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"I couldn't think of exactly what I should do, but I was praying day and night until on January 11th, 2002, when God spoke to my heart and said, 'You have to reach out to these people. You have to go to their homes and preach the Gospel to them.' I couldn't think exactly how I could do this, but I did know that the only one who can save them is Jesus. He is the Savior. Nobody else could do anything. No weapons, nothing, only Jesus could save. So God spoke to my heart (that) through satellite television (we) can do this."
(Southern California)—An Egyptian-born couple now living in America were so shocked when 9/11 occurred, that they started an Arabic Christian TV channel in their garage that is reaching out with the Good News to millions of Arabic speakers.
Samuel and Mona Estefanos, both originally from Egypt, watched the horrific events of 9/11 and were led by God to create a broadcasting enterprise to reach Muslims. They told their incredible story to international journalist Dan Wooding on a recent edition of Front Page radio on KWVE 107.9 FM in Los Angeles.
The Estefanos' had recently moved to the United States from Cairo, Egypt when they saw the events of September 11th unfold on television.
Samuel told Wooding he was watching TV and was absolutely shocked beyond words at what he saw…. The experience led Samuel to do something to reach the Arabic-speaking people of America. "That day I felt that it's wrong; we don't have to stay calm; and we cannot stay as we are because that's satan... we have the Truth, we have the Light, and we have to get it out. We have to fight satan. We have to stand in the gap; we have to say the Truth. We have to save people from him.
"So, since that day, my life was changed and I was praying—my wife and me—and I couldn't think of exactly what I should do, but I was praying day and night until on January 11th, 2002, when God spoke to my heart and said, 'You have to reach out to these people. You have to go to their homes and preach the Gospel to them.' I couldn't think exactly how I could do this, but I did know that the only one who can save them is Jesus. He is the Savior. Nobody else could do anything. No weapons, nothing, only Jesus could save. So God spoke to my heart (that) through satellite television (we) can do this."
Samuel said that he tried to get some friends involved but nobody seemed to be interested.
"Mona did you think your husband was going crazy or what?" Wooding asked.
"Not really! When he shared with me the vision, I was shocked with the idea itself. I felt like it was way too big to think of, but he said, 'Let's pray about it and seek God's will and see what God wants,' and when we went further and further in prayer, and we realized that it was God's will, and I knew that he had to do what God was leading him to do. It was a big thing, but this is God."
The Estefanos' had to take out a huge mortgage to try to get the TV station off the ground. They decided to move it into the garage of their home in Southern California.
Samuel said, "I started thinking and praying and then took some courses in video editing, broadcasting, financial planning, and business management. I didn't know exactly what I would do until 2004. Some nights I couldn't sleep at all and it was something like a fire inside my heart. I knew that I had to do something.
"I finally decided, after much prayer that I would start from the garage. I would convert our three-car garage into a TV station and start recording programs in the Middle East. That's what I did. I mortgaged my house, converted the garage, and started from there. (I thought) nobody else will support what I am doing, because they said it was crazy...."
…So, suddenly, from the Estefanos' garage in a quiet neighborhood in Southern California, they're broadcasting initially to the Arabic speaking people of North America.
Samuel called it Alkarma TV.
"Alkarma means the vine (or) the vineyard. That's what came to my mind as I was praying about it. I liked this name, and it's His (Gods') channel. As it says in the Gospel of John 15:5, 'I am the Vine, you are the branches: He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing.' I don't call it anybody else's channel; it's not my channel, it's His," Estefanos said.
The couple was broadcasting out of the garage and suddenly they got terrible news. An official of the city, where they live, told them that they could not run a business out of their home. It looked like the end of the ministry.
"When you got the news that you had to move and you didn't have the money to move or the money to run it, what happened?" Wooding asked.
"It was very shocking. I was actually crying, but we prayed and we submitted the situation to God and we said, 'God, if this is the time for this ministry to stop, it's Your ministry not ours; we take it from You, and You take it from here,'" said Mona.
"But God's plan was greater because at that moment we had just sold a townhouse and took that money and put it in a warehouse that had been sitting there since March; that was in September. So we started working on the place so that we would be able to move in. We kept asking the city officials and praying to God for an extension since we already had the warehouse that we would be moving into. So we finally got an extension, but there was a little bit of fund raising that we had to do (so) that we could get enough money for the basics to finish the building. It was miracle after miracle."
Used by Permission of Assist News Service / www.assistnews.net
Source: ASSIST News Service
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