International (MNN) — Thanks to the growing popularity of new television venue, SAT-7, a Christian satellite television service to the Middle East and North Africa, now has channels available in North America.
"IPTV, or internet protocol television, is one of the fastest growing television delivery systems in North America," said Terry Ascott of SAT-7. This new state-of-the-art service increased in popularity by 40 percent in the U.S. last year, he said. Through Joozor Media Broadcasting's IPTV, viewers can order any channels they want through the internet and send them to their TVs. The quality is as good as any U.S. cable channels. These channels have always been available online at SAT-7's Web site, but the quality is somewhat inferior.
One of the best things about this opportunity is: it costs SAT-7 nothing.
"It's great that we can extend our ministry to Arabic and Farsi and Turkish speakers in North America without any cost to the ministry. It's just another wonderful opportunity to touch lives," Ascott said.
Right now, SAT-7 ARABIC and SAT-7 KIDS are the channels available through IPTV. According to SAT-7's Web site, "SAT-7 KIDS seeks to educate and inform Arabic-speaking children about the basics of the Christian faith." In addition, "SAT-7 ARABIC provides hope to its millions of viewers by creating and broadcasting life-giving, encouraging, informative Christian TV programming for every member of the family."
Ascott anticipates as the demand among other immigrants to the U.S. and Canada increases, IPTV will also offer some of their other channels.
For some viewers, when they tune into these channels, they may hear the message of Christ for the first time. Many are refugees from tyranny in their countries and have never met a Christian.
"As they step into this brave new, free world … it's great that we are able to be there with Christian content that is in their own language," Ascott said.
Pray for the Holy Spirit to work through the messages being broadcast over these channels. Then, as viewers search for more information from Christians in their community, pray the Church will be ready to reach out to these seekers. Pray that Christians will not view them as terrorists but as fellow children of God.
Visit joozooriptv.com to learn how you can watch these channels, or visit SAT7.org to learn more about their ministry.
