32_t dataToSend)

Below is my code for On Connect and On Disconnect:


void user_on_connection(uint8_t connection_idx, struct gapc_connection_req_ind const *param)
{
SPI_Pad_t spi_IT8951_CS_Pad;
GPIO_SetActive(IT8951_CTRL_PORT, PWR_IT8951);
present_gpio_state = true;
default_app_on_connection(connection_idx, param);

conn_idx = connection_idx;

features_timer = app_easy_timer(60, get_features);

arch_printf("Device connected\r\n");
GPIO_ConfigurePin(SPI2_GPIO_PORT, SPI2_CS_PIN, OUTPUT, PID_SPI_EN, true);
GPIO_ConfigurePin(SPI2_GPIO_PORT, SPI2_CLK_PIN, OUTPUT, PID_SPI_CLK, false);
GPIO_ConfigurePin(SPI2_GPIO_PORT, SPI2_DO_PIN, OUTPUT, PID_SPI_DO, false);
GPIO_ConfigurePin(SPI2_GPIO_PORT, SPI2_DI_PIN, INPUT, PID_SPI_DI, false);
SetBits16(SYS_CTRL_REG, PAD_LATCH_EN, 1);
spi_IT8951_CS_Pad.port = GPIO_PORT_2;
spi_IT8951_CS_Pad.pin = GPIO_PIN_1;
spi_init(&spi_IT8951_CS_Pad, SPI_MODE_16BIT, SPI_ROLE_MASTER, SPI_CLK_IDLE_POL_LOW, SPI_PHA_MODE_0, SPI_MINT_DISABLE, SPI_XTAL_DIV_8);
}

/**
****************************************************************************************
* @brief Handles disconnection event
* @param[in] param Parameters of disconnect message
* @return void
****************************************************************************************
*/
void user_on_disconnect( struct gapc_disconnect_ind const *param )
{
default_app_on_disconnect(param);
arch_printf("Device disconnected, reason %i\r\n", (int)param->reason);
GPIO_SetInactive(IT8951_CTRL_PORT, PWR_IT8951);
present_gpio_state = false;
GPIO_ConfigurePin(SPI2_GPIO_PORT, SPI2_CS_PIN, INPUT, PID_GPIO, false);
GPIO_ConfigurePin(SPI2_GPIO_PORT, SPI2_CLK_PIN, INPUT, PID_GPIO, false);
GPIO_ConfigurePin(SPI2_GPIO_PORT, SPI2_DO_PIN, INPUT, PID_GPIO, false);
GPIO_ConfigurePin(SPI2_GPIO_PORT, SPI2_DI_PIN, INPUT, PID_GPIO, false);
SetBits16(SYS_CTRL_REG, PAD_LATCH_EN, 1);
}

Please let me know if I am not initializing it correctly. The reason I can't initialize it in peripheral_init is because the slave device draws power from the GPIO pins when I do not enable its power rail. So I'm waiting for a user to connect before enabling power to the slave device and then initializing the SPI port for communication. After disconnect I need to disable the port so the slave does not try to draw power from the SPI pins.

When the initialization code is placed in Peripheral_init, everything works well, so I know the rest of the code is functional.

Thank you,
DL