30 May 2022
The pioneering Christian media work of SAT-7 Founder and President, Dr Terence Ascott, has been recognised in the presentation of a Labib Madanat Kingdom Impact Award.
The award honours “men and women whose self-sacrificing and courageous endeavours have conferred eternal benefit on thousands and thousands of people in the Greater Middle East, helping them on their journey to faith in Jesus Christ”. It was presented to Dr Ascott in recognition of his more than 45 years’ leadership in media ministries in the Middle East and North Africa, including heading SAT-7 from its founding in 1995 until 2019.
Dr Ascott was presented with the award in Stockholm, Sweden on 19 May by the Strategic Resource Group, a SAT-7 funding partner. The honour is named after Labib Madanat, a much-respected Jordanian-Palestinian Christian who for many years was senior leader of the three Bible Societies in the Holy Land and died in November 2021.
“It was humbling to receive such an award,” said Dr Ascott. “Especially when I know so many other faithful believers in the Middle East and North Africa whom I would consider far more deserving of any such recognition.”
Speaking at a SAT-7 Dare to Believe! event in Bristol last weekend (28 May) Ascott said the arrival of satellite television in the Arab world at the start of the 1990s was “too good an opportunity to miss”. Television was no longer in the full control of national governments and the possibility of a Christian channel would allow the Gospel to travel across borders and into the homes of millions.
The event was the first of several Dare to Believe! meetings being held around the country at which Dr Ascott is sharing stories from his book of the same name. Upcoming events are in Bromley, Kent on 18 June and Bangor, N Ireland on 8 October.
From broadcasting two-hours weekly in Arabic in 1996, SAT-7 has grown to four channels producing 3,000 hours of programmes a year in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. “When we began, we might have imagined one 24-hour channel with segments from the different languages, but we would never have imagined four 24-hour channels,” Ascott said.
“And I haven’t started talking about the digital platforms we could never have dreamed of. When I think about how this happened, it is all through God’s faithfulness.”
For details of Dare to Believe events go to sat7uk.org/daretobelieve
