Christian Broadcasting Company in Key Part of the World Celebrates 20 Years

SAT 7 is a television company that caters to people living in the Middle East and North Africa. On Tuesday, they celebrated their 20th anniversary in spreading the gospel to 500 million people across their channels.

SAT-7's goal is to introduce the gospel to those who have never received it. The company also wants to combat misconceptions many may have about the Christian faith and create a relationship of understanding Christianity.

Their core mission is to "provide the churches and Christians of the Middle East and North Africa an opportunity to witness about Jesus Christ through inspirational, informative, and educational television services," according to their site. 

The satellite company has four studios and airs programs in three languages to about 15 million viewers. They currently have five channels that spread God's word and cater to local churches in order to educate and encourage their communities.

Only 10 percent of the region has met a person of Christian faith, while 90 percent can access television, according to premiere.org.uk. 

Dr. Terence Ascott, SAT-7's founder explained that conflicts in the Middle East have only strengthened the satellite's mission.

"In the past two decades, many conflicts have overtaken or drawn in more than half the countries SAT-7 serves, Iraq and Syria in particular," Ascott said. "But these conflicts, and extremism in the name of religion, have only increased the profound spiritual hunger for our programming." 

"SAT-7 is enabling the Church to be salt and light in society, to be a prophetic voice and show a different way forward. This is a prime time for us as a ministry and it comes at a time when political Islam has been discredited and people are looking for answers to man's inhumanity to man," he said. 

SAT-7 has ministry offices and studios in Cyprus, Lebanon, Turkey, and Egypt, as well as fundraising offices in Europe, the U.K., Canada and America. There are also more than 100 local staff working in their offices in the Middle East.

Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical churches came together each evening from May 27 through May 30 in Lebanon where they held their first multi-denominational prayer event. More than 5,000 Christians attended. 

Viewer responses have grown in the past five years, from 270 a day in 2010 to more than 800 a day in 2015. In 2020 they hope to see that number rise to 2,000 a day.