ANASTASIA KIPPIE ADE - Online Memorial Website

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ANASTASIA ADE
Born in Cameroon
66 years
534964
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Life story
1945
1945
1945
August 24, 2012
Anastasia Kippie Ade was born to the late Papa Albert Bassek and the late Mama Theresia Ngobikoi on August 8, 1945 in Victoria (Limbe) in the then Southern Cameroons. She was the last surviving child of the couple’s five children. Although, through her father, she may have step-brothers and step-sisters in the South-West Region (probably among the Orokos and the Bakweris), they are yet unknown to her children.


"Mami" as she was affectionately called, spent her early years in Victoria and Buea, where she attended primary school at the Roman Catholic Mission (RCM) school, Newtown in Victoria and the Roman Catholic Mission (RCM) convent school, Small Soppo, Buea. After her primary education, she enrolled in the Cameroon College of Commerce, Fiango, Kumba for her post-primary education.


Upon completing her secondary education, she started working as a clerk with the Cameroon Air Transport company in Victoria, until the company shut down.  By this time, she had been swept off her feet by a charming sports star, in the person of Mr. Esau Ade, who was a renowned athlete at that time.  The two eventually got married and later, moved to Buea, where her husband had been transferred.


In Buea, she became a full-time house wife and she devoted her time to her family and to serving God.  Having been born and raised a Catholic Christian, she took the huge step to convert to a Presbyterian Christian so that she and her husband could worship and serve God together.  With the zeal and total engagement that was a hall-mark of everything she did, Mami became very active in the Presbyterian Church. 


Soon after moving to Buea from Victoria in 1967, she and her husband became members of Presbyterian Church Great Soppo, Buea , where she would later on join the Christian Youth Fellowship (CYF) group of the congregation.  During this time, her husband was constantly travelling to athletic events to represent Cameroon across the globe and so she had to juggle the duties of parenting her young son- Willibrord, with the demands of the CYF and other church activities.  There were practices, rehearsals, bible studies and rallies that kept her very busy and as if the CYF was not enough, she joined the Christian Women Fellowship (CWF) in 1970 and an already busy life got even busier!


This move (joining the CWF) took Mami’s Christian life to a whole different level since her responsibilities as a mother had increased due to the birth of her second child – Reeves.  She had to handle the duties of a house wife and a nursing mother with those of a CYF and a CWF member!  That same year, she and her husband decided that she should learn sewing in order to have a profession that she could rely on, to improve her life and that of her family.  So, later that year, she went to Douala to learn this new trade.


Upon her return to Buea after completing the nine month training program to become a seamstress, she started sewing from home and eventually opened a sewing workshop (studio) in Great Soppo, Buea in 1973.  Her business flourished and by 1975, at the height of her career as a seamstress, she had twelve apprentices under her tutelage!  Unfortunately, this meteoric rise was stopped when her husband was transferred to Yaounde in 1975 and Mami had to close her shop and move with her family to the nation’s capital.


This turned out to be the spring board for new ventures in her life since she had to adjust to her new reality.  Moving to a strange land where she had to learn a new language (French) and culture, put a serious dent in her career as a seamstress. So, Mami had to put her sewing career on hold and look for something else to make up for the lost income.  Her entrepreneurial instincts came to the fore, once more and Mami started a petty-trading business - making puff-puff, selling oranges, etc.  Never one to seat still and in a quest to obtain the necessary qualifications that would enable her to land a government job, Mami started taking some correspondence courses in order to prepare herself for the General Certificate of Education (GCE) and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) exams.  Eventually, she landed a job as a clerk, with the Ministry of Housing, while she continued to develop her side businesses.


One of the first things she did when the family got to Yaounde, was to look for a church home.  She found that in the only English-speaking congregation in Yaounde at that time - in Djoungolo, which was at the other side of the city.  To ensure that her family didn't miss church service, she arranged with one of her cousins - Mr. Martin Ntamark, who lived about 20 minutes away in another part of the City and who owned a car, to come and pick up the family and take them to church about a half hour away, every Sunday morning, for the first few months the family was in Yaounde!  It didn’t take long for Mami to be fully engaged in the activities of the Presbyterian Church in Djoungolo – Yaounde, particularly in the CWF. However, the stay there was short-lived as the family had to move back to Buea in 1977 following the transfer of her husband.


Back in Buea, the family re-joined their old congregation in Great Soppo and it was as if Mami had never left, as she engaged in the church activities with an even greater sense of duty.  She soon became the Secretary of CWF Great Soppo – a position she held for many years.  And after many years as Secretary of her local group, she was elected the CWF Zonal Secretary. In addition to her leadership role in the CWF, she was also elected an Elder of the Presbyterian Church for multiple terms.


Meanwhile, in keeping with her entrepreneurial spirit, Mami opened a small provisions store/“off License”, and much later a restaurant, along with the petty-trading that she had started while in Yaounde.  In addition to that, she took to farming, to provide enough food for her children and the many other relatives (and strangers needing help) who were always present in the family home.


Just as Mami was heavily involved in doing God’s work, she and her husband did their best to give their children a solid Christian upbringing.  So, apart from going to Sunday school, there was also family Bible studies and singing some morning and/or evenings, for many years.  They did their best to see that their children went to good Christian schools both at the elementary and secondary levels.  As such, all of the children went to Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) primary school, Great Soppo and five of the seven children went to schools like Cameroon Protestant College (CPC) Bali, Saker Baptist College Limbe, Presbyterian Secondary School (PSS) Kumba, Baptist High School (BHS) Buea and Presbyterian Comprehensive Secondary School (PCSS) Buea, for their secondary education.


Mami raised not just her own children, but those of relatives and strangers, as well.  Even after she moved to the US, she continued to support many relatives back home.  She was always giving of herself and would do whatever she could to help someone in need.  The second part of Mami’s life (after retiring from the Public Service in Cameroon and traveling to the US) was marked by a deeper commitment to follow Christ—her “born again” (John 3:3) experience.  Through this “second touch” from the Lord, she reported recommitting herself to not only going to Church and actively belonging to the CWF, and doing other Church activities, but coming to a personal knowledge of Christ and making a clear-cut decision to place her full trust in His salvific death and resurrection.  During this time, she was also very concerned about her children making the exclusive decision to personally commit to following the Lord Jesus.  It seemed something had radically changed with her perspective of what it means to be a Christian or Believer.


This second part of her life was mostly spent here in the US and the difference was evident in her desire to see others saved through personal faith in Christ.  She added philantrophy to her list of attributes, donating to many differnt causes to help the less fortunate in society.  Her long-standing vision of working for the Lord through the CWF led her to join the fledgeling CWF group at Silver Spring Presbyterian Church (SSPC), where she actively worked to guide and train the women on how a CWF group should be run and organized -  things which eventually helped get the group dedicated in March, 2003.  She participated in group activities as much as she could, imparting her knowledge and experience to the younger/newer members.  She was actually coming back from a CWF retreat at SSPC when she was hit by a massive stroke on the morning of July 26, 2012.  She was finally declared dead at 7:08 PM that evening in the presence of her husband, Pa Ade; all of her children in the US and their spouses; her Pastor and CWF sisters.  Mami is survived by her husband, seven children, and twelve grandchildren.  We thank God for the life that Mami led.


A piece of paper was found under her pillow with the following Scripture verse (and a check mark beside it): John 20:30-31

“And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” Since Mami was a firm believer in Jesus Christ, and her spiritual legacy carries on, we believe she is now living with Him eternally.  To HIM be all the glory and praise!