The first half of 2024 brought no relief to those caught up in the MENA’s major conflicts:

• By the end of June, the war in the Holy Land had been in progress for nearly nine months and had claimed the lives of many thousands of people, while the possibility of regional escalation was growing.
• The ongoing humanitarian crisis generated by the civil war in Sudan left unrecorded numbers of people dying of starvation every day and approximately 12 million children out of school.
• Refugees and other displaced people fleeing from conflict, poverty, or persecution struggle to cope with difficult economic and social conditions in the countries that have welcomed them, such as Türkiye and Lebanon.
• In North Africa, traffickers have begun using TikTok to promote journeys to Europe and bypass the monitoring of their activities.
• Economic and environmental crises are also afflicting various parts of the region. In Lebanon, poverty has now increased from 12% to 44% of the population over the past ten years, partly as a result of rampant corruption.
• In February 2024 Turkish annual consumer price inflation climbed to 67.07% in response to recent tax increases and the weakness of the lira. 
• Heavy rainfall and flash floods have also affected north-east Afghanistan, leaving 180 people dead and causing extensive damage to infrastructure.
• Repression of Christians in Iran continues unabated. In March an Iranian Christian from a non-Christian background was summoned to court accused of “propaganda against the regime”, and he is currently waiting for a second and final hearing.
• Believers in Egypt suffer sporadic acts of violence: in the week before Easter several Christian homes were burned in Fawakher village, and another community was attacked in al-Kom al-Ahmar village.
• And while such incidents are rare in Türkiye, in late January two gunmen killed one person and injured several others during a church service in Istanbul.

Responding to the ongoing wars in the Holy Land and Sudan, SAT-7 has been supporting viewers in these troubled areas and amplifying the voices of their inhabitants.

Supporting viewers in the Holy Land, the weekly live program You Are Not Alone filmed a special episode for Easter featuring survivors who sought refuge in a church after their homes were struck. SAT-7 ARABIC also broadcast a special Easter program, Hope of Resurrection, in which church leaders from the Holy Land spoke to some of the pastoral issues raised by the conflict.

Voice of the Church has been supporting those affected by the wars in the Holy Land and Sudan, alternating between broadcasting from our Beirut and Cairo studios, with many calling in to share their prayers for believers in the region. The current war in Sudan started so suddenly last year that many Christians left their homes with just the clothes on their backs, seeking safety elsewhere. Yet Sudanese church leaders continue to support their congregations. You are Not Alone has also featured interviews with Sudanese survivors who shared their stories and the effects of the war on their lives.

As you may have read in our latest Insight magazine, In the face of an acute education crisis in Afghanistan, SAT-7 PARS is producing a Dari-language program to help children there to learn to read and write.

Also, the hugely popular international series, The Chosen, is now being broadcast on our platforms, fully dubbed into Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish.

Our Viewer Support teams, made up of Persian, Turkish, or Arab believers, have been receiving our viewers’ comments, concerns, questions, prayer requests, and testimonies via phone calls, social media and direct messages through apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram.  In the first six months of 2024 our viewer support teams held 44,908 conversations with viewers and our Facebook pages had 8,454,733 engagements.

During the first half of 2024, SAT-7 also launched new programmes across all our channels:

SAT-7 PARS commenced broadcasting a new programme called Salt and Light, featuring Persian-speaking pastors helping viewers understand what it means to live as a Christian in the world.

SAT-7 TÜRK launched a new program for Azerbaijani-speaking Christian mothers called Taste and See. The program happens in the kitchen, where simple, tasty meals are cooked in the context of a wholesome conversation covering topics such as “Children Entering Puberty”, “Raising Children”, and “Life with a Difficult Spouse.”  The aim of the programme is to provide women with useful advice and testimonies to encourage them in their faith and help them to navigate daily family life with a Christlike attitude.

My Jesus is a new discipleship program for children from SAT-7 KIDS, revealing the character of Jesus through worship music. It is presented by children for children, featuring young guests from churches across Egypt. In each episode the program hosts a praise and worship team from a different church, who presents hymns and reflections relating to a certain characteristic of Jesus, such as His compassion, humanity, or courage.

SAT-7 ARABIC launched a new program called My Life Journey to give a platform for Christian influencers –many of them worship leaders– to be vulnerable about their struggles and share how God’s grace has helped them to overcome trials. It has quickly built up a strong following, with thousands of views on social media and positive viewer engagement. One episode, featuring a Kurdish pastor who experienced the powerful grace of God while in jail as a political prisoner, attracted 26,000 views and over 900 comments on Facebook alone.

Perhaps I could finish by sharing with you a selection of impactful testimonies that we received from viewers in the first half of 2024:

From Hovan in Iran: “Greetings. I would like to share a testimony about how I came to faith and the impact this has had on me and my life. Even until about a month ago I was not fully confident of my new faith and, despite feeling very much drawn to Christianity, I still had my doubts.

“I kept asking questions and someone at your channel provided some very helpful answers. Then I had a dream, and in the dream a voice told me to describe it when I was speaking with you. I forgot all about it, but when I was chatting with someone from your team I suddenly remembered the dream and felt that I should share it. After I did so, she interpreted my dream based on the teachings of the Bible and explained about the death and resurrection of Jesus. My doubts melted away and I believed in the truth of Christianity and that Jesus is alive.

“For the last two months I have been joining many of the ZOOM teaching sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I am being blessed by your teachings. I study the Bible every day, I follow SAT-7 PARS programs, and I am a member of the PARS Telegram channel. I am beginning to see some changes in my life and in the way I behave. I have even noted a change in my psychological state, and I am sensing a deep peace at work and in my interactions with colleagues which I never had when I followed my previous beliefs and prayed those set prayers.”

Gam, from Türkiye: “Thank you very much for your prayers. I receive blessings and encouragement from your prayers. May the Lord bless you.”

Levent, from Türkiye: “I’m not a Christian, but I love to follow your programs. They are great.”

Liliane from Lebanon: “My Life Journey is an excellent program, and Marianne [the presenter] has no idea how much I love her. I pray God gives success to SAT-7. Yours is a special channel. I believe that every testimony of God’s blessed sons and daughters impacts all the viewers, especially those who believe in the name of the Lord Jesus. Such testimonies are deeply

encouraging for us and they shed light in the midst of every darkness we face. They help us as believers to cling more to the Lord and His Word.” 

Bilal, from Algeria: “I am grateful. I like SAT-7 and I follow your Christian programs. Before I contacted you, I was weary and felt no peace, but now that I have connected with you, I feel much better because someone is talking to me about the Lord. I feel more reassured, and I am always eager to hear you speak to me about the Lord Jesus. You bring joy to my heart. Thank you.”

Sultan from Iraq: “After Jesus spoke to me, I did not obey his words for 10 years. Then, by chance, I set out on a journey of discovery and ended up finding Him. I am now studying and would like to learn every word He said through parables and the actions He took. For that reason I read, and this is how you showed up on my radar. I am confident Jesus is the one who caused me to find you. I want to learn everything so that if someone asks me or I have a conversation with someone, I am able to respond.” (The Viewer Support team explained to Sultan what had happened to him and shared the Gospel. They prayed with him, and he professed Jesus as the Lord and Saviour of his life. They sent him a link to read the Bible and continued to be in touch with him.)

Atoosa from Iran: “I am so grateful for everything you do; you have really blessed me and helped me to grow.  As a result of watching [SAT-7 PARS children’s programme] Golpand I became more confident and better able to relate to other people. It is a real joy to take part in this program.

“I must say that Golpand was the environment which helped my mind and thinking ability to develop, and I know this is true for the other children too.

“I have really benefited, and [I want] the other children to benefit as I have done. I want to thank the producer and all the program makers. Your program is excellent and teaches so much about the Bible to me and the other children. I am so glad that I heard about you and your program because it has enabled me to come to know the Lord better.

“I want to also thank my ‘aunties’ in audience relations who serve us like loving mothers and show us kindness. I have been watching Golpand since 2017.”

Ulvi from Türkiye: “Again I want to say how grateful I am to you for all you have done. –I love watching you and I recommend you to people around me. Thank you SAT-7 TÜRK family. God bless you.”

Yvonne from Egypt: “My name is Yvonne, and I am from Egypt. I really want to thank the SAT-7 KIDS channel for all its great programs. I have been watching since I was a little girl and I still do. I love your channel. Currently, I have a little son; he is two and a half years old and we watch the channel together.  My son loves it and has memorised all of its programs. We run it 24/7 because of how much he loves it. God bless you as you raise up generation after generation of people who love the Lord and His Word. Thank you very much!”