Gene & Lynda Goodsell

Country Managers of West Africa
Gene and Lynda grew up at opposite ends of the country, Lynda in the Central Valley of California, and Gene in Northern Virginia.  Though both graduated from Brigham Young University, they met in Northern Virginia where Lynda was teaching secondary school and Gene was beginning an accounting career.

After marriage, they remained in Northern Virginia where they raised their five sons, all of whom are now married and raising families of their own.  Among them, there are presently eighteen children with grandchild number nineteen on the way.  All live within a day’s drive of Virginia which keeps Gene and Lynda on the road.  Driving includes regular travel to Montana to spend significant time with Lynda’s extended family in the Montana mountains.  

As young adults, Gene and Lynda were volunteer missionaries in Japan and France/Switzerland, respectively. Those experiences as youth, and similar experiences of their parents and each of their sons, created a desire to volunteer for full-time missionary service after retirement.  Accordingly, Gene and Lynda have served volunteer missions in Eastern Europe (primarily in Bosnia and Serbia), in the Marshall Islands in the North Pacific, and in Sri Lanka and India.  Interestingly, between the twelve full-time missions served by their immediate family, there is only one common language – Russian – spoken by a son who served in Russia and a daughter-in-heart who served in Ukraine. 

Though they had not previously spent time in Africa, Gene and Lynda feel their varied experiences across the world have helped their service with The Stirling Foundation in West Africa be very rich and fulfilling.  

Outside of his professional work, they treasure time with their family and look forward to welcoming their 19th grandchild.