Lebanon (MNN) — A car bombing in Lebanon Tuesday may have
been aimed at undermining efforts to end Lebanon's presidential crisis.
It came during a visit by U.S. President
George W. Bush. According
to investigators, the car bomb was packed with 44 pounds of dynamite. The explosion damaged a U.S. Embassy vehicle,
killing three passersby and wounding nearly two dozen.
SAT-7's David Harder says their team was close enough to
hear the explosion. It sent shockwaves
of panic through their team. "This
bombing happened right next to a church, the Evangelical Alliance Church, and
three of the 21 people who were injured were inside the church, including a
pastor who had just been on a SAT-7 program about two weeks before."
SAT-7 is a Christian satellite ministry to the Middle East
and North Africa. Harder says, by all
accounts, it appears that the target was political. That does little to ease the concern over the
instability of the region.
The tensions have been building since late fall last
year. In spite of that, Harder says
their SAT-7 team managed to launch SAT-7 Kids, a channel dedicated to Christian
programming for children and young people.
SAT-7 KIDS channel is broadcasting from
the Hotbird satellite platform and can be watched in every nation in the Middle
East, North Africa and also across all of Europe. SAT-7's team of children's producers, writers,
editors, actors and technicians worked for more than a year and a half making
new programs for the channel.
The channel is broadcasting 24-hours a
day and airs a wide variety of shows including cartoons, music programs, films,
kid's game shows, drama and much more. Over 100 million
children under the age of 15 live in the Arab world, and over half have access
to satellite television channels.
That was a lot to accomplish with the threat of civil war
hanging over their heads. Harder
explains the team has a determination born of the hope in Christ. "SAT-7
is really part of the fabric of the Middle East. Our staff, and the people who appear on our
programs live in the Middle East. So
they're able to say, 'Yes, situations here are difficult, but we have hope in
Jesus Christ. He is really the only hope,' so they're able to bring that into
the programs."
