Partners Of Gbm Academy
First Name: Daphne
Last Name: Crause
Joined: 01 January 2023
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Status: Apostolic Mother
Details:
Early Childhood and Schooling
I was born and grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. I had two siblings - an older sister (3 years older), and younger brother who later died after a motorbike accident. I idolized my sister and looked up to her. She always seemed to be able to do anything academically but I struggled a lot. This made me feel very insecure from a young age.
Part of the insecurity came from the fact that I was born on 1st April (April Fool’s Day). My family often joked that I would be stupid because of being born on that day. However their words sunk deep down inside and I began to believe I really was stupid. The Lord had to change my thinking later on.
My parents were wealthy and I went to a private all girls school. It was based on a British system and was a very high academic standard. I managed to get through but it wasn’t easy. So in the middle of Standard 8 (2 years before finishing), my parents moved me to another school. Here I took business economics and learned typing and other practical things. Now I was in my element and I zoomed through those years with ease!
Career
It seems that I was geared more towards business things. So after I left school I did a short 6 month secretarial course. Then because I loved medical things (just the theory of it), I took a Medical Secretarial Course and loved every minute of it.
I started my working career transcribing x-ray reports. I did a few other things, but later left the medical field and joined the corporate world. I ended up working at the head office of the mining industry and rose up doing many different things.
I was blessed to be good at typing, transcribing and doing things that most typists didn’t like - doing fancy tables and spreadsheets. This meant that aside from being a secretary, I ended up doing all sorts of varied things for the company as they were needed. I was blessed to have a job that I just loved, and continued there until I met my current husband, Les.
Marriage and Family
I have been married twice. I was married first at the age of 24. My husband at that time was a Type 1 Diabetic and couldn’t have kids. I desperately wanted a child, but it never happened. My surname was Joshua, and I was thrilled to have a biblical name. We were married for 7 years until he passed away from diabetic complications.
I met Les 10 months later through a Christian Dating Club. The Lord brought us together miraculously and my world changed 180 degrees after we met. He was an Assistant Pastor at a church nearby and I wanted to marry a pastor and go into ministry. I was totally green and ignorant about anything related to ministry, but I was keen to jump in and learn.
I also became an instant mom to his 3 teenage daughters aged 10, 12 and 14. Looking back I realize the wisdom of the Lord that I didn’t have kids of my own, because I think it would have been a mess trying to integrate everything.
Les and I were married a few months after meeting. Then a year later the Lord answered my desire for a child when I fell pregnant with our son John. We named him after John the Baptist because we were older parents like his parents. When we told John about this as a child he thought maybe he would have to lose his head too. (Smile)
Spiritual Life
I grew up pretty much in the Anglican Church because my dad was the organist of the church we attended. I went to Sunday School but there was never anything more than just learning Bible stories.
At the age of 14 I went on a Christian camp with the church I was in. While I was there, one night we had a time of singing round a campfire. When we were done the leader gave a very simple gospel presentation and I accepted the appeal. A year later I attended the same church camp and this time I was filled with the Spirit.
My first husband was a Christian but we never really did much spiritually. However when Les and I met I was immediately thrown into the deep end and began to learn things about the spiritual life I never knew about. Les poured into me daily after we met and I grew in leaps and bounds.
The Lord gave us amazing promises when we were married and said we would go to places we had never heard of. This was fulfilled when we were invited by a relative in 1997 to go overseas and we ended up in Rosarito, Mexico. There we set up a ministry, and Les began to teach on the Prophetic and later Apostolic Ministries.
I did not feature much at that time, because his oldest daughter was with us and they taught and trained everyone the Lord brought us. I was trained in the prophetic and reached Prophetic Office; also Apostolic Ministry and Evangelistic Ministry.
The Lord however gave me a love for prayer and this became my forte and my spiritual job. I prayed through everything that was going on in the ministry and prayed for the school students as the Lord led me. Because I could transcribe well, Les now utilized that skill and I began to transcribe and put into books all of his teachings. This became my day job.
The Ministry became separated from his daughter many years later and the Lord led us back to South Africa in 2014. Les and I are now totally one in ministry, and the Lord is using us to reach all levels of leaders and ministries together. I feel blessed and fulfilled and know that the Lord will continue to use us for His purposes.