SAT-7 TURK

Introducing SAT-7 Turk 

Turkey - a land so evocative of Biblical history and with a rich spiritual heritage stretching right back to Genesis. So many places named in the Bible can be found in modern day Turkey – Ephesus, Cappadocia, Bithynia, Laodicia, Galatia, Thyatira – the names conjure up in our minds the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul and the churches that were founded there. Sadly, since those times the Church has all but been extinguished and today 99.8% of the 72 million population is Muslim. 

 For those inside the Church, the situation is in stark contrast to that of around 2000 years ago when churches flourished. Indeed, only a century ago, 25% of the population of Turkey was Christian; primarily ethnic minorities that could trace their spiritual heritage to the early Church. Today the Syrian, Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches and the Syrian, Armenian, Roman and Greek Catholic Churches make up only an estimated one tenth of one percent of the population. In Turkey, the Turkish Protestant Church today numbers about 3,000. There are about 50 small fellowships meeting regularly for worship and teaching; 20 of these are in Istanbul. 

 The Turkish government is struggling to understand who these people are. Turkey's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but government officials fear what they don't understand. Persecution and harassment of Christians is not uncommon and there have been some well publicised cases of violence against Christians. Local and national officials use various pretences to try to close down churches and Turkish law restricts home meetings. So, unlike other parts of the Middle East where Christians still make up a substantial, if marginalised, proportion of the population, the Christian church in Turkey has been almost snuffed out. 

 Consequently many Christian agencies are working to try to support the struggling Church, trying to help them as they reach out to their neighbours with the message of salvation and redemption in Christ. One of these agencies is SAT-7, a satellite television network broadcasting culturally sensitive Christian programmes across the Middle East and North Africa. Its Turkish language service, established in 2003 as TURK-7, in January 2010 became the latest in the family of SAT-7 channels, adding to the existing Arabic and Farsi language services.

It is undoubtedly true that satellite television has the potential to communicate with large numbers of people who would otherwise be unreachable. 96% of the population own a television and 45% watch satellite television. However, with the rapid growth of broadband internet availability in the main Turkish cities, more and more people both inside and outside the Turkish church, are turning to the internet as a way of discovering what the Christian faith is all about. As television services merge in new ways with the internet, people are increasingly able to watch programming on demand using their broadband internet connection.

 The website has been very well received. One person who heard about it from a friend wrote saying his family had watched everything on the site that day and found it to be a very useful resource of high quality television, adding that his children had really enjoyed the children's programmes.  Another person wrote in to say that she was very happy to be able to watch the programmes over the internet as she doesn’t have a satellite dish.

The programmes that SAT-7 TURK broadcasts are having a life-changing effect on viewers, Christian and non-Christian alike. A man in Istanbul wrote to say, "Last night I watched the 'Words of Hope’ programme.  What the host said from the Bible really affected me.  My system of belief--the way I’ve been burdened all my life with living under punishment because of the way religion was explained to me—has been turned upside down.  I would be very happy if you could help me on this matter, the matter of finding God."

And a mother contacted SAT-7 TURK to say, “There just isn't anything like this on any of the other channels we can get here. The programmes provide such a wonderful opportunity for me to explain to my children what we believe as Christians in ways they understand. Living in a strongly Muslim country as we do, it really is a precious thing to me to have this channel.”

The staff at SAT-7 TURK are praying that God would open the doors to a 24/7 channel on the Turkish owned TURKSAT satellite platform, but while they prepare in faith for such an opportunity they are looking at other ways of expanding the broadcasts and increasing the impact as they develop new and exciting programmes. God willing, 2010 will be a year when SAT-7 TURK, and the Christian community in Turkey, goes from strength to strength.

This article is written by an Interserve partner working with SAT7-Turk. For more information, please visit www.sat7.org