Pastor Linda was born in Friona, Texas, about 12 minutes from Bovina, Texas, where she was raised and lived until she graduated high school. She said that her parents did the best they could with what they had, and their home was filled with love: “We were poor, but we didn’t know it ‘cause everyone else was poor too.” The Stanberry family lived in town, and her father worked at the grain elevator, collecting grain from the surrounding farmers. She remembers joining her mother at Bovina Pentecostal Holiness Church on Saturdays to help her clean. She was responsible for scraping gum from the underside of the pew where the “young people” sat. Pastor Linda said she hated that job and would give any gum-chewing young person “the eye” when she saw them in church on Sunday! Looking back, she is thankful for the discipline and the heart of service this weekly routine instilled in her.
Bovina Pentecostal Holiness Church Congregation – approximately 1956
As a teen at the Great Plains Conference summer youth camp, Pastor Linda was saved by grace. By that time in her life, she had heard hundreds, possibly thousands, of sermons and scraped innumerable pieces of gum from the underside of the pew. However, she had never given her heart to Christ and had no idea how to pray. During an altar call, she said to herself, “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll pray.” In the next instant, “I was speaking in tongues, and I could see nothing but light. I was saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost in one whack!” A few short months later, in November of that same year, when Pastor Linda was only 16 years old, she preached her first sermon about Peter walking on the water.
Pastor Linda continued to minister throughout her high school years, and before she headed out for college, she completed her first revival in Keyes, Oklahoma. Pastor Linda attended Southwestern College of Christian Ministries in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (now known as Southwestern Christian University and located in Bethany, Oklahoma), completing her degree on time in four years, even while she worked to pay her way through. She went on to get her master’s degree in Missiology from Fuller Theological Seminary and then returned to Southwestern College of Christian Ministries as a professor.
While teaching at Southwestern, she had the opportunity to lead a group of students on a short-term mission trip to Mexico. While in Mexico, she found herself unable to sleep and went outside to spend some time in prayer. As she walked around in the moonlight, she began to feel the Lord was calling her to be a missionary to the people of Mexico. She looked up at the Harvest Moon that was on full display and felt the Lord say, “The moon is the same everywhere. Just like the moon, I will be with you wherever you go.”
Pastor Linda Stanberry Has Always Had an Adventurous Spirit
When Pastor Linda returned from Mexico, she enrolled in a Spanish course to prepare herself for the next season of her life. Before long, she was in front of the IPHC missions board, inquiring about becoming a full-time missionary. The mission board approved her missionary application, but instead of Mexico, they sent her to Costa Rica to work for the General Superintendent of Latin America, Elvio Canavesio. While in Costa Rica, she attended an intensive language school that met for 4-5 hours a day, five days a week, and required the students to complete assignments in the afternoon. Pastor Linda would finish her schooling for the day and head over to work for Rev. Canavesio, where she would type letters and complete other office duties well into the night. Looking back on that time, Pastor Linda is certain that the Lord sustained her and allowed her the energy and strength to complete all that was required of her.
While in Costa Rica for her initial two-year term, Pastor Linda was bitten by a poisonous spider. This spider bite would go on to cause her no shortage of pain and eventually bring her to the point of death. Through a multitude of fervent prayers from around the world and God’s gracious hand and healing power, Pastor Linda overcame the spider bite and the blood poisoning that followed, giving her further proof of the faithfulness and healing power of her Heavenly Father.
After a year-long recuperation at home in the States, Pastor Linda began the process of itinerating to return to the mission field. Once back in Costa Rica, a place she loved and enjoyed ministering, a new and chronic illness would make itself known within her body. Pastor Linda was in pain and experiencing a tremor in her hands. The doctors in Costa Rica encouraged her to return to the States to determine what was causing these issues. Once back in the States, she connected with a doctor who suspected she actually had MS (multiple sclerosis). This diagnosis and the medication expense ($5,000/month at the time) necessitated Pastor Linda leaving the mission field. The life she had anticipated and planned changed overnight. What was next? Pastor Linda decided in herself that “These things will make me better, not bitter” and that “God will use me to help those who are often overlooked.”
In this new season, Pastor Linda would need a new job. A good friend of hers was the Vice President at a national bank and suggested that she apply to be a writer for the mortgage side. Pastor Linda explained: “I didn’t know the difference between an escrow and a scarecrow!” Even so, her friend encouraged her, saying she had spent years writing letters on behalf of the General Superintendent of Latin America; surely, this was enough preparation. Pastor Linda was hired, and on her first day, she was seated between a male atheist and a female Buddhist. She promptly began to witness to both. When she left that afternoon, she spoke to her Heavenly Father, asking, “Can I go someplace else now?” He told her that He would let her know when it was time to move on. Pastor Linda stayed with the mortgage company for nearly 25 years.
In 2016, Pastor Linda became the pastor of Liberty Christian Center (LCC) in Midwest City, Oklahoma, explaining that she heard the Lord say, “Now’s the time.”
Pastor Linda Stanberry
Pastor Linda describes LCC as a “Praying, loving, caring church” that she could “Call right now and have any one of them come up to the church to help with anything!” Under her leadership, LCC has donated more than 100,000 diapers and wipes and thousands of dollars to the Royal Home in North Carolina.
Liberty Christian Center’s Diaper Collection
In addition, several of the ladies of the church have also worked together to crochet blankets for the babies and mothers that Royal Home serves. The church also supports several missionaries, three People to People children, and three organizations. Through their efforts to love outwardly, the congregants of LCC have found great purpose. “We want Liberty Christian Center to be a prayer house and a blessing.” And it truly is.
Liberty Christian Center
Pastor Linda Stanberry has come a long way since scraping gum off the underside of the pews at Bovina Pentecostal Holiness Church, and in 2024, Pastor Linda was celebrated for 50 years of service with the IPHC. What a legacy! Her life may have changed directions suddenly, but she adjusted quickly and found her place, listening for His voice to tell her when it’s time.
