William Harvey Hoover Sr, who was called Bill by his extended family, served in the U.S. Army as a weapons sergeant during WWII in the south Pacific.  When he returned from his tour of duty he married Velma Riggins. Velma attended church in Kingwood, WV, but William did not.  He worked in the coal mines.  He frequented the beer garden, as he called it, and was there one evening with his brother drinking away.  On that night the Spirit of God spoke to him to put his beer down and leave the place.  He told his brother he was going to wait for him in the car.  Soon afterward, he went to church with Velma, but did not find salvation at church.  On lunch break in the coal mines, he broke through and received the free gift of salvation.  He said that when he received Christ the old habits were broken.  He never touched alcohol or cigarettes again. 

After receiving Christ, he was reading Luke 10:2 where it stated “pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.”  He started praying this and the Lord told him that He wanted him to be a laborer for the harvest.  William replied “I am not qualified Lord, there are so many others who could do it”.  The Lord told him that they were not aware that He needed them.  From that point forward he began to pursue being a minister for Jesus Christ.  He started as a circuit preacher in Cottageville, WV.  He later moved to Orlando, WV and was Pastor there.  Upon being informed by the district council of the denomination he served that he could no longer anoint with oil for the healing of the sick, he left the denomination and went into independent ministry.

At God’s direction, he undertook many ventures. A tent was purchased and tent revivals were held throughout central WV where many received Christ.  A monthly/quarterly newsletter was sent to hundreds. A monthly tape ministry spread the life giving message to hundreds in multiple states.

During his life he went through many physical tests. We share them because it is important to understand what he went through and how it impacted others,  In one of those tests, he was gravely ill and without God’s touch he was going to be committed to a sanitarium.  On a Sunday morning, the church congregation was praying for him.  At a point during that prayer, he arose from bed went to the bathroom, expelled a black mass and was healed.  Another test followed: he was having difficulty preaching.  Specialist doctors wanted to remove his voice-box and told him that he would never preach again.  He told them that God called him to preach and that only God would stop him.  He received healing and never had problems with his voice box again.  In 2000, he experienced coughing up of blood.  He prayed and asked God that he would not experience this while preaching.  As he told it, he would be fine while preaching, but go home and couch up blood.  He was diagnosed with lung cancer.  He prayed and asked God why he did not cough blood while preaching, yet experienced it at all other times. He shared that God told him that was all that he had asked for.  He repented, asked God for full healing, and did not return to the doctor.  In 2006, he visited the doctor due to pneumonia, the chest x-rays showed the scars from where the lung cancer had been in his lungs, but had dried up.  On November 29, 2006, he went to be with his Lord and Savior.

We share these memories, many of which he shared in church, because we feel his testimony impacted us all and laid the foundation for what the ministry and church accomplished during his tenure.