Radio website has 1,000 listeners a day
Light and truth are penetrating the darkness in the lands of Islam through a broadcast ministry that reaches a geographic area encompassing a population of millions of Arabic speakers. It all starts in a series of small offices nestled in the middle of one of the United State's largest Arabic-American communities in El Cajon, California.
David Joseph pastors a small Arabic Church in El Cajon, which he planted after immigrating to the United States from Egypt in the early 1990s. His congregation hears powerful sermons in Arabic that encourage, equip and bring the power of God's convicting words straight to the heart. His congregation sings praises in Arabic, led by a gifted worship leader, David Paul, who was born in Iraq. Over 25,000 Iraqis live in San Diego County, many of them in El Cajon, with a total population of 100,000.
Seated on the front row in the sanctuary is Faith Peterson, Paul's sister. She is operating recording equipment, which is capturing every word Joseph speaks. Because of her faithful service, Joseph's message goes far beyond this group of expatriate Iraqis, Egyptians, and Sudanese to the airwaves in the Middle East.
Peterson started volunteering at The Last Harvest Arabic church five years ago, and, in January began working fulltime for The Last Harvest, Inc., formatting and distributing the radio and television broadcasts. One destination for these programs is a 24-hour, 7-day a week streaming radio project in Cairo, which is accessible via the web at www.jesustoday.org. Fifty volunteers in Cairo support this network, which may be the only source of auditory edification for underground churches in countries like Libya. Listeners span 70 countries all over the world. The top four countries are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and the United States.
Ministry workers in Cairo say the website has 1000 listeners daily, and for every three Christian listeners, they estimate one Muslim also hears the broadcast. This estimate is based on live sessions where listeners communicate prayer requests and ask for counseling.
Another destination is High Adventure Ministries, which broadcasts transmissions from a mountain in the Middle East, with a range that covers 100 million people. "People report hearing this in very remote villages in Egypt -- really remote villages," said Joseph. "I was visiting someone in a distant Egyptian village and he said heard me on the radio."
In one radio broadcast, Joseph talks about the difference between Moses and Jesus -- how Jesus was greater than Moses, who said "an eye for an eye." Muslims who listen can contextually relate such biblical teaching to what Mohammed taught, thereby opening a pathway into their hearts to understand the deity of Jesus.
Joseph's sermons also air on a local San Diego television channel in Arabic, reaching local Arabic speakers with the gospel.
Peterson formats the audio files by adding music, intros, background images and doing a lot of editing -- all very time-consuming tasks but par for the course for Peterson. She was trained in computer science after hearing from God that this is what He wanted her to do. In addition to handling the radio and television broadcasts, Peterson is an expert translator who speaks and reads Arabic, Chaldean, and English fluently. She translates documents coming from the ministry's contacts in the Middle East, and is also the ministry's receptionist and Webmaster.
Peterson was raised in the Chaldean (Catholic) Iraqi church. As a young teenager, she fled to Jordan following the Iraqi/Kuwait war, along with her mother, and her six siblings. Her mother's sister joined the family several months later and stayed with an evangelical Christian family. These Christians came to Faith's home one day and found the teenager in terrible pain, and almost dying.
"They saw me and said, 'we will pray for you,'" said Peterson, who was taken to an Islamic hospital. The doctor told the family she was not expected to live.
The Christians told the doctor, "we will pray for her and she will be fine."
Following seven hours of emergency surgery, Peterson shocked the doctor two days later, when he came into her room and found her not only alive, but combing her hair, and reporting no pain. X-rays confirmed the miracle. Peterson told the doctor that God had healed her, and she left the hospital after just five days. "I never went back," she said. The Islamic hospital subsequently did a report about her case, considering it an amazing success.
The Christian couple followed up with Peterson, visiting her and telling her they had given her name to churches asking them to pray for her. Then, they invited her to church.
"I loved the way they talked about Jesus," said Peterson. While at the church, Peterson picked up a book, Let It Not Be My Will, about a woman who wanted to follow the world, and was doing things in the way of the world. "I read that book and said the same prayer the woman in the story prayed," said Peterson. "I believed something happened in my life right away. I started laughing and laughing with joy."
Peterson had often wrestled with many thoughts. She had thoughts of worldly ambition and often lay awake at night thinking about all these things. "After this, I went to bed, and wanted to start thinking those thoughts, but they weren't there. I started looking at everything differently.
"In Jordan we didn't have anything to do. I thought, "why not start reading the Bible?" I read the whole Bible in three months. After that, I asked my brother, Steven, about the Catholic teachings on Mary -- that she had no sin and was resurrected. He said, "yes, that's in the Bible." So, I told him, it's not there. I know, because I've read the whole Bible and it's not there. After that, this Christian man asked my brother to go to church, and he went for the first time and he loved it."
Peterson believes in the importance of spreading the gospel in the Middle East -- not only to the Muslims, but also to Assyrian, Iraqi and Coptic Christians. Some of these precious souls have been raised under the banner of Christianity, but endured teaching that, over the 2,000 year-history of the Middle Eastern Church, through traditions, has subsequently veiled the full revelation of Jesus' sole position as our mediator, savior, and God.
Through the broadcast ministry of The Last Harvest, that veil is being rent by the clear, biblical teaching ringing forth in the beautiful syllables of Arabic across this ancient land.
For more information about The Last Harvest, Inc., visit our main website.
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Faith Peterson, a Christian from Iraq, works in The Last Harvest office in El Cajon, Calif. She formats and produces the ministry's radio and television broadcasts. |
