Iranian seekers have stunned the Farsi language channel of Christian satellite TV network SAT-7 with their overwhelming response to a chat room launched on Telegram, a new secure messaging app.
SAT-7 is being inundated with 2,000 messages a day from viewers in Iran and has seen over 60,000 downloads of the Bible in whole or in part since it opened a Telegram chat room in September 2015.
A woman from Tehran wrote: ‘Hello, dear people at SAT-7. Thanks for accepting me into the Telegram group. I was very lonely in my faith and now here in this group I can talk freely about Jesus ... Thank you for introducing me to other Christian friends. I really appreciate it. God bless you.’
Despite Iran’s use of intimidation against Iranians who turn to Christ from Islam, over 1.7 million Iranians* watch SAT-7 PARS, the network’s Farsi-language TV channel.
Thousands contact it seeking spiritual, practical and emotional help, ranging from advice on how to become a Christian to seeking prayer for freedom from addictions. But phone calls and text messages sent in Iran regularly attract warnings from the authorities while social media platforms such as Facebook are illegal and frequently blocked.
Protecting identities
In contrast, Telegram allows users to protect their identities and enables SAT-7 to offer programmes and Bible downloads and converse with viewers securely.
‘We had over 1,000 downloads of a Bible book or complete Bible after one week’, said Benjamin Parsa, Audience Relations Manager of SAT-7 PARS.
