Wednesday, October 21, 2009  By Dan Wooding Founder of ASSIST Ministries

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS) — It was during a live show being broadcast in Arabic from Alkarma TV’s studios in Southern California, when a phone call came in from the Middle East in which the man on the line made a startling confession.

Dan Wooding with Mona and Samuel after a recent interview at KWVE in Southern California

“I used to blow up churches and now I want to pray to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior,” he said.

Soon, he was praying the “Sinner’s Prayer” with one of the volunteers with this unique Christian television station which broadcasts the Good News of Jesus Christ 24/7, including six hours live to the Middle East via The Healing Channel.

“We get so many calls from the Arabic-speaking people who watch Alkarma TV, especially from the Middle East, who watch our programs and say that this was the first time they had heard the message of Jesus’ love for them,” said Samuel, an Egyptian-born Christian who, along with his wife Mona, began Alkarma TV some four years ago.

“We are seeing thousands call in each month and pray to receive Christ into their lives. Many call in from dangerous countries where you are not even allowed to have a Bible and you cannot preach inside their country. But we can go there via satellite. It is quite amazing.”

I recently attended a live program when 25-year-old Nick Vujicic, who was born in Australia without any arms or legs, took questions from Arabic viewers around the world, mainly from the Middle East, during a two-hour show relayed to the Middle East via The Healing Channel. Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic who runs Joni and Friends, also joined them by phone.

A total of 259 calls were received by the viewers and only a few could be dealt with on air, so Alkarma TV staff dealt with many of them and prayed with the callers, some of who wanted to receive Christ.

Mona, who also comes from Cairo like her husband, told me in an interview that many of the callers for this particular program were disabled.

“We had so many different callers during Nick’s show including several from Egypt and one of them was telling me over the phone that her sister was about to commit suicide because she was disabled and was so devastated, but she said that Nick’s words had encouraged her and she wanted to talk to Nick so we had her go on the air,” she said. “She was crying and said that God touched her sister’s life and instead of committing suicide, she now had hope that there was somebody else that had a worse case than her [Nick] and yet God was using him.”

Mona says that the Alkarma staff receives so many calls during the live shows that they can’t get to all of them because there is not enough staff or lines.
“We are constantly praying with callers who wanted to accept Jesus into their heart and then they ask for a Bible, which are happy to send them. We often also send them an Arabic version of the JESUS FILM.”

This dedicated couple first began the TV station on October 15, 2005, which they launched out of their three-car garage in Southern California. By the way, Alkarma means “The Vineyard” in Arabic. It was America’s first 24/7 Arabic Christian TV channel.

Eventually, they moved to larger studios, funded by their Arabic-speaking viewers, but Mona then said that their present studios are just “bursting at the seams” and soon they are going to need larger facilities.
“We need to push the walls,” she laughed. “We’re praying for a bigger facility because this place is not containing us any more. We have more live shows to do and we have five different sets in the big studio and they are not enough. We need to produce more programs and we are running out of space.

“As you saw on your last visit, Dan, the volunteers who answer the phones for us are packed like sardines into two rooms. We have many phone calls that we sometimes can’t handle them all because of the lack of space that we have.”

I asked Mona what were the great prayers needs that Alkarma TV and has at this time.

“We are praying for protection, for wisdom and we are praying for God’s guidance for our ministry and, of course for finances, because we’re shorthanded in finances,” she said.

Now, Samuel and Mona are planning another move to even larger studios to keep up with their needs.

“We have 18 full time and part time staff packed into our present facility as well as many volunteers,” said Samuel “We have 24 lines of phones that are frequently ringing. So we knew that we really need to have a larger place to be able to reach more people.”

He said that to make matters worse, they have received two complaints about overcrowding from both the city where they are based, and also from the State of California.

Samuel continued, “Because of this I was praying, ‘Lord, we’re praying to get a bigger place and we’re getting complaints about this facility that we cannot properly use because of its size.’ I then found that God was pushing us out. At the end of May, we didn’t know what to do so all the staff came together and prayed.”

Samuel said it wasn’t long before those prayers were answered. “During the month of June, God answered in an amazing way and we found the place that we were looking for,” he added. “Now we have the keys for the new building which is five times larger than the old building.

“It is good news that we have a new building, but there is also bad news, which is that we still need a lot of funds to be able to build it out because it’s not a studio at the moment; a part of it is offices and the other part is warehouse. So the warehouse has to be converted into three studios and the offices into editing units, audio rooms, control rooms, mail room and calling center.

“So that’s a big challenge ahead of us in the next few weeks and months.”

I then asked him then about some of the financial needs of the channel.

“We need to continue airing the channel at the moment, but we also need the additional finances to build the new studios and offices,” he said. “It will cost probably up to $1million so we are praying that God will send somebody to help us. We need to put our hands together with new friends so we can reach the Arabic speaking people everywhere.

“I personally believe that they deserve the chance to know about Christ and once they have heard the message, Christ will do the job and will change them. But we cannot judge and say that all these people are terrorists and just close the door in their face. No, we need to reach them by sending our Alkarma TV signal into their homes.

The Alkarma TV logo

“We see miracles every day and hear from viewers who tell us that their lives have changed because of our channel. We have people who told us that after they had given their lives to Christ, they had gone from their bad attitudes to good and humble people and are now good citizens of their country.

“So, I believe that they deserve the chance to know about Christ and let Christ do the job of changing their lives. That’s what we do, we send the signal, the Word of God, into their homes, and God does the rest; we are seeing so many miracles of changed lives.”

At present, most of the support that Alkarma TV receives is from its Arabic speaking people viewers, so I asked Samuel why he now wants Western Christians to pray for the ministry and support it.
 
“I think Alkarma TV is the best tool ever to reach the Arabic people and change their minds and hearts,” he replied. “It is hard for Christian people to go to the Middle East and talk with the people there about Jesus Christ, but through the media we can do this.”

I then asked Samuel what had been the key for Alkarma TV’s astonishing growth.

“The key is that we are seeking the Lord, and only the Lord; and we give Him all the glory,” he said. “Our only goal is to preach the Gospel to every Arabic speaking person in North America and now the world. That’s what we do and we believe that God wants us to continue doing this. We face a lot of challenges, including financial ones, but each time we face a challenge, we go on our knees and pray and we trust God and He gets us through any situation.”

I concluded by asking Mona if she had any regrets in launching out Alkarma TV and she replied, “Never, never! I would never regret serving God. It’s an honor and a privilege that God chose people like us to serve Him. None of us is worthy to serve God, but I will never in my life regret serving Him because many people are praying and dreaming of serving God but they don’t know how and they are desperate to do so.

“It’s an amazing thing to see how God can use people like us to preach the Gospel to millions who are thirsty and who are desperate; who are on the verge of committing suicide or dealing with family or drug problems. It is a great privilege to reach them with the only message that can give them salvation and hope, which is knowing Christ as their personal Savior.”
If you would like further information on Alkarma TV or make a donation, go to their website which is: www.alkarmatv.com.

Note: I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.