Coal Miner’’s Granddaughter: Childhood Memories

Joan's stories of her childhood set the stage for who she is today. One of her current passions is digging wells in Togo, Africa, where she has helped build three wells and a fourth is in the works The profits from this book will help fund well projects.

Joan Hust was born in a shack without running water and electricity in Cleveland, Ohio to a single mom. Her biological mom became her aunt after adoption by her maternal uncle. Joan’s parents never finished school, and by the time Joan was in fifth grade, she had attended 25 grammar schools, yet reading was always an important part of her growing up years. The first time she heard a prayer was when she visited another aunt’s home. She heard her name used in the prayer. Joan became a Christian as a high school sophomore after hearing Mrs. Billy Sunday preach. She dropped out of school her junior year and enrolled in a 4-year Bible college in Florida graduating magna cum laude, then earned a BA at Florida Southern College and an Alumni Achievement Award. She taught all grades through junior college in Michigan, Florida, and Washington. She earned Master’s Degrees at Wayne State University and Seattle University, and received an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from Florida. Joan and her husband served as missionaries in Africa. Bill, a mechanical engineer at a copper mine, also supported her endeavors. Joan produced a children’s weekly program on Zambia TV and radio, taught at the mine, parochial schools and at Theological College of Central Africa. She wrote a safari manual, led safaris in Kafue National Park and ran a printing operation in her home that supplied stationery, Bible tracts and brochures for the country. Joan was the youth leader at the local church in Chingola, Zambia. After returning from Africa, she earned a Master in Library Science at Long Island University and worked as a medical librarian in New York and Idaho.