The Power of a Good Female Friend

Ladies, meet Hala Saad. In addition to running her own marketing business, she is Executive Producer at Vision Communications, an Arabic television outreach. She lives in Dallas, where she met Diane at a Bible study. Hala talked with us about the impact the impact of her female friends on her life and career.

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4word: Tell us about yourself and your job.

Hala: I have a degree in political science from the American University in Cairo. I had a dream that I would enter the diplomatic corps, but instead I immigrated to the United States in 1984.

Through a four-year journey, I found myself on my own, needing direction. I found a marketing position through someone at church. I started   at entry level, but five years later, I bought the company I was working for.

4word: Wow! How did that happen so quickly?

Hala: A lot of prayer. I felt like the Lord was saying, “I’ve reserved this for you. I want you to do this.” So I bought the company, and we did very well. I moved us to Dallas in 1995.

I donated marketing expertise to ministries and felt this was the way I should give back.  Then in 2003, God opened another door. This time it was for me to be in Christian media in the Middle East. We started with one television show, and now have fourteen.

4word: That’s impressive. How did you accomplish that?

Hala: One of the key things is the people God put in my life as prayer partners. All this would have been impossible if I didn’t have friends who knew how to pray.

4word: Moving so often, was it difficult to make friends?

Hala: When I moved to Dallas and started all over, I did a lot of crying out to God, saying, “I don’t know how to make deep, lasting friendships. Give me at least one woman, Lord, who I can be close to. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

4word: Did He bring you that friend?

Hala: He did! Her name is Mimi, and how we met is a funny story. We were both single, and our pastor’s wife on separate occasions told each of us we should attend the singles’ group. So we did.

We were sharing our testimonies, and one guy got up and said the most absurd thing about men and women. Mimi was sitting in the back, quite flustered, arguing with God in her head saying: This is why I don’t go to singles’ groups!

They passed the microphone to me, and I went in a completely different direction. Mimi told me later, “When you started talking, I felt like sanity came back into the room. I thought, I should meet that girl.” We started talking after the group, and we’ve been friends ever since.

4word: How did you become such close friends?

Hala: The first thing we did was minister together on a mission trip to Mexico. That was the start of a very meaningful friendship. Another thing that made our friendship so deep was that we really got into praying together, and for one another.

Her presence in my life really changed me. I learned so much from her about prayer and my walk with the Lord. When the idea for my television ministry began to form in early 2003, we spent the whole year praying before I actually started the ministry. When I look back, I feel she was key to the ministry doing so well.

4word: What advice can you offer to women in need of a close female friend?

Hala: Sometimes we just need to humble ourselves before the Lord in prayer and say, “Lord, I need this.” I think my doing that made this more than just a casual friendship. It’s a covenant relationship. There’s something about it that is just beyond Mimi and me connecting. She was telling me the other day: “I feel I wouldn’t be the woman I am now if I hadn’t met you.”

Sometimes you have to show you’re willing to be a friend. Someone may want to be your friend and be just as shy.