By Festus and Felicia Ndukwe
A very vivacious, flighting, beautiful, amiable, pleasant, and dynamic lady, Sister Jessica Garkida came into our lives long before my wife, Felicia, and I got married. In the School of Missions in Gana Ropp, 1992. They were in the same set.
Felicia had gotten into the mission school with much resistance to her calling from her family. The Garkidas were like her parents, speaking, stabilizing, and encouraging her in the challenges that she faced. Before then, Brother Musa and I had struck a chord in the things of the Spirit. He was not hesitant in opening his treasures to me. I was asking many questions as a young missionary bundled by God straight from the university. This was how our relationship began.
After years of labour in media ministries in northern Nigeria, we were moved to CAPRO’s headquarters office in Lagos in the year 2001. While the Garkidas served in Rwanda (after their labour in Cote d’Ivoire), the Lord gave me the opportunity to visit and labour together with them, a task that took us up to the mountains in Congo DRC where we went to visit the work of Irish missionaries and the villages brother Musa’s ministry had touched. By this time, our home in Lagos had become a transit place for some of our missionaries, one of them, the Garkidas.
In one of their long transitions, they stayed around us when they were at the International Office. We lived together, prayed together, served together, rejoiced together, and wept together. Our home was their home. Their home was our home. Our children grew to see this. They also were impacted by them, not so much by preaching but by life, by telling stories, having devotions together, and praying. Our eldest son unilaterally sent a security man home from their office for collecting bribe. A wealthy lady who came to their office for clearance for travel in anger reported him to his CEO for rejecting her gift. Refusing to collect their gifts, customers would throw hundreds of dollar bills to him. He would record it and drop them in the office box. I said, “This is the Garkidas incarnated – in courage, integrity, and discipline.” That’s the impact!
Now, about Jessica. She would always come in to the house, smiling. If she was worried or disturbed, you would never notice it. She had no grudges with anyone in life. Her life was simple but never took nonsense from anyone living contrary to Christ. Her taste was modest; her dressing moderate and neat, her convictions firm. If she had eba to eat in the morning, you would have given her the best. Cultures never changed her lifestyle. Either she was in a remote village among the Kamuku people in northwest Nigeria or in the cities of Abidjan in Cote d’Ivoire, Kigali in Rwanda, Bukavu in Congo DRC she was the same for Christ. She was a godly woman.
Jessica was never seen moving ahead of her husband, Brother Musa. She always follows behind – a sign of submission. Once the husband was on the move, you would see her carrying her handbag and following him, sometimes almost running after him. Though her husband has a ministry that looms large seeming to cast a shadow on her, she had a great ministry; she was used by God in CAPRO in the area of administration, even at the International Office in Lagos as well as a great ministry to children. Before her departure to Cote d’Ivoire, where she served her Lord last, she handed over to my wife, a thriving children work she was doing in a government primary school on our street in Lagos.
Jessica looked at her husband with much admiration. She was proud of him, almost adoring him. Watch her when her husband is speaking. Her face would light up; her eyes fixed on him, smiling. That man was her glory! Today, she has gone to join another Man with a greater glory, a Man she has served and adored all her life – JESUS!
When the news of Sister Jessica’s demise was broken to us, we froze. Until we went to God, and He spoke. We became comforted. But the children are still asking questions. The Lord will answer them!
We had a strong desire to be at her funeral in Adamawa state, Nigeria, but we were unable because of situations we will not be able to explain now. As a family, we lost a mother, a sister, and a friend. She will be sorely missed!
● The Ndukwes are based in Lagos and were
colleagues & fellow workers in CAPRO with Jessica Garkida. They sent this via WhatsApp but can be reached at festus.felicia@gmail.com.
