February 4 2002

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SAT-7, a Christian satellite TV broadcaster, says North Africans are showing growing interest in its programs.

J. B. Kump, director of the ministry's southern region in the United States, told Christianity Today, "We have been receiving an increasing number of positive viewer letters, phone calls, and e-mails in the past weeks."

Ronald Ensminger, executive director for North America, says events related to September 11 have "opened the hearts and eyes of the viewing audience in a new way."

In Morocco, which is 99.9 percent Muslim, awareness of the service jumped from 2 percent two years ago to 13.1 percent last June. Surveys completed before September 11 indicated that 1.5 million people in Algeria watch SAT-7 regularly. Algeria is 96.7 percent Muslim, according to Operation World.

Partner ministries last year opened four new telephone-counseling operations—one each in Egypt and Sweden and two in Spain. This brings the total to 11. SAT-7 received more than 7,000 calls in 2001. Additional centers in Egypt and the Gulf region are planned for 2002.

The broadcasts reach 5 million viewers. The broadcast schedule of locally produced programs has expanded from two hours every week in 1996 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week. SAT-7 estimates that 95 percent of the people in the Middle East and North Africa own television sets. About 100 million have access to satellite dishes.

The official SAT-7 Web site has a substantial section on the organization's background.