Middle East (MNN) — While the war on terror has taken on a new name of sorts with a new American administration, the battle against this activity continues. The killing of innocent people in Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan and other parts of the world blamed on heartless militants is hard to understand. But there is a shining light in the region: SAT 7 — satellite television for the Middle East and North Africa.
Founder and CEO of SAT-7, Terry Ascott says they are broadcasting an unquestionable Gospel message into the region. "The Gospel is there and very clearly presented through drama, through song, through straight-forward didactic-style teaching, through cartoons, through Biblical epics, through the showing of the JESUS Film — I mean the Gospel is clearly presented, but as I said in a positive constructive way."
While the world tries to find an answer to the war on terrorism, Ascott says their SAT-7 Kids satellite channel may be the answer. "Where is the frontline of that war? It's in the Middle East. And what is the hope for change? It's to change children. It's too late for the older group."
"Here, we have a 24-hour children's channel impacting a potential audience of 100 million Arab kids under the age of 15. One channel is not enough. We need more resources put into changing lives."
According to Ascott, that positive, constructive presentation of the Gospel is attractive. He says the audience is growing. "The research we've been getting year after year in some countries like Morocco and Algeria show that it's a step increase of about 20 percent per annum for the Arabic channel. For the Farsi channel, which is relatively new, we haven't been able to get solid research. But certainly the number of responses is growing astronomically."
While this is good news, not enough is being done. Ascott tells us why. "Around the world today there are 4,000 Christian radio and TV stations. How many of these exist in the Middle East where this kind of media–radio and television–is the only way for many people to hear? There are 15."
SAT-7 research indicates there are about 12 million people watching their broadcasts. With a budget of $12 million, it costs about $1 a year to fund Christian programming for one listener to SAT-7. Through SAT-7's "One Dollar Viewer program," your $100 gift will allow 100 people to watch SAT-7 programming for an entire year.
