Another Lebanese Joins the Brotherhood

Another Lebanese Joins the Brotherhood

Serge Saadeh was born in 1992 and grew up in the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon. His father is an accountant, his mother a school
administrator in a Seventh Day Adventist school, which is also where Serge studied. He is a Melkite Greek Catholic. He has an older brother Mark and a younger sister Perla. His parents both come from the Chouf, south of Beirut and later settled near Beirut.

After high school he studied physics first at the Lebanese university before pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering at Notre Dame university (the one in Lebanon). It was during his studies that he met University Christian Outreach, the student mission of the local Sword of the Spirit community. “My parents raised me well, with good morals and regularly going to church. But I did not have a personal relationship with the Lord”. That changed as he met those UCO students.

“For the longest time, I had no idea who the Servants of the Word were, even though I had met some brothers when they came to Lebanon to give talks or retreats. But I was living in a men’s household and the leader asked me whether I ever considered discerning my state of life. That was scary”. But Serge’s desire to give his life fully to the Lord caused him to pursue that question, and eventually was ready to consider living single for the Lord. He had a chance to live with a few other young men and a Servant of the Word brother where he learned more about brotherhood life and eventually became an affiliate.

In 2017 he graduated with his second degree and immediately moved to London, to live as residential affiliate with the brothers there. During that time he did practical service, finances and worked with university students and young professionals. In 2020 it was time for Serge to move to the United States to the International Formation Household, but Covid struck so he got stuck for in Lebanon 10 months. The brothers became very inventive and helped move forward his formation by Zoom. It was not until 2021 that he finally made it to Michigan.

After making his first full commitment Serge moved back to Lebanon to be part of our house there. Finances for the brotherhood and for a number of communities are his service there as well as serving with youth. Recently he has become responsible for school retreats, an important service: “We do about 50 retreats for high school students.”

My main motivation is to give my all to the Lord.

When asked what attracted him to brotherhood life, Serge says:” My main motivation was to give my all to the Lord. When I met men from the brotherhood who were doing just that, it was natural that I pursued the call. And it seemed to fit. In many ways the greatest challenge for me is not celibacy, but loving each other the way the Lord wants us to. That can be tough sometimes. But Servants of the Word life is good, very good indeed”.

Serge made his lifelong commitment this past May in Michigan. We are glad that Serge is now one of us and we pray that many other Lebanese will follow in his footsteps.