God’s hand was in every step of Saydee’s life from little boy in Africa to twenty-four years of serving at Our Daily Bread Ministries in the US. He grew up and attended high school and some college in Liberia. But with a civil war going on, he decided to leave in 1994 to continue his education in Zimbabwe when a friend from Germany offered to have his church sponsor Saydee to help with the financial costs. While at the university, he met his future wife, Chenai. He also had a tremendous opportunity that could only have come from God. He was chosen out of 50,000 other potential candidates to come to America to continue his education. In July 1995, Saydee came to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to finish his bachelor’s degree and eventually earn his master’s degree.
Saydee’s story of employment at Our Daily Bread Ministries (at that time Radio Bible Class) was also a “God thing.” He’d been working as a floor manager at a buffet, where a Bolivian missionary came to eat every Friday. Saydee was very open about his faith, and the missionary was so impressed that he invited him to tour his workplace at Radio Bible Class. Saydee was excited because, “I used to listen to Radio Bible Class and read Our Daily Bread back in Liberia.” After the tour, the missionary told him, “I’m leaving today to go back to the mission field. Go and apply for my job.” Saydee applied immediately, they interviewed him on the spot, and he was hired just a few days later.
Saydee was eventually able to marry Chenai and bring her to America. They’ve now been married twenty years and have two children: an eighteen-year-old son named Emmanuel and a fifteen-year-old daughter named Mercy.
His biggest hurdle in adjusting to the American way of life was that “people live in isolation.” Growing up in a home with a revolving door and surrounded by lots of family and extended family created a deep love for people in Saydee, and it was challenging for him at first. “I had to learn to accept it because I can’t change it,” Saydee said. “But what I did is let people know that you are always welcome in my home. You just come over. You don’t have to call first.”
His tender heart for people carries into the workplace. “I love the people here. It’s about Christ being exalted here.” And for you, our readers and extended family? Saydee smiled and said, “I personally pray for them every single day. Without them there would be no Our Daily Bread Ministries.”
Saydee summed up his story: “Coming to America was a miracle. Getting the job here was a miracle. I love what I do here, and I do it to bring glory to God!”
Saydee’s Favorite Bible Verse:
“Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4 NIV).
