That same year, another ambitious effort sought to reach Iran for Christ. Mohabat TV began as the first 24/7 Christian satellite channel broadcasting to Iranians in Farsi.

“At first, we thought it was going to be a lot of struggles, and people are not going to be receptive. But we were shocked,” Heart4Iran’s Edwin Abnous says.

“Not too long after the launch, a lot of calls and contacts started coming in; we processed about 700 contacts a day.”

Heart4Iran: a history

(Photo courtesy Ram Singh/Unsplash)

In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, two intersecting trends presented a unique Gospel opportunity in Iran. First, Abnous says, “A couple of leaders went inside the country and experienced the revival that was happening there.”

Second, the growing prevalence of satellite television enabled ministries to bypass government restrictions that hindered traditional evangelistic methods.

“They (Heart4Iran founders) thought, ‘Okay, this is the time to start a satellite channel to preach the Gospel and provide discipleship in Iran,’” Abnous says.

Mohabat TV officially launched on March 1, 2006, as the first continuous Farsi-language Christian broadcast accessible inside Iran. The satellite channel also reached Farsi-speaking audiences in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, as well as the Persian-speaking diaspora.

Soon after the launch, audience response revealed a need for structured pastoral care. Mohabat TV creators developed a follow-up system that incorporated trauma care, round-the-clock accessibility, and privacy.

“God started writing a beautiful story for Iranians, and we’re glad that God has allowed us to be part of this,” Abnous says.

(Photo courtesy Heart4Iran)

The ministry later added a training series for house churches. In 2018, the partnership approach that catalyzed Mohabat TV’s launch matured into a formal platform called Heart4Iran. The network eventually grew to include more than 100 partner ministries, with each contributing to evangelism, discipleship, Scripture distribution, and media production.

Months before COVID-19 lockdowns began, Mohabat TV launched a digital church. The fellowship became a lifeline for countless Persian-speaking believers who needed a safe, consistent connection and discipleship during the pandemic. Expanded satellite reach and digital capacity allowed Heart4Iran to respond rapidly to regional crises, including the 2021 Afghanistan crisis.

Openness and opportunity

The Body of Christ in Iran has also grown rapidly over the past two decades.

“During the Shah’s time, we just had 500 Muslim background believers. In 2020, a survey came out, and [it found that] 1.5% of the Iranian population is now Christian,” Abnous says.

“This is about 1 million Muslim background [believers]; that’s a huge increase!”

For the past 20 years, through Heart4Iran, God has used His Word to bring light into dark places. As Bibles are placed into waiting hands, pray that each one finds the right person at the right time. Pray for hearts to be open.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Heart4Iran)

Today, many Iranians are disillusioned and searching. You can help them find Jesus through Heart4Iran. “Iranians are very much open to the Gospel,” Abnous says.

“Islam is bankrupt in Iran, and people are looking for alternative answers. The beautiful answer that they can find and they’re receptive to is the Christian faith.”

Pray for the Heart4Iran team as it expands family discipleship programs, strengthens leadership formation, and develops greater regional production capacity.

“Iranians are moving from [an] organized Islamic government and theocratic situation to a nation that is looking for new opportunities or new alternatives,” Abnous says.

“This door, I’m not sure how long it would be open, and we want to make sure we take advantage.”

Header image courtesy of Heart4Iran. 

At the same time, Israeli strikes have hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, and Israel has issued urgent warnings for people to evacuate areas tied to Iranian officials.

Together, the developments signal the building pressure on both Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamist regime.

(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beiteddine_-_drapeau_libanais.jpg)

John Cerniglia, President of SAT-7 USA says, “I was in a meeting this morning with colleagues who live in the region. I have a colleague who lives in Beirut, and he turned his phone out the window of where he is in Beirut, and we were watching bombings happen.”

For many in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, conflict is not a new reality.

“As I talk to my colleagues who [were] born in the region and have always lived in the region, it’s been their entire lifetimes,” Cerniglia says. “When SAT-7 started 30 years ago, the Lebanese were fighting the Syrians in Lebanon, in Beirut. So I’ve got colleagues who’ve worked at SAT-7 for 30 years, and they will tell you war is all they’ve ever known.”

Yet just because it is familiar doesn’t mean it isn’t overwhelming.

Cerniglia says, “I think, in times of serious conflict like this or uncertainty or fear, some people could be tempted to think the unthinkable about their own lives. So just [pray] that God protect people and give them hope – Jesus is the hope of the world.”

(Photo courtesy of SAT-7)

Through satellite television and digital media, SAT-7 continues broadcasting the Gospel across the Middle East and North Africa, including into areas affected by conflict. The ministry regularly shares testimonies of people encountering Christ even amid war.

Learn more at sat7usa.org.

“The first thing I’d encourage everybody to do is go to our website and read and learn,” Cerniglia says. “There’s a lot of content there from Iran and around the region – first-hand stories and testimonies from Christians who are experiencing what’s going on there in the region.”

He adds, “The second thing to do, after learning a little bit, is join our prayer team. You can sign up, it doesn’t cost anything, [and] we’ll send you periodic prayer reports and requests for you to be praying for our brothers and sisters.”

As tensions rise in Lebanon, please pray ultimately for the spread of the Gospel. Ask God to bring hope and salvation to the Lebanese people – and even to fighters and extremists – that many would encounter Jesus and find true peace in Him.

Header photo: Beirut, Lebanon (Photo courtesy of Sara Calado/Unsplash)

As the Islamic regime seeks to keep its grip on power, authorities are restricting internet access to control information. Connectivity has fallen below 1% in some areas, forcing Iranians to use VPNs and other covert methods to share videos and images of airstrikes.

Satellite television broadcasters like SAT-7 have become a critical — and often the only — source of independent information and biblical encouragement.

Photo courtesy of Artin Bakhan via Unsplash

John Cerniglia, President of SAT-7 USA, says, “We reach probably half a million viewers in Iran any given day, and we hear from about 50 of them per day.”

SAT-7 PARS, the ministry’s Farsi-language channel, broadcasts 24/7 directly into Iran, bypassing government censorship.

“It’s illegal to own a satellite, and actually the government will scan the rooftops of buildings and confiscate satellite dishes,” says Cerniglia. “Of course, it’s impossible to do that widespread in a nation of 85 million people…. We’re on the predominant satellite network that reaches Iran…and it is unblockable and uncensorable.”

SAT-7’s programming focuses on spiritual hope for Iranian Christians and those searching for truth and encouragement. Cerniglia explains, “We have straight-up preaching where somebody can tune in and get expository teaching and preaching on something like the Gospel according to John. Or we have themes around Lent or Advent, depending on the season of the year. We have live broadcasting…but a lot of the content, overwhelmingly, is Gospel-based.

“Even in times like war, as we are in now in the region, we try to help people understand: What’s a biblical worldview? What’s a biblical response to what people in the region are facing?”

(Photo courtesy of SAT-7)

Many viewers are part of Iran’s underground Church and contact SAT-7 via phone, email, or secure platforms like WhatsApp. The reports from recent months reveal the danger they face.

“When the government was cracking down, we heard from a viewer who told us that they were in an emergency room in a hospital, and the Iranian government came in and were shooting and killing patients [who were] seeking treatment because they had been out on the streets protesting the government.”

Amid the current strikes and uncertainty, fear is rising. Yet, faith persists. Cerniglia shares a prayer that SAT-7 received from a viewer in Iran.

“He wrote: ‘With all the sorrow, how can a man lay his head on the pillow and sleep?… Oh God, I believe that you are present and see all the injustice. So I lift my hands to you, and in the name of your only beloved Son, I ask you to intervene. Oh God, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I ask you to shape the future of Iran according to your perfect will and bring joy and laughter in place of tears and sadness. I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.'”

Cerniglia asks, “Be praying that God’s hope would be just so obvious and accessible and visible to people – that the work of the Holy Spirit would overtake the work of a fearful mind or heart. I’m praying that God would work in miraculous ways, that the Prince of Peace would reign and rule in a region of darkness.”

Learn more about SAT-7’s vital broadcast ministry in Iran at sat7usa.org.

Header photo: Courtesy of SAT-7.

SAT-7 broadcasts Christian programming across the Middle East and North Africa in Arabic, Turkish, and Farsi. Its Farsi-language channel, SAT-7 PARS, continues reaching viewers inside Iran — even when internet access and other communication channels are blocked by the government.

Iran protests in Eastern Europe. (Photo courtesy of MNN)

Joe Willey with SAT-7 says, “We know that satellite television is virtually uncensorable, and so we can broadcast even programs we have — and we’ve done this. Programs that are created to be online, we can actually broadcast those programs on satellite television. So we can still reach people with the Gospel and with the support that the people of Iran need.”

Willey recently spoke with an Iranian man who has been able to communicate with contacts inside the country. According to those reports, protests are not fading.

“Instead of these protests dwindling, the numbers are increasing,” Willey says.

“It’s a desperate situation, and of course, the information coming out of Iran is filtered through government channels, because the government has throttled digital communication. The internet — and anything that uses the internet — is really blacked out.”

While the sharp drop in the Iranian rial sparked the unrest on December 28, dissatisfaction with the Islamist authoritarian regime has been building for years amid strict Sharia law and ongoing human rights abuses.

Iran protests in Eastern Europe. (Photo courtesy of MNN)

“The shopkeepers started with economic protest because of a devalued currency and financial difficulty in the country,” Willey says. “That has spread to freedom and wanting a different lifestyle.”

That pressure is also driving deeper spiritual questions.

“Younger people and even older people have questioned the harshness and severity of life under this regime,” says Willey. “They will say, ‘Well, if this is religion, if this is God, I don’t want this. I’m oppressed.'”

But when they encounter the message of Christ, Willey says the response is striking.

“They say, ‘Wait, are you telling me that because of Christ, I can be free?’ It is a completely different message. It is the true hope of Scripture, and Iranians are eager to hear that because of what they’ve been through. So SAT-7 can still broadcast the message of freedom that ultimately is eternal in Christ.”

As Iranian Christians navigate this tense moment, Willey says their witness matters deeply.

“The difficult thing is for believers in Iran right now to be salt and light,” he says. “This is an opportunity, and it’s easy for me to say, but they have an opportunity to show the hope they have in Christ…. I honestly pray that a great awakening would happen in Iran.”

Iran protests in Eastern Europe. (Photo courtesy of MNN)

A Christian woman inside Iran recently shared a prayer request with SAT-7: “Please pray for freedom for Iran and for us Christians in the country. The conditions are very hard, and I’ve not been able to get my medicines for several weeks. Food is not easier to find, and the state of education is unsatisfactory, with children feeling discouraged and young people struggling with hopelessness. Please keep Iran in your prayers.”

Header photo: Iran protests in Eastern Europe. (Photo courtesy of MNN)

But in countries like Turkiye, Christian discipleship resources are extremely limited and difficult to find.

SAT-7’s Joe Willey says, with Christians making up less than 1% of Turkiye’s population, “Discipleship is crucial because there is a misunderstanding often about even what a Christian is. What is Christianity?

“If a person is a Christian [in Turkiye] and they have no resources and no network, then really they are isolated. There can be also an incredible sense of discouragement and a real lack of growth in becoming more like Jesus Christ.”

SAT-7 TÜRK has a new satellite television program in Turkiye called Practicing Discipleship.

SAT-7 TURK (Photo courtesy of SAT-7)

“There are topics that are approached [such as] biblical generosity [or] forgiveness,” says Willey. “The host explains from a biblical point of view, ‘What is forgiveness? What is generosity?’ They search Scripture and they say, ‘Here’s what the Bible says. Here’s how we are supposed to live our lives.’”

Pray for Turkish believers’ spiritual growth through discipleship and connection with other Christians. Also, thank the Lord for SAT-7’s crucial ministry meeting discipleship needs in the Turkish Church!

Willey says, “These isolated believers, for one, they know they’re not alone. There are others. There is prayer on these programs too. So they are prayed for; they are discipled.”

Connect with SAT-7 here!

Header photo courtesy of Jeremy Jap/Unsplash.

Iran’s oppressive treatment of women continues despite months of protests. Afghanistan – ruled by the Taliban for over two years now – is barring women and girls from most areas of public life.

SAT-7 recently surveyed Persian viewers about religious freedom and women’s rights. Joe Willey with SAT-7 USA says, “We are curious to see the viewers’ responses in nations like Iran and Afghanistan because they are not nations that have freedom for people to worship.”

Read the results of the survey here.

“Christian respondents often said, ‘We want freedom to believe because we are all equal in Christ. We want freedom for men and women because God created men and women to complete each other,’” Willey says.

“It is encouraging to see that believers in these countries are holding fast to the truth of Scripture.”

One “secret believer” in the region described the price he paid for following Jesus.

“This person says, ‘I was rejected by my family and deprived of my father’s inheritance due to my change of belief. I’ve lived secretly for 15 years,’” Willey says.

Women like Nadia often feel depressed living with limited options. But SAT-7 programs teach them that they can still be triumphant! “Ever since I’ve been watching your programs, I feel better. Life is more beautiful.” #GodsLoveIsVisible
(Photo/Caption Courtesy SAT-7)

Survey results will help Christian programmers develop content for Insiders, a popular show on SAT-7’s Persian channel, SAT-7 PARS.

“SAT-7 is a Christian broadcaster in a region where 97 percent of people are not Christians,” Willey says.

“We tailor our programming to help give comfort, hope, pray, and answer difficult questions. That’s why it’s important to hear directly from viewers and not make assumptions.”

Pray for wisdom for SAT-7 programmers. Pray the content they develop will bring truth and hope to Christian and non-Christian viewers.

“Not all SAT-7 viewers are Christians. Some watch SAT-7 to answer questions about Christianity,” Willey says.

Header image courtesy of SAT-7.

These decisions come as the Taliban continues to bar women from workplaces, a decision that could cost the country billions of dollars and prevent full economic recovery. Women accounted for 20 percent of the country’s workforce before the Taliban took power.

Joe Willey with SAT-7 USA says, “Unfortunately, valuing men above women and children is common in some societies. But it stands in absolute opposition to the truth found in God’s Word. And that’s that both men and women are created in His image. The only freedom from oppression is found in Jesus Christ.”

SAT-7 shows

These restrictions affect Afghanistan’s terrestrial tv stations. But SAT-7 broadcasts its own programming into the country via satellite. This includes dramas. Willey says, “We’re excited about a newly produced drama, and this airs on SAT-7 PARS, which is the Farsi speaking channel broadcast into Afghanistan. This new program is called Destiny. It is about Afghans dreaming of a better life. We also have Bible teaching programs and current event programs.”

The women in these programs all wear western clothing and speak the Afghan dialect of Farsi. Hearing this can be comforting for Afghan listeners, Willey says.

Pray these programs would bring the hope of Jesus to many Afghans. Willey says, “Pray for hope. Pray that God’s love would be made visible to the people of Afghanistan. Where there is such control, it often seems hopeless. But please pray especially for the women and girls. They are facing the most severe restrictions.”

The header photo shows tv towers in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo courtesy of Peretz Partensky from San Francisco, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

SAT-7, a satellite TV ministry to the Middle East and North Africa, started SAT-7 TÜRK five years ago to reach Turkish speakers with the Gospel. SAT-7 TÜRK made history as the first Christian satellite channel on the government-regulated Türksat 4A satellite.

David Middleton with SAT-7 says, “To be actually accepted by the government and given a license and given the opportunity to actually broadcast our programming, in a sense, I think that that trust speaks partly to the reputation we have as a ministry.”

(Photo courtesy of SAT-7)

“The team [members] still turn the television on and pinch themselves when they see the channel broadcasting on the air live. It’s still a sense of thanks and gratitude that we have this opportunity.”

The SAT-7 TÜRK team is relatively small as far as media is concerned. Forty team members work full-time on the 24-7 broadcast.

In the next couple of years, SAT-7 TÜRK wants to grow the interactive aspects of their live programming, specifically on social media. The channel also wants to feature more dramas and high-quality programming that uses television to its full potential.

“Some programming tends to be low in its reliance on video so that, for instance, a speaker or a talk could equally be covered on radio. It’s not really using television to its full advantage,” Middleton says. “But programming like drama, you’re getting writers and people who have a real knowledge of the culture to express themselves…through the visual medium.”

With so few believers in Turkey, there is generally a lack of awareness about Christianity and even misconceptions about the faith.

“When we say that, for instance, Christians believe in the Trinity, that’s often misunderstood to mean that we believe in three gods. Or how our Scriptures have come to us and what we believe about them — that’s another area of misunderstanding.”

(Photo courtesy of SAT-7 TÜRK)

Middleton says that’s where SAT-7 TÜRK comes in. “We can offer a clear explanation of what we believe and offer perspective from our faith on different challenges and different cultural issues.”

SAT-7 is a partnership ministry working with different churches and ministries both in Turkey and internationally. They also represent many Christian denominations within the Church and are always looking for new connections.

If you would like to partner with SAT-7 TÜRK, click here!

To support SAT-7 TÜRK financially and advance the Gospel in Turkey, click here!

Finally, please pray for the Turkish people to know the love of Jesus. Pray for a spiritual revival and that God would use SAT-7 TÜRK for His glory in Turkey.

Middleton adds, “I would like to thank all of the people in the US who have supported what we’ve done over the years…. We’re grateful and thankful and realize that the work we do and the programs we’re able to produce and put on-air are very much a collaborative effort between many, many different people.”

Header photo courtesy of SAT-7.

The latest round of sanctions target Iran’s oil exports, Smith explains. As oil sales drop off and national revenue decreases, so do teachers’ salaries. “With less oil, there’s less money to pay the teachers,” Smith says.

Teachers aren’t the only ones refusing to work until they receive a paycheck. Truck drivers are on strike and goods brought into Iran have no way to get from ports to shops. Shopkeepers were the next domino to fall.

“If there’s no exports being brought into their stores, there’s nothing for them to sell,” explains Smith.

“There [are] a lot of people frustrated with the government for not having truck drivers deliver their goods. Medical supplies [are] another thing being impacted by the sanctions.”

Instead of listening to its citizens, Iran is putting them under lock and key.

“The government thinks that by arresting its people, that will make this all go away…but it’s not,” says Smith.

“Since May, when the first set of sanctions started, these riots have consistently been going on…not just in one city but hundreds of cities. In our U.S. news they don’t cover that, but internationally it’s being covered.”

Nonetheless, God is still at work.

Of sanctions and salvation

In recent days, a man contacted Heart4Iran’s Call Center from a Tehran prison cell. He was arrested for protesting, but somehow managed to keep his cellphone and could access the Internet.

“He said, ‘I’ve been watching your satellite TV programs on the Internet and I’m calling today because I want to become a follower of Jesus. How do I do that?’”

(Image capture courtesy of Heart4Iran)

Heart4Iran’s Call Counselors led him to salvation, Smith says, but they didn’t realize he was taking that information and sharing it with other prisoners. Please pray these men will accept Christ as Savior when they learn the truth of the Gospel.

Pray also for Iranian Christians who secretly but steadfastly live out their faith under the Iranian regime. Pray they will be encouraged by Gospel-centered programming broadcast by Heart4Iran on Mohabat TV. Help reach Iran with the hope of Christ.

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, “the average Iranian person realizes that [it] hasn’t delivered on all the promises it gave. What they’ve also discovered is Islam is not the answer,” Smith says.

“We’re encouraged by the more than 400 people each month who pray with our phone counselors saying, ‘I want to become a follower of Jesus.’”

Header image credit Frode Bjorshol via Flickr.

(Photo courtesy of SAT-7 USA)

Rex Rogers with SAT-7, a Christian satellite television ministry to the Middle East and North Africa, explains, “There are 13 million Arab kids over there who are not in school or are in poor schooling situations — their school has been blown up even if they want to go to school, those kinds of things. And we look at that socially speaking as a real threat to not only their future, but to the future of the Middle East.”

The channel will provide round-the-clock programming with educational lessons on Arabic, English, mathematics, and some science.

“SAT7 ACADEMY is innovative,” says Rogers. “It is education on TV; that’s been done before, but not in areas of extensive economic, social, and educational need and development — areas and regions that are struggling. This really hasn’t been done very much.”

SAT-7 already has another educational kids’ program called My School on their SAT7 KIDS channel. They have heard very positive feedback on this program from kids, their parents, and even NGOs. It’s strategic because satellite television has a wide audience reach and can touch communities that otherwise might not be accessible through other methods.

(Map courtesy of SAT-7 USA)

Satellite television is free and almost everybody in the Middle East and North Africa has access to television, even in refugee camps. Television doesn’t require literacy, so children who aren’t in school and don’t know how to read can still watch and learn.

“There are already children over there who haven’t been in school for five or six years. So when you think about that and you think about how important education is to any kind of meaningful quality of life as an adult and the ability to care for yourself and the hope to live in a free society where you’re supposed to think and participate, education is enormously important and SAT-7 believes it needs to be a part of addressing that need.”

Additionally, when it comes to refugee and displaced children, there is the trauma to be considered. Growing up without an education only compounds the issue.

“People are doing studies now of the trauma impact of all this moving, of the violence, loss of home, loss of family members, of uncertainty, of living in places where you’re unfamiliar, of hunger. I mean all the health problems, all the things these children are going through and young adults, youths, you can’t help but experience trauma,” says Rogers.

“If [refugee children] grow up illiterate then, of course, they are more vulnerable, more susceptible to extreme ideas, whether extremism or radicalism. Or just not being able to find employment, not being able to care for themselves and therefore their families, and that creates frustration and it creates reaction.”

(Photo courtesy of Tent Schools International)

This is why, in addition to education on SAT7 ACADEMY, “we’ll do what we call social impact programming where we will address issues, problems on air that are relevant to their understanding of their needs. But primarily it’s aimed at children and aimed at education.”

Although SAT7 ACADEMY will not address biblical topics, SAT-7’s other channels do, and Rogers says an educational channel is right on mission.

“Christians have always been motivated to provide education because we are, as they say, ‘people of the Book’. You want to teach people how to read so that they can think, so that they can access ideas for themselves and process and internalize and make their own decisions in life, including spiritual ideas.”

As SAT-7 prepares to start SAT7 ACADEMY next month, please pray for a smooth launch process and that it would stir a love for learning in the young minds of refugee and displaced children.

Pray also that as these children grow up into critical thinkers and seek life’s truths, that they would find joy in the truth of God’s Word — perhaps even through the ministry of SAT-7’s other Christian channels.

Rogers adds, “If they want to financially support, they can do so through SAT-7. A typical way is on our website, sat7usa.org. They can find us and find out more about this new programming, SAT7 ACADEMY.”