Jerusalem
and the Middle East
Church Association

Download a PDF of our magazine (1.59mb)

Editorial
Chairman's & Treasurer's notes

News

Highlighting:

In each issue of Bible Lands we try to highlight the work of one of the charities supporting the Christians of the Middle East

Communicating Christ by Satellite

On the last day of May 1996, an Egyptian Christian sat down in front of his television and saw something he had never seen on Arabic TV before: an Arab female presenter with a cross around her neck. To see a representative of the almost invisible Arab Christian minority on screen was such a shock to him that he just had to call the station and say, “Mish Ma’oul! This is unbelievable!”

What this viewer had seen was the first broadcast of SAT-7. For ten years prior to this broadcast, the vision of a Christian, Arabic-language satellite channel had been growing in the mind of Terence Ascott, a British national working in the Christian publishing industry in Egypt. But it wasn’t until the Saudi satellite channel MBC was launched in 1991 that the concept began to seem realistic. Finally, in November 1995, SAT-7 was born at a founding meeting in Cyprus and the station began broadcasting in May 1996.

A unique TV station

If you walk down nearly any street in downtown Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus - or any city in the Middle East and North Africa today - you will see rooftops jammed with satellite dishes. According to one Cairo pastor satellite receivers are “even more common than refrigerators.” In a region with high illiteracy rates and low levels of social, political and religious freedom, satellite television is the ideal vehicle for bringing support and encouragement to Christian minorities and for presenting the Gospel in attractive and culturally appropriate ways to the wider population.

In a truly innovative structure, the creation of SAT-7 brought together Christians of nearly all denominations. It was a new and radical experience for most of them to work together. But they were united by the same vision of providing a television service by Christians of the Middle East for Christians of the Middle East and North Africa.

‘This ambitious project is of great importance to our region… It presents a unique opportunity for Christians to share, in a culturally and religiously sensitive way, their faith with all peoples of the Middle East. I commend to you the SAT-7 ministry for your prayers and financial support.’ The Rt Rev Ghais Abdel Malik, former Bishop of Egypt and North Africa in the Anglican Province of Jerusalem

Today SAT-7 broadcasts on four channels – SAT-7 ARABIC, SAT-7 KIDS (also in Arabic), SAT-7 PARS (Farsi) and SAT- 7 TÜRK (Turkish). Nearly 80% of the programming is produced in the Middle East by Christians who know the language, the culture and the context. SAT-7 demonstrates to viewers that Christianity is a way of life and part of Middle Eastern culture. Its programming is entertaining, informative and educational. No area of life is excluded, because the whole person is loved by God.

Impacting Lives

SAT-7 is just one of many tools God is using to train His people and build His church in the Middle East and North Africa. But it is a powerful one, with an audience of at least 10 million. Each month thousands of viewers contact SAT-7’s offices and partner-run telephone counselling centres to say that God is using the broadcasts to impact their lives.

“To an isolated believer, just to be able to listen to a Christian song on TV is such a blessing. Many Christians are all by themselves; they have no contact whatsoever with other believers. But when we switch on SAT-7 we can follow a service and see that there are other Arab Christians.” – A young man in Tunisia

“Discovering your programme on TV was a happy moment for me. It is wonderful to see you presenting Christianity in our own language, Farsi. Thank you.” – A woman in Iran

To find out more about SAT-7, visit our website at www.sat7.org, email us on respond@sat7trust.org, or write to: SAT-7 Trust, The Coach House, 43 New Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN15 1HL.