Broadcasting the love of Christ across the Middle East

(Vatican Radio) Sat-7 is a Christian satellite TV network that reaches into millions of homes across the Middle East and North Africa with a message of hope and love. It’s dual purpose is to share the love of Christ and to encourage Christian viewers across the region in their faith. Sat-7 is an ecumenical organization that includes all the main Christian denominations and its total audience is believed to be in the range of 15 million people, many of them Moslems. The executive Director of Sat-7 is Kurt Johansen who spoke to Vatican Radio’s Susy Hodges.

Listen to the extended interview with Johansen:

Sat-7 offers inspirational, informative and innovative programmes that according to Johansen aim “to show the love of Christ … and make it visible.” Asked where they have most listeners, he said the three top countries for viewers were "Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Iraq." Johansen said one of their most popular channels is the one for kids which is the world’s only Arabic Christian TV channel designed exclusively for children and teenagers. He says the proof of this popularity is that “one in three children in Saudi Arabia are watching our kids’ programmes.”

Johansen goes on to explain how their strategy is: “to bridge the gap between Moslems and Christians” and says they receives “a lot of feedback” from their viewers across the region who talk about how their programmes give them “spiritual food for their lives … and new hope” He also mentioned the encouraging and inspirational case of a Moslem lady from Morocco who donated 5,000 euros to Sat-7, saying their programming is “food for my soul.”