Mother JoAnne Hooks is the tenth of twenty children born to Wesley and Willie Mae Smith, who were sharecroppers, in the small town of Marianna, Arkansas.  At the age of seven, she began crying out to God seeking answers about her education.  She was permitted to go to school only on rainy days because she had to work alongside her family in the cotton fields.

When she was eleven years old, she heard the voice of the Lord but did not understand the call at that time.  Mother Hooks fully surrendered her life to the Lord at a noonday prayer meeting twenty six years ago when she heard the voice of God once again.  God then sent Jesus to lay hands upon her and told her, “I have anointed you to preach the gospel.”  Not once, but twice in that same hour, hands were laid upon her and she was filled with the Holy Ghost all in one day.

“What a glorious experience, a day I will never forget!”