By: Apostle Colette Toach

The Apostolic Father

AMI has been through many changes and transformations through the years but it was birthed long before the first daily word went out. It started in the heart of Apostle Les who at the time was living in South Africa. Having being born during the early pentecostal revival the reality of the power of God was always something that was familiar to him.

This did not make up for his own need of conviction though and so from the age of 22 God began transforming his life. Letting him know, that he was called to something more. Always standing out and always rocking boats, he had a vision that the church should be something more than what it was.

I remember that time well. As a child I did not understand a lot of what he went through, but looking back I can put the pieces together. If there is one thing that stood out about my father it was his passion. No matter how many times he was rejected or cast down, a fire burned in him stronger than anything else. He pushed through changes in country, from one job to the next. Through poverty, rejection and a painful divorce, the enemy threw everything at him that is possible. It was enough to get anyone down. But the fire burned stronger than that.

What stands out to me is not just his firm resolve but this deep and penetrating love of Christ. A supernatural love that was a magnet to anyone hurting. Our house was always full of people that needed healing. Whether it was my friends hanging around for his attention, or a family that needed a place to stay, it was never dull.

I have been through the worst of the worst and the best of the best with Apostle Les and I can say that the principles that make up the foundation of this ministry are not just head-knowledge. They are lived. Through study, through life and althrough incredible spiritual revelation Apostle Les has proved his apostleship by laying a foundation that has remained and sunk deep roots into the hearts of God's people.

To Mexico

A few years after the Lord brought Les, Daphne to be his wife, the way was opened to come out to Mexico. They did not have a clear idea of what they were to do here, but the Lord said clearly that they must take the opportunity and that they would birth a ministry. And so with a leap of faith and strong hope they stepped out.

They started with nothing. Nothing but an internet connection and a place to live in. They did not know the language and they had very limited income. What would you do? Well being a programmer by trade, he started online. With the simple Daily Word. (still one of our most popular mail lists)

With just a few family members on the list, I wonder if he could have imagined that it would grow to the thousands that come to our sites now. Humble and with a simple heart to serve, the way opened quickly. Soon the Lord opened the way for Craig and I to join and so started the beginning of the original ministry team.

To give our entire story would take a book, but you can be certain of one thing. What we preach here, we live. It was always Les's conviction that the job of the Apostle was to start a work and then to hand it over to his spiritual children. To establish an inheritance that would remain. His premise always was:

"This Ministry Will Never Be Based On a Person"

And so he did not use his name in the titles. He wanted it to outlive him and not be limited. And so once he had completed the teaching and established the roots of AMI nice and deep, he did what he had taught all through the years. He laid hands on Craig and I and imparted the mandate to us. Handing over full operations of the ministry and everything involved, he went up the mountain as Moses did and let go.

We are Apostolic Movement International.

Our mandate is to set the church as a city on a hill. To equip and train God's leaders to take their place. In essence, our mandate is to help you fulfill yours. With a full training mechanism for the fivefold ministry and profound foundation principles for the Christian life, we have an inheritance for the Body of Christ.

So is Apostle Les dead? Well in an essence, he has passed on this mandate and was resurrected with a new mandate. One that has burned in him alongside the ministry vision he had. However God could not release him into it, until he had completed what was needed in AMI.

Who do you know that would spend some of the best years of his life to raise up his spiritual kids and an international ministry, only to hand it over at the point where it is reaching it's height of success? Our proof is not only in the principles you will find on our pages and in our books, but our proof is in the lives we live.

Apostle Les will always be an integral part of this foundation and as Craig and I build on it, we know that we are taking the land, much like Joshua did after Moses handed everything over. If you would like to follow Apostle Les's new mandate, you can find out more at the following websites:

http://www.global-business-resources.com/

http://www.fivefold-business-school.com/

Craig and Colette's Story

Although it might seem that my story began when we landed in San Diego in May of 1998, the truth is that it began on 10th December 1974. The day I was born.

The first born in my family, on that day my father picked me up and looked down at this unwashed, squirming baby and could not believe it as he saw himself in my face. Right there he held me up and dedicated me to the Lord.

Little did he know how this one small act would follow me through the years that would follow. 'Knowing the Lord' was not something that I just decided to do one day. It is something that was part of me since the first few hours of my life. I grew up in Him, but that did not mean everything came naturally. I had some serious obstacles to overcome myself.

I grew up insecure and never feeling quite normal. My father being a pastor, meant that we had many church experiences. Of course now take into consideration that my father was Apostle Les D. Crause and you can be assured that even my church experiences were anything but normal! Before I was 14 I had already been involved in Methodist, Baptist and Pentecostal churches.

First Ministry Experience

I remember one of my very first ministry experiences like it was yesterday. I was about 11 years old and had recently learned to play the drums. My father was leading the worship in a baptist church and so set up our equipment, with me as the drummer. I was so nervous, but also excited.

In those days (and in many churches still today) one thing you did not do was make a noise during praise and worship! We might as well have been a heavy metal band as far as that church was concerned. They were not impressed with this noisy little drummer and electric guitar playing father. And so my first little step into public ministry ended as abruptly as it began.

It did not stop me though. If there was one thing our father taught us, it was that we had a calling on our lives. Ok...so the drumming did not work...let's try something else. At this stage my father was now a leader in another charismatic church where he was often asked to preach. For the one sunday evening meeting, I was allowed to stand up and share. And so I learned my first lesson on Homiletics and preached a little sermon. I was only 13 at the time, but I had no idea how the topic of that message would spearhead something incredible in another 10 years.

I stood up with my very first conviction which was: That it was time the children and youth rose up and were used of God also. My passion would be to see children ministering to children! As I look at what my husband Craig is accomplishing right now as a Children's Apostle, I am now seeing that vision come to pass. You just have to be in awe of God's grace and foresight.

A Devastating Turn of Events

Just when things looked like I was set on the right road, it all fell apart. Right in the middle of being actively involved in ministry my parents went through a shattering divorce. My mother left my father, myself and my two sisters for someone else. We were all devastated and during this phase I remember many hours in intercession with my father, seeking God for the next steps.

I was 14 years old, the eldest of my sisters who were at that time 12 and 10. I ended up jumping in and playing some of the mother role in our home. Which would end up causing me countless problems later on in my life.

The Miraculous Call

It was during this phase though, that I received the call to ministry from the Lord Jesus for myself. During one of our times of intercession I had a clear vision of the Lord Jesus riding up to me on a white horse. Stepping down, He took my hand and asked me to follow Him. It was the first time I ever saw what the Lord Jesus looked like in the spirit and to this day, that vision remains as clearly in my mind as if I had received it yesterday. I knew from then, that He had a job for me to do.

Immediately following that was a mighty resurrection...NOT!

From the moment of receiving that vision all hell was let loose in my life. Pressure and rejection increased. I decided that I had faced enough of the expectation from everyone to be something special just because I was the pastor's kid. I was also tired of always being poor, which I attributed to my father being in ministry. I would find my own way in the world. While I was off, following my own desires, Les met and married Daphne and after two years had a son (John Peter) with her.

Les found the wife he was always intended to have, who stood with him through thick and thin. I found the tender mother I had always wanted. I was very keen to embrace Daphne as she found her hands full with 3 teenage girls to care for. I still held onto my rebellion though. God would have to chase me a little more...

Tricked by the Lord

Together Les and Daphne stood in prayer for me to return to the Lord. The more they prayed, the more adamant I was that I would keep going my own way. I was weary of being poor. I was devastated by the divorce and I felt like everyone else in the world who were normal, had more than me.

The worst part is that the Lord refused to leave me in my rebellion. Having flowed in the gifts of the spirit most of my life, I was very well aware of the demonic realm and the things I was getting into. I tried so hard to ignore it, but often I think the Lord manifested the Gift of Discerning of Spirits at awkward moments just to make His point.

I ran harder. My parents prayed harder. In the middle of this conflict I met Craig. I was running away from the Lord so hard, I figured that if I got into the heavy metal scene that this would hide me for sure. Here was where I met Craig and I figured I was now safe. If anyone can imagine the two of us dressed in black, head-banging to Metallica, you will surely know that God's grace is stronger than anything we can do in ourselves.

Enter ...Craig Toach

Who says that the Lord does not have a sense of humor? Right there in the middle of my rebellion, we visited my parents and Les led Craig to the Lord. As if that was not enough...he got spirit filled, spoke in diverse tongues and prophesied! WHAT?! If I wanted to keep up with Craig ...I knew I better get my act together.

The Prophecy that changed it all.

So right there I recommitted my life to the Lord and also myself to Craig. Les prayed for us that evening and as he laid hands on us, he sealed us as a couple and also for the work of the ministry. He said to us, "I see you with two small children on a plane. You will not stay in South Africa, but you will travel and be used of God all over the world."

This was impossible for us to imagine and we thought that perhaps in maybe 8 years or so, we might see that come to pass. We forgot something essential ...that God's time was not our time! Within 2 and a half years that prophecy was fulfilled.

After a year of living with Craig's folks. We packed up our 1 and 2 year old (Deborah-Anne and Jessica ) with 6 suitcases and boarded a plane for San Diego (To drive through to Mexico.) And so my story ended. I lived so many things, faced so many things and only when we arrived, did I understand that God had called me to be more than just a preacher. He had plans for me, that were beyond my own imagination.

The Early Ministry Days

I love to write. So the moment we arrived, I got involved in counseling and writing daily devotionals. Craig and I were both placed in prophetic office within a short time of arriving. Only another couple who has faced prophetic training at the same time, could possibly identify with the price we had to pay so early in our married life.

Les began to preach and also instruct us on how to preach effectively. I would have to say I was still pretty naive. I saw him do it. I wanted to do it. I stood up and did it. It did not occur to me that I could not preach or that I would fail. I think my naivety saved me a lot along the way!

I stood up to preach my first full message (that would later be included in the prophetic materials in AMI) entitled: The Prophetic Child. Only 22 years old at the time and boasting a very thick South African accent, I fervently preached what I had lived up until that point. So fast and so fervently in fact, that even listening to the message today, you can hardly keep up with myself! (I still had a lesson or two to learn on Homiletics back then!)

I was set ...I was ready...but I made a mistake.

It felt like I had accomplished everything I desired, but I did not feel satisfied. I thought back on the church I had been involved in. I thought about all the other people I was meeting online and I was very very dissatisfied. The church was a mess! It needed change and a new foundation.

So I did the unthinkable. I asked God to give me what I needed to change it. Not long after that, Apostle Les gave me what looked like a jewel encrusted key in the spirit. Neither of us knew what it was. It looked important. So we waited.

Well whatever that key was, my life was turned upside down again. Death came daily! Every flaw, every failure, every mistake started being exposed in my life. Only a little further down the road, did the Lord begin to show us, that what I had received was the Apostolic Key and a call to apostolic training for office.

The Apostolic Key

What was an apostle? We had NO idea! We only knew ...there is this key ...there is this office...and yes ...there is a lot of death to the flesh.

You need to understand that up until that point the Lord refused to allow us to read any other materials in the church on any of the Fivefold Ministry. We were isolated at that time in Mexico without visas to the United States and our only ministry outlet was via the internet. This was the perfect ground for the Holy Spirit to take us through His kind of training.

We had hardly been in Mexico a few months when the financial support was cut off. Les and Daphne had secured a large home for rent, so we were able to live together and seek the Lord daily. Day by day we began to live out our calling and our training. Each time we lived something, we preached it.

Finances were so tight, and food was so low, that we concentrated on praise and worship hours in the day to keep us motivated. When we were hungry we preached. When we were discouraged we praised. Slowly we began to see God move. We began to receive small donations and contributions from those that had started to receive from us online.

We began to see some patterns in this thing called 'the apostolic calling.' The Lord showed us in our lives and in the Word that an Apostle is called to leave everything behind. Family, security and old patterns, to go into nowhere to establish something new. Much like Abraham who followed God through faith, not really knowing what he would find when he got there.

With Craig, myself and Les all being in Prophetic Office back then, the Lord began to reveal the prophetic ministry to Les first. As Les preached his first series on the prophetic, I could only be in awe to see that everything I had gone through was because of the call on my life. Suddenly it all made sense.

The Beach Walk that Started it All

The house we lived in during this time was very close to the beach. In the evenings when everything was quiet, we would often all go together and walk on the beach. Talk. Pray. Cry out to the Lord. It was during one of these walks that the Lord gave us a profound revelation.

We had been speaking about what we could do to raise finances. Our attempt to offer some free bible studies in the hope of receiving donations, did not work. We had to think of something else.

The Lord dropped this idea into my head and I said to Les. "Hey you have preached all of those prophetic materials, why don't we just start an online prophetic school?"

All of us felt the Lord's clear direction on this idea. Like with everything else, how could I have known that this one idea would begin shaping my own mandate as an Apostle to the Church Universal.

Prophets, Prophets Everywhere

I was hard to say who was trained the most in the next few years. The prophets or myself! Have you ever had a full school of prophets to work with? They are like sticks of dynamite. Volatile and could blow up at any minute! I learned patience, wisdom and somewhere along the line ..I learned how to train. Les preached the majority of the foundation teachings, I put them together in a training system with lectures to make the students live them.

Soon the online ministry was growing fast and it was clear that it was time to meet some of those that were now rising up in our online school. After two years, the time came for our first International Conference.

The Conference was a wonderful success and opened up the doors for us to meet some of our students from all over the world.

The Appointment and the Birth

Things began speeding up pretty fast for us from there. Things were only getting busier online and soon another conference would be needed to ordain the others who were now trained. Right in the middle of this, Craig and I received some shocking news.

After struggling with some strange physical symptoms for nearly 5 months, we discovered that I was pregnant with our third daughter. Unplanned and at the height of change, I tried fitting in my growing belly into all the tasks I usually did in the ministry.

As if that was not surprising enough, the Lord had an even greater surprise for me.

It happened on an ordinary evening. There was no big fanfare or big crowds. It happened simply like this. I asked Les for prayer for some pain I had physically. Then while Craig and I were sitting there in his bedroom, the anointing suddenly came on us and Les put his hand on my head and released me into Apostolic Office. He spoke a powerful decree and the Lord told me clearly that I was called to go out and bring His glory to the church.

It was 3 years almost do the day since receiving the Apostolic Key.

The conference came quickly and although heavy and ready to give birth at any moment, the Holy Spirit sustained me through the preaching and worship. Two days after the conference, Rebekah Jade Toach came screaming into the world. She signaled the change that would still take place in our lives. The Lord was not done with us yet and we needed more training.

The desire to mentor and train up others into the Fivefold Ministry became a burning passion in my life. I had been on the training road for three years up until that point, but still there was more I needed to learn. The Lord opened a very big door in the following year. He opened up the way for Craig and I to go to Switzerland for an extended season to help a ministry there establish a prophetic school and train up their people.

The Lord continued to lead us and before we left on another unexpected evening as we came to prayer as a team, the Lord indicated that Craig had also qualified for Apostolic Office. Now we had everything we needed and were ready to get moving ...or so we thought!

The "Swiss Connection"

Rebekah was 1 at the time we left for Switzerland, which ended up being a 8 month stay. After that time we returned to Mexico, but the way was open now in Switzerland. We had made more contacts there and so began our trips back and forth from San Diego to Zurich, Switzerland. Soon the first AMI church was born and I was actively involved.

Mentoring, training and teaching the people there took all of my attention. This continued over a period of 6 years. Things were getting nice and comfortable. Craig and I had the opportunity to visit various churches, people and ministries in England, Wales, Barbados (West Indies) and Florida.

But we were forgetting something. The Lord had not called us to run a church. He had called us to provide resources and train up His Apostles and leaders. In a sudden and massive conflict with the churches in Switzerland, our involvement with them was abruptly ended.

Back to the Original Mandate

We were devastated. All the years, time and love we had poured into many individuals seemed a waste of time as each one turned on us. Although it was painful, the Lord made it clear ..the time is over there, you must reach out with your original mandate now.

A few more changes, a few more lessons to be learned, but with a new goal in mind. To raise up God's leaders and to establish ministers who are confident, charismatic and full of Power!

Full Responsibility

You would think that after such a major upheaval in our lives, that the Lord would leave well alone! It seemed though that He wanted to make a point and make it STRONG! Just a few weeks after the split with the church, the Lord gave Les a startling revelation. (yeah ...one of THOSE) The Lord told him to hand over the ministry and all its operation to Craig and I.

There is only reason why I know we were ready for this huge responsibility. That reasoning is, we felt TOTALLY INCAPABLE! Years before we would have been so sure of ourselves and ready to take on any challenge. Some time in the fire and some good tempering and the Lord had finally brought us to a place where we felt we were just babies, ready to learn to walk.

The Lord was gracious though and made the transition gradual. Apostles Les and Daphne remained walking the road with us for a season to help us on our way, gradually easing out.

Another Birth Makes It Clear

Do not ask me why the Lord chooses these moments in our life to do dramatic things, but He waited until the birth of our fourth and last child (Our Son Michael Toach) to make the separation very clear and bring a clear line of division between our roads. From August 2009 the separation was completed and both couples stood squarely on their own roads with their individual mandates to fulfill.

He led Les and Daphne to press on to lay a new foundation. Turning towards his business mandate to raise up Gods Business Entrepreneurs, Apostle Les left behind everything he had built up. Letting go of apostolic children and the foundation he laid, he presses forward now with another international vision, that is set to be as successful as AMI is!

Together we are a new kind of team with new responsibilities and roles.

Disciples and Spiritual Children. The Warriors.

It took me 10 years to discover my Apostolic Mandate. Much of it through death and trial. However it remains in me to see the church of God set as a city on a hill. Where every believer walks in power and in the anointing.

The only way that this will come to pass is if the Church has leaders who walk in this power and know how to impart it to others. So this really is the essence of what this ministry is about. We continue to look out for those warriors, those men and women of God who have a passion to do things God's way.

Men and women with a clear vision of what God has called them to do and a determination to pay the price. What I have from the Lord is the ability to train, shape, mentor and also spiritually parent those with such a passion. So that they can take everything they have and present it effectively to the church.

If your heart has burned through my story and you feel that drawing in your heart, then perhaps you are one of those that God has chosen to be one of our disciples or spiritual children. Perhaps not. Perhaps you are one of those that will come and receive a bit of the teaching here and go your own way.

Either way, you were led here for a purpose, so before you leave, make sure that you take back with you what you came for. Browse the links, subscribe to the lists, but above all, be inspired to press on. Pay the price and the Lord will raise you up so that you can stand as Christ in this world and bring about the kind of change that will usher this End Times Church into the New Move that God has for her!