Middle East (MNN)–In the Middle East and North Africa, 60-percent of the Arab world is under the age of 24. SAT-7’s Debbie Brink says they were reaching out to the children, but knew they would eventually grow up.
That’s why they developed two new programs, one for pre-teens, and one for teens. “This new teens program, SAT-7 Teens is becoming very popular. It’s done with four teenaged hosts on the program who receive questions that are interactive with the audience. These questions are coming through letters, e-mails and from the website.”
Brink says the program is hosted by four Christian teens who answer the the questions from a Christian worldview. Many of them deal with difficult situations such as: “My brother is acting so distant, he is spending time with people who scare me,” or “My sister is talking about revenge and won’t talk to me. What do I do?”
She explains that, “These kids are growing up in an area of the world where there’s poverty and frustration and hopelessness, and if we don’t capture them and their interests, other groups are going to do that and they’re trying to do that, engaging them in activities that lead to violence, and we want to be proactive against that.”
The goal is to offer a powerful alternative to what else teens see on television. The hosts will offer hope, love, forgiveness and the Gospel. They will share the Word of God in Arabic and tell teens how to find peace and joy through Jesus.
But, programs like this cost money. SAT-7 needs to raise $6,000 an hour to produce each episode, and then an additional $600 an hour for airtime.
It’s a strategic group of people being reached by programs like this. With peer to peer encouragement, they’re reaching out to hurting young people throughout the Middle East.
