Bill and Joan Hust • Coeur d'Alene Christmas 2012

WHO INSPIRED ME TO WRITE?

By Joan S. Hust

I give credit to my mother.  At a very young age my mother had me take my pencil and go over her shopping list every week letter by letter.  She would sharpen my pencil with a sharp kitchen knife and I would carefully trace over every letter.  She made it like we were playing a game.  Then as time went on I would begin to write the entire word, sound it out and all of a sudden I would say the new word out loud, and together we would make up one sentence after another and eventually it would turn in to a story. Sometimes I would even make up a tune using the word, and both of us would sing, and end up laughing.  

My mother was a voracious reader.  She read every page of the local newspaper.  She would remind me that daddy bought the newspaper for us to read. At that time my daddy did not read or write.  He signed his paychecks with an x.  As I learned to read and write he would sit down beside me at the kitchen table after a fourteen hour seven day a week workday, and I would teach him everything that I learned that day in school.

We did not own a book till I was in Junior High School.  One of my aunts, the niece of my dad sent me three books for Christmas. It was so thrilling for me to have books of my own.  I still have those books.  I have written and published my first book COAL MINER’S GRANDDAUGHTER.  I have found that there is healing power in writing. I learned a lot from writing my first book so my second book should be better. I have just finished writing my second book AFRICA TALES, and it will be published as soon as my graphic artist finishes the sketches for it.

 I am not quite sure yet but even though I am eight decades and a few months old I still have another story in mind as my younger son reminded me the other day that I have been in 37 countries teaching, mission work and believe it or not as a tourist.

England 2012

Kent, (Cobham) UK @ Mike and Pat Brooks lovely home on Sole Street.  Jacob and Joan were their guests for three weeks.  They were most kind and they treated us to a week in Dover where they rented a house.  They took us everywhere.  You name it. We have seen it.  Joy Fallon took the fast train from Scotland and visited us for the best part of a week.  Our family met Pat and Mike in Chingola, Zambia. I have a new hairdo in this photo. Pat took me to her hairdresser, John.  Bill worked with Mike at the Copper Mine.  They played squash every Sunday afternoon.  I am wearing one of Mike’s silk ties.          October 2012

The Bible that I gave my mother in 1948

The Bible that I gave my mother in 1948.  I came across it on one of my shelves at home in 2012.  I told her when I accepted the Lord.  At the bottom of the page she wrote ACCEPTED JAN-1973.  God is so good.  Praise the Lord!

Flamingos in Kenya

A delightful sight to behold is when you see more flamingos than you can count in Kenya which I have experienced several times.

Bush Baby in Kenya

Bush babies are so cute but they do not come over to be petted as you would like them to do. I have only seen three or four. 

Some friends

We met weekly, and not only prayed and read the Bible but had some fun and good laughs.  Left to right are Linda Lemkau, Julia Sheeks, Joan Hust, Melinda Butler, and Maureen Larson.

Israel Garden Tomb

It was a blazing hot day and night while we were in Israel.  The Garden tomb was awesome, and as you read your Bible the area comes back to your mind that it was such a blessing to have been there with our sons.

Hong Kong many years ago.

It is always quite an experience walking the crowded streets of Hong Kong with our two sons that were not teenagers yet.  To keep an eye on where they were as they would stop and look at the shops, and push each other and run away or walk too slow was an experience to remember.

China Children

I was walking with my friend YaGang and a young man from Oxford in England.  We met him and his guide on the Grand Canyon trail in China near the Tibet border. These darling children let us take their photo.  They had a newborn lamb in their arms.

Burundi Sunset

It is always a breath taking experience to see the sun going behind the clouds in the sky and gradually all of a sudden it is dark, and the beauty of the sky is hidden somewhere till the next day.  I think of the hymn “Somewhere beyond the blue there’s a mansion for me.  Somewhere beyond the blue I am longing to see. To see my Savior’s face, and sing Redeeming Grace.”

Burundi Mission Trip kids

One morning I woke up early so I went for a walk with two of our team before breakfast. It was fun to see these children playing cards that they had made from odds and ends of scrap paper.

Brazil Mission Trip with Danielle McIver

Danielle was the daughter of Dan McIver.  She is a Math and Science school teacher and lives in Canada. This mission trip was hosted by the Christian and Missionary Alliance church.  I was saved under the ministry of the CMA church in St. Petersburg, Florida when I was a sophomore in High School when Mrs. Billy Sunday was the speaker.  I have not attended a CMA church since then till I went on this mission trip to Brazil.  How many years later?  Wow… it was 60 years,

Testimony from Zambia for Joan Hust

“I am privileged to be among the believers of our Lord Jesus who had the grace to hear the preached word of God by God’s humble servant Dr. Joan Hust at Saint Marks’ United Church of Zambia in the mining town of Chingola on Copperbelt Province. Between 1979 and 1981, as a schoolboy I attended children’s lessons conducted by Joan. She prepared easy methods for the hearers such as Muppets, drama etc. All these lessons were Christ-centered hence touching the heart of the young seekers in the mining town of which I was included. Many of us got born again at a tender age through the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by God’s servant Joan Hust.

We had a Television program called CLUBHOUSE of which Joan was the moderator. Because of Joan’s emphasis on Bible reading, some of the boys and girls were able to read the Bible through from cover to cover. Deeply convicted by what we had read, we developed an intense hatred for sin. Every week, we could meet as a community of young believers. I remember some friends like Clement Muwele, the late Henry Simukoko, Vivian Nakawala Simwanza, Gladys Simwanza, Judy Simwanza and Joseph Banda, who have all grown in the fear of the Lord.  This is because of the foundational teaching given to us as we had to surrender to Jesus at a tender age. The light of heaven broke into many of the souls in the young boys and girls in Chingola regardless of their denomination during the ministry of Joan Hust.

Joan with godly wisdom used the Muppet shows to deliver the gospel to the children. I am really humbled to be part of the few people who witnessed the ministry of Joan Hust in Zambia and now serve the Lord as a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the RURAL OUTREACH MINISTRIES. Many of us were born again through the ministry of Joan Hust because the lady preaches the gospel of the risen Christ.”

Testimony by Evangelist Chishala Mwaba

- HEAD OF MISSION (RURAL OUTREACH MINISTRIES)

RAELYNN, daughter of Pepper and Beth

This is RAELYNN, younger daughter of Pepper and Beth, and sister of our darling BIRGITTA. They live in Puyallup, WA.

Joan Hust family and family secrets

This was a thrill for me to see on Facebook 8-18-2012. I thought they were my cousins for years.  Then when I was told they were my brothers and sisters I practically went into a coma.  Family secrets.  Their mother was my biological mother who for years I thought she was my Aunt Catherine (Dean) Lundgren.  She was a wonderful Aunt, and they were great cousins.  I am not sure if we all needed to know that I was the first born child of their mother, and Leonard was next. My dad talked about our biological dad.  My dad was her Uncle Bob who was the brother of Watt Dean who was her dad.  Her mother was Rose (first wife of Watt) and she visited me with her new husband Tucker when I was still living with my parents Bob and Virginia Segred (sometimes spelled with the letter ‘I”) Lundgren  Dean in St. Petersburg, Florida who all of us thought were my biological parents.  Aunt Catherine met her husband, Helmer, and brother of Virginia and dad of Marlene, Diane, and Roger when he came to visit his sister (my mom) in Cleveland who was living with my folks.  He accepted Leonard and me when he married Aunt Catherine. He loved us from day one.  Leonard went with him and I stayed with Bob and Virginia who I have always known as my parents till the family secret was made known to all of us.  Aunt Catherine came down to her Uncle Bob’s funeral, my dad) and that is when she told me everything.  We decided together to keep it a secret as long as my mother was living.  We all know the story now but I don’t think that it benefited us to know the family secret. Take another look at this photo.  Don’t they look great?

Jerusalem

It was really hot when we were in Jerusalem.  We stayed part of the time with Murray who is Fay Dobkins son-in-law. Dottie Wagner, AEF missionary traveled with us.