Maine's Linda Gove Blazing Gospel Trails In Kenya

Jim Duran

Maine Christian Connection

At nine years old, Linda Gove wrote in a school paper that she wanted to be a missonary someday. This seed, placed within her heart when the Lord formed her, grew to maturity when she traveld to Tanzania in 2004 with her youngest son, Mark.

"The call of God cam alive with me. It felt like the Lord took my heart in his hands, squeezed Linda out and filled me with a love beyond words," explains the South Berwick resident.

Some say to her, "You've given up so much to follow God's call." They are so wrong, she insists.

Althought missing her family is a very "big miss," placing her feet on African soil - or wherever the Lord leads - brings deep fulfillment to her life. It is a call she would not want to run from even if she could.

The dangers are real. It is a foreign land, one that does not offer the security and safety that life in the USA provides.

"My family knows that all too well," Linda notes. "The sacrifice of giving up their wife, mom, nana, daughter, or sister has left an empty spot in their heart many times, but the continue to release me and encourage me to be all that God has called me to be."

Western Kenya serves as a base from which she can work and travel into other areas. Her heart is drawn to the poorest of the poor and primitive tribes. Much of her time is spent working in slums where smoldering garbage fills the air, and brooks of raw sewage roll through the land. The crime, disease, and suffering are extreme, and many live in despair.

Linda works with a small church in the slums and a school of 35 - 50 students. She knows that going door to door to pray wiht the hurting and discouraged along with taking care of immediate needs such as medical care, food, blankets and cloths is a way of putting Jesus's love in action.

How has she seen God work"

"My heart rejoices as I reflect on all that the Lord has done. Four churches have been built, a day school is open for up to 60 children, a safe house for seven orphans is operating, and a well, with lots of clean water, has been dug.  Lives have been touched by love, the love of Jesus! There are needs and suffering everywhere I look, but I serve a compassionate God with unlimited resources."

Among the people groups the ministry touches is the Turkana tribe which lives in the desert near the Sudan border.

It is a harsh land of drought, extreme heat and poor soil, which often bring famine and death. Truckloads of relief food have been taken into the bush areas to encourage and help them.

"When the hungry feel your heart and know they have found a friend, they will listen. Many have fallen to their knees and asked Jesus into their heart," says Linda.

She shares how milking goats have been brough along with chickens for eggs, and land has been leased for gardening so that the villagers can have food for themselves and some to sell.

"Assisting them in a small business helps them to become self-sufficent, to stand with dignity, and know that the Lord loves them."

She reflects on how every day brings new challenges and how God continues to show His greatness. Perhaps it is praying with someone left to die outside the church or a dying child that has been placed in her arms. It might mean hugging a mom and crying with her as the body of her little boy is at Linda's feet.

We asked Linda to share some of the most impacting moments of her ministry.

"It's watching the grip of death leave an AIDS patient as prayer, medicines, and healthy foods are provided. It's rushing to the hospital to pray over a woman beaten senseless by her husband. It's hearing the words, "brain dead and will not recover" but seeing Jesus completely heal her.  It is comforting children with no place to call home but seeing their eyes shine when they enter their new safe house.

"It's walking in villages of extreme poverty and seeing children that will never have the means to go to school and then seeing pverty turn to plenty and having a heart leap with joy as child after child registers for school."

"It might be a day of breathing smoke from the smoldering fires of the garbage dumps and coughing from the toxic smells but rejoicing as the homeless fill their dump land with songs of praise."

"It's feeding the hungry and having your heart break as the children fight like wild animals out of fear that there won't be enough."

There is one man she will never forget. Men were asked to wait until all the women with their babies were served. Those helping her were shaking the sacs to get the pieces at the bottom. It was obvious that we were running out of food. A very thin, frail, older man had waited patiently in the hot sun.

Lind's heart cried out to the Lord for enough, for more, and as workers scooped the bottom of the sac, they found just enough for the last man in line. When they poured maize into his thin, used plastic bag, it broke and corn kernels scattered everywhere. This man fell to the ground and frantically started picking up each and every kernel he could.

"His eyes looked up into mine, and for a brief moment, I saw my dad. I love my dad, and I knew he had worked hard all of his life. Before me was a man that had worked hard, too, a man that had children and had lived the best he could, but at the end of his life he had to kneel and gather pieces of corn off the dirty ground. In an instant, a God moment, his pain became personal to me. God wanted me to feel the pain that surrounded me. He wanted me to know the hunger, to feel the shame of crawling on the ground for a morsel of food. God melted away another layer of my heart that day."

"No one can prepare themselves for the pain and suffering that is seen in a Third World country, but with the Lord's love comes the desire and the strenght to continued no matter how bad it might be.

A special Bible verse that spurs Linda and her fellow workers on says: "I am still confident of this, I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm 27:13.)

Asked how she would encourage someone who senses a call from God in an area "bigger than themselves," she responds: "Never let the circumstances of life keep you from all that God has for you. Love the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind and strenght. Take a step of faith and become the Lord's hands and feet and watch Him work through you. "

To Learn more about making a difference around the world, contact: Linda Gove Ministries PO Box 174 North Berwick, ME 03906 www.lindagove.org (207) 676 9683 (207) 651 6321

Local students aid Kenyan counterparts

By JASON CLAFFEY

Foster's Daily Democrat

SOMERSWORTH - When school children take a test in the poverty-stricken village of Kawangware, Kenya, they have to erase the answers so the next child can use the test.

Students in Somersworth's Youth Safe Haven program know what it's like to have few resources of their own.

The nonprofit after school group lost federal funding a year ago; it now relies on donations from businesses like Service Credit Union to stay afloat.

So when one of their instructors showed them pictures of Kenyan students taught by Christian missionary Linda Gove of North Berwick, Maine in a dirt-floor classroom the Somersworth students decided to do something.

Sixth-grader Miriam Chase-Burrows gathered reams of paper. Seventh-grader Felicia Tuttle found crayons and markers. Eight-grader Tegan Barr bought books, paper and glue sticks.

Altogether, about 20 students collected three box fulls of supplies for Gove's students. The Somersworth Hilltop 13 Lions donated $150 for postage.

"Everybody contributed something," said Betty Eaton, a PlusTime New Hampshire AmeriCorps member who oversees the Somersworth program.

She called the Lions Club donation "huge." "We didn't know how we were going to mail it," she said.

She said Students were shocked when they saw pictures of the Kenyan children.

“They just couldn’t believe people have schools with dirt floors,” she said.

“I almost cried I was so sad,” said Barr, the eighth-grader.

Students ultimately donated everything from pencils to coloring books to an inflatable world globe.

Chase-Burrows said it felt good to help.

In an e-mail, Gove said the items were invaluable for her students because they are so poor.

“Just a pencil is such a treasure,” she said. “The generous hearts of the Somersworth, NH Youth Safe Haven filled three boxes worth of very useful and needed items for the schoolchildren of Africa.”