Let us pray （中文：請按這裏)

A Child’s Prayer Turned into Song for the Region 

Impact Story Reach Kids With God's Love 

Bible-Based Programming Egypt 

20th March 2026

What our viewers are saying:

“ I first heard about Jesus through SAT-7. For a full year, SAT-7 was my only discipleship source – my church on screen – before I knew another believer. Now I want to create content to reach others the way SAT-7 reached me."

— Man from Tunisia

It began with a voice message from a child.

Miral, a young Egyptian girl, shared a prayer with SAT-7 KIDS, asking the Lord to send His peace to the whole world, taking away wars, pain, and evil from His children. Her words were so simple and beautiful that they spoke not just to the presenters, but for all the children of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

“Please stretch out your hand over all your children, and lift from your people every war, every pain, and everything bad, O Lord. Amen,” Miral prayed.

For SAT-7 KIDS – a channel dedicated to helping young viewers discover faith, hope, and encouragement – this prayer was a powerful reminder that children respond to the world around them. That, as young people are inundated with news of conflict, displacement, and uncertainty, the language of fear filters too easily into homes, schools, and communities.

But in this child’s prayer, the SAT-7 KIDS team saw something stronger than fear. They saw a message of profound faith in the Lord. A message that had to be shared…

Prayer Into Song

Using technology, the team set the girl’s prayer to music, transforming it into a beautiful song. The Arabic lyrics – which remained true to the girl’s original prayer – were translated into Farsi and Turkish so the song could be shared with young SAT-7 viewers across the whole region.

The song is part of a wider response from SAT-7 KIDS during a distressing time for children and families in the MENA.

“In times when war and fear increase across the region, SAT-7 KIDS seeks not to explain the complexities of conflict to children, but to help them process fear, discover hope, and turn to God as their source of peace,” says Andrea El-Mounayer, SAT-7 KIDS Channel Manager.

“In response to the ongoing situation in the region, SAT-7 KIDS has aligned its programming to address the emotional and spiritual needs of children during this challenging time,” she explains.  “Within live programming, hosts acknowledge current events with sensitivity and wisdom, while highlighting biblical encouragement around trust, courage, and God’s presence during times of uncertainty.”

Live programs such as In His Image and Jesus is Our Strength are exploring themes including “In the hardest circumstances, the Lord is my shepherd” and “Hope is stronger than fear,” allowing children to call in with their own prayers and experiences.

“I’m not scared because I know Jesus is with us,” Angela from Lebanon said in a live call to Jesus Is Our Strength. “Lord, please help everyone who feels sad and help my friends because they are so scared. In the name of Jesus, amen.”

Power of Prayer

Through short prayer segments under the theme “With You Lord Safety Abides,” SAT-7 KIDS is inviting children to pray for difficult situations, for their countries, and for peace across the region.

At the same time, animated prayer clips are helping young viewers understand that through the Lord, they can find strength and reassurance even in uncertain circumstances.

And on Fridays, I Dwell in Him presenter Mina Awny is hosting a special live prayer gathering on social media, inviting children and families to pray together for countries across the region.

“There is one Spirit that unites us around the world,” he said. “It is from Heaven and not from earth.” Drawing on the biblical story of Jesus calming the storm, he encouraged children to “take Jesus with you in your boat and the wind will stop.”

According to UNICEF, more than 1,100 children were reported killed or injured in the first ten days after violence erupted across the Middle East on February 28. Even before then, at least 30 million children were estimated to be out of school in the MENA owing to conflict and poverty, and the current war has caused further widespread disruption to education.

But at this distressing time, SAT-7 KIDS is responding to its young audience with hope and care, standing alongside children across the region. It is a poignant reminder that even during fear and uncertainty, none of us are alone. And that, no matter our location, experiences, or age, the peace of God will always be stronger than war.

“Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies” (Psalm 8:2).

More than 60 Christians Awaiting Trial

Finally, he requested prayer for God’s favor as the Christians endure the legal process and for laws and decisions to be enacted that would allow greater freedom of worship in Algeria.

At dawn one morning in the spring of 2000, Jibrin Abubaker awoke with a start to the voice of a street preacher speaking through a megaphone outside his window. The 23-year-old, who was on a business trip in Jalingo in Nigeria’s Taraba State, initially felt annoyed to have his sleep disturbed.

Yet he listened as Daniel Dangombe, then pastor of a United Methodist Church in Nigeria, declared that Jesus was the only sinless person to walk the earth. “I used to wake up every morning [of the business trip] to listen to him,” Abubaker recalled. “From his preaching, my conversion started.”

Abubakar grew up in a Fulani Muslim family in Daura, a town in Katsina State in northwest Nigeria. Like most Fulani men, he came from a family of farmers and cattle herders. Yet Abubakar’s father didn’t want his only son roaming with the cows, so he enrolled Abubakar in an Islamic school. Abubakar said the teachers there taught him to recite the entire Quran and hate Christians.

“They said it was wrong for us to offer Christians a handshake or eat with their plates,” he told CT. “They were unholy —relating with them was an abomination.”

No Christians lived in Daura then, according to Abubakar. He only began to understand Christianity after hearing Dangombe’s preaching in Jalingo and meeting two Christians, Tevi and Peter, when he searched for Dangombe but couldn’t find him. First, he saw Peter holding a Bible and approached him, then Peter introduced him to Tevi, a Christian evangelist who could better speak Abubakar’s language. Two years later, during another business trip to Jalingo, Tevi and Peter answered his questions about Jesus, leading him to become a Christian.

But changing his religion meant losing his community.

Fulani who convert to Christianity face “extreme discrimination and deadly violence” from their community, according to International Christian Concern. They also face skepticism and isolation from Christian communities. Because of the historical hostility between Fulani Muslim herders and Christian and animistic farmers, Fulani Christians often find themselves caught between their culture and their faith. Of the 17 million Fulani in Nigeria, 99 percent are Muslims—less than 1 percent are Christians.

When Abubakar converted to Christianity, he didn’t tell people about new faith right away. He explained the gospel to his wife, who also became a Christian, but otherwise kept quiet. Still, his actions exposed him. He said he stopped attending Islamic daily prayers and reciting the Quran and instead started attending Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), a new congregation of mostly out-of-town, non-Fulani traders and businessmen. He also quit womanizing and seeking revenge when others insulted him.

Abubakar said his in-laws demanded his return to Islam. When he refused, they took his wife and three daughters—then 7, 3, and 1. Abubakar recalled they married off the eldest girl at 12-years-old as the second wife of a Muslim man in his mid-20s. She died in childbirth at age 16. He said he recovered his younger two daughters a few years later but never saw his wife again.

The Muslim community “eventually took everything I owned. My wife, children, house, cows. Everything,” Abubaker said.

Abubakar’s father didn’t confront him about his conversion until members of the Izala society, a powerful Salafi (conservative, reformist movement with Sunni Islam) organization that fights against shirk (unbelief) and operates under sharia law, put pressure on him.

“The Izala guys saw me regularly attending the church,” Abubakar said. “They wondered why a Fulani was going to the church.”

One Sunday in 2008, the Izala whisked him away from church, locking him up in a small, dark police cell for five days. A non-Fulani Christian policeman snuck him bread through the tiny window at midnight, Abubakar told me.

The legal system didn’t protect Abubakar. The Izala took him to the chairman of the Mai’Adua local government area. The head of Daura village, Abubakar’s father, and two other men asked him to denounce his faith. He refused and instead preached the gospel. They then took Abubakar to a sharia court. The judge gave him three days to reconsider. Abubakar’s family and community labeled him an apostate.

Then Abubakar said a relative attacked and threatened to kill him. The next day, a neighbor warned his father of another pending attack, forcing Abubakar to flee to Jalingo with the help of ECWA church members. He sought refuge with Tevi, his Christian friend from the Tiv tribe, and stayed with him for seven years.

Tevi’s hospitality was an exception, Abubakar explained. Because of the violence many Nigerian Christians have experienced from Fulani herders and Islamic extremists, whether over farm resources or religion, Abubakar said many fear Fulani converts are spies trying to infiltrate churches and feed information back to those who wish to harm them.

Joshua Irondi, the senior pastor at International Revival Chapel in Aba, southeastern Nigeria, works with missionaries to the Fulani in the north. He said the gospel is for everyone—regardless of tribe—and that missionaries shouldn’t write anyone off.

“But with the way things are right now, you don’t just see someone on the road and feel comfortable with them,” Irondi said.

Though urban Fulani in Nigeria are more widely accepted and hold high positions in business and government—Nigeria’s late president Muhammadu Buhari was a Fulani from Daura—many Nigerian Christians see nomadic or seminomadic Fulani herders as entangled with terrorists.

Last June, heavily armed Fulani jihadists attacked Yelwata, a farming community in Benue State, slaughtering an estimated 100–200 Christian villagers. According to a 2023 study, more than 60,000 people died when Fulani herders clashed with farmers between 2001 and 2018.

Manasseh Adamu, pastor of an ECWA branch in Zonzon, Kaduna State, north-central Nigeria, has seen the trauma up close. He said residents are sometimes reminded of past pain at the sight of the Fulani herdsmen.

Still, Adamu calls for the church to open its doors: “When people come to us [and say] that they are Christians … we should accept them.”

Abubakar said some Christians began avoiding him when conflict between the Fulani herdsmen and farmers peaked in 2018, even though he had already been a Christian for 16 years by then. He acknowledges the violence perpetuated by the jihadists. Still, the stigma against Fulani Christians grieves him.

Abubakar encourages Christians to welcome them and first listen to their stories. He hopes that if more Christians understood the Fulani and built relationships with them, the violence could end and more Fulani would hear the gospel …

On Sundays, Abubakar gathers with 12 other Fulani and Hausa—another primarily Muslim tribe—Christians in his church plant in Kishi, where they have created a new community after facing isolation and abandonment by many in their lives. Abubakar said that after losing everything to follow Jesus—only to face rejection and stigma from other Christians—many Fulani converts are tempted to return to their families and Islam to survive.

“The worst thing would be for them to go back,” Abubakar explained. “Sometimes that is the only option they are left with.”

“The methods they used were extremely surprising to me, as they were low and dirty,” said the pastor, who denied that the videos are real. “I ask you to pray for me, my wife, our children and our ministry. We are going through one of the most difficult times, but we believe that Jesus is the Lord.” 

A front-line worker said the ability for governments and anyone to now create these kinds of realistic videos is extremely problematic. “AI is making things challenging,” he said. “I'm sure he won't be the first pastor targeted with situations like this.”

The front-line worker asked for prayer for unity and truth to flourish among the churches of Central Asia despite this new threat.

Chan, 63, first welcomed the message of the gospel in February 2025, hoping to be healed from liver cancer. She and the four children and two grandchildren who live with her came to faith in Christ on the same day. Physical healing has not come, yet they love the Lord and have continued to grow stronger in their faith, attending worship services every week and listening to Christian radio programs. 

Though Chan is now in the final stage of liver cancer, the rest of her family and village have cursed and boycotted Chan’s household and are now threatening to expel them from the community. 

Pray that, as this family perseveres through illness and persecution, they will continue to grow in faith and keep their eyes fixed on Jesus Christ.