MIDDLETON — Divine Sedzuro, a native of Ghana, has pursued a better education his entire life.
It is a journey that has brought him here to the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he is working on a doctorate degree in applied medical research.
And it is in Middleton where he met Connie and Neal Bickler of the St. Bernard Parish conference of the St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP) Society.
“Coming here was not by mistake,” Sedzuro said. “God has planned it in advance so that I meet people like you. I knew nobody when I was coming here. Now you are my family.”
Sedzuro’s journey
Sedzuro talked about his long journey at a SVdP meeting.
In Ghana, Sedzuro was educated in Catholic schools and completed a bachelor’s degree.
Unfortunately, his family could not support him in his quest for a master’s degree.
“The only way out was to look at God and to look at myself,” he said.
As one of the top students in his class, Sedzuro applied for a scholarship to study clinical diagnosis at a university in northern China and got it.
“That was the first time I left my country,” he said.
The food, the culture, and the environment were new and difficult for him.
In his first year at the university, he had to learn the Chinese language and then pass an exam to move on to the medical school.
With a lot of hard work, he was able to pass the exam after the first year, and in 2016, he got his master’s degree.
Sedzuro then decided to work on a doctorate. He was offered another scholarship by the University of Science and Technology in China.
The scholarship paid for his education, but now he had a family to care for.
He had met his wife, Hefei, while he was in China, and they had a son who is now almost two.
The stipend was not enough for his family to live on, and “things started to be quite difficult,” Sedzuro said.
When he completed his studies, Sedzuro was told by his professor that he should stay in China.
“I had been in China for 10 years,” he said. “I told him that I wanted to move on, but he didn’t agree.”
The professor did not complete Sedzuro’s paperwork for graduation.
“Things were too difficult for us,” he said. “On the last day, they told me that I could not graduate. I had to wait another year (because of) a new rule that started that semester.”
Sedzuro did not feel that the “new rule” should apply to him because he came to the university in 2017.
So, he wrote an email stating his case and sent it to school and government officials.
The next day, the university president visited Sedzuro in the school laboratory and “that is when things started to change,” he said. “I started to pray because I didn’t know what was going to happen. Only God could help.”
His prayers were answered. He was told that he would be able to graduate and received a scholarship from the UW-Madison.
His family returned to Ghana, and Sedzuro arrived here on October 2.
Another move
He was relieved when he finally got to his new apartment in Middleton.
“I thought I have nobody, but I have God,” he said.
He also had nothing in his apartment.
“For the first week, I put my shirt on the ground, and I slept on that,” he said.
Sedzuro was anxious to make contact with his family in Ghana and his new supervisor at the university, but his Chinese cell phone would not work here.
At the cell phone store, he told the salesman that could he not afford a new phone, so the salesman gave him one of his old phones.
One day, his Chinese neighbors heard him talking on his cell phone.
“They heard me speaking Chinese [and] were surprised because they never saw a black man speaking Chinese,” he said. “They invited me to a dinner [and] came to my room and gave me a bed sheet and an air conditioner. That is what I was using as my seat.”
Getting in contact with the St. Vincent de Paul Society
Sedzuro also contacted a friend in Canada who told him about the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
“When I made that call, everything was beginning to change,” he said. “Connie and Neal called, and they came to me by the grace of God. They saw things for themselves.”
The Bicklers contacted SVdP’s Dig and Save thrift store in Madison and were able to pick up some furniture that day.
“The things were so heavy, but [Neal] carried them with me,” Sedzuro said.
The Bicklers told their small faith group about Sedzuro and they volunteered to donate household goods.
And since his apartment is now fully equipped for a family, Sedzuro said his wife and son will be able to come from Ghana.
He thought it would take up to a year before he would be able to bring them here.
“Everything is ready now,” he said. “They are very happy. I just want to thank you for the help I received so far.”
“We are so lucky to be able to help,” said Neal. “It was quite an experience for us. The Lord helps us through SVdP and that is really at the core of what we do.”
Connie said as Neal went to get his truck for the furniture pick-up, she got to know Sedzuro.
“We were sharing things about each other, and then I said, ‘Would you like to pray together?’ He knelt right down on the floor and prayed.”
With all of this behind him, Sedzuro is able to reflect on where he has been and focus on his family’s future.
“In life, we go through these difficulties, just like exams,” he said. “God will not bring any exam that we cannot pass.”