In Lebanon, recent years have been marked by conflict and uncertainty. But SAT‑7 KIDS has been...
Right now, somewhere in Marrakesh, a mother watches the sky. The laundry hangs on the line, but clouds are gathering in the west.
Perhaps, she thinks, the rain will hold off a little longer.
In Cairo, a father waits outside a school. Shielding his eyes from the dust and heat, he searches for his youngest daughter. She had a math test today, and he hopes it has gone well.
In Istanbul, an elderly man checks the time. The tea is brewing; the baklava has been arranged and rearranged on the polished brass plate. His grandson said he would visit this weekend. At the slightest sound, he looks towards the door…
Such small, everyday moments. But moments that are, to all of us, so familiar.
We may live in different places. We may face very different realities. But again and again, the things that move our hearts are startlingly similar: a darkening sky; a child’s test; a long-awaited visit.
So often, when we think of the Middle East and North Africa, we think of conflict, persecution, instability, and hardship. Crises are what the media gives us: the bombs, the refugees, the shattered buildings.
But headlines cannot show us the ordinary lives beneath the extraordinary circumstances: the millions of people whose small hopes are, in many ways, the same as ours.
Yes, many carry burdens few of us will ever know: the longing for peace, for freedom, for safety. But they also carry hope for the everyday things that bind us together as human beings: that their children will flourish; their parents will be well; their work will provide; their relationships will endure.
That tomorrow will be a little brighter than today.
At SAT-7, we’re privileged to glimpse these quieter realities. Every year, thousands of viewers contact us; not just about war or displacement or persecution, but about the ordinary hopes that fill ordinary lives. Their messages remind us that behind the headlines are parents and grandparents, students, and newlyweds, all longing for the same things as us.
Every year, thousands of viewers contact us; not just about war or displacement or persecution, but about the ordinary hopes that fill ordinary lives.
“My dream is to study medicine at college,” writes a young viewer from Egypt.
From Türkiye comes a simple prayer: “Please pray for me for a good job opportunity.”
And an Egyptian woman celebrates two answered hopes: “The Lord blessed me and I got married. Also, He gave me the cutest baby girl!”
Different countries. Different languages. Different circumstances. Yet every one of those hopes is instantly recognizable.
Hope is our universal refusal to believe that today is the end of the story; the quiet conviction that tomorrow can be different.
And, for believers, that is far more than wishful thinking. It is confidence in the God who already knows our future.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
I invite you to look beyond the headlines. Beyond the conflict. Beyond the statistics. And instead see the mother watching the skies over Marrakesh. The father waiting outside a school in Cairo. The grandfather listening for a knock at the door in Istanbul.
People who, though thousands of miles away, share our small, everyday hopes. People very much like us.
Rita’s memoir, I Choose Hope, will be published later in the year.
Rita El-Mounayer
SAT-7 Chief Executive Officer | Rita was born in Lebanon and has been working in Christian media since 1992. She studied at the Lebanese University of Beirut and later studied and taught communications for disabled children in Beirut. In 1992, Rita joined FEBA radio where she wrote programs for youth. She joined SAT-7 in 1996, where she worked as a producer and writer for As Sanabel and hosted the popular Bedtime Stories with Rita program. Rita earned her Masters in Communication from the University of Wales in 2004. She was later appointed as Executive Director of the Arabic Channels of SAT-7 in 2005. In 2016, she was appointed as the Chief Channels and Communications Officer, responsible for five channels in Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish, before being appointed CEO in April 2019. She is a member of the SAT-7 leadership team and currently lives in Cyprus.
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