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St Francis Magazine Vol 9, No 4 | August 2013 ‘messages’ by Khouri and a discussion panel of three Egyptian Christians. Shafir would often have an interview with a North African Christian. 147 The unmistakable Middle Eastern atmosphere of these programs, with presenters from Lebanon and Syria, and sometimes a panel of Egyptians, was not the best choice for a program aimed at North Africa. This impacted the extent to which the programs could speak to the audience in its context. For the listeners, these non-North Africans were foreigners. In spite of this, NAM could write, in 1985, that individuals ‘all over North Africa – some who have never met a Christian believer – have trusted Christ as a result of the Light upon Light broadcast. Several of the church leaders of North Africa were first drawn to the Gospel by the [Light upon Light] program. [And] we are convinced there are many others who have not written us about their faith.’ 148 When RSB decided to broadcast over ELWA again, by the late 1980s, it decided to create worship programs for those unable to have communion with other believers. This program was to contain hymns, prayers and Bible readings. RSB was working on two pilot programs of 15 minutes and two of 30 minutes for evaluation purposes. These programs were done in MSA and colloquial Arabic. The first worship program broadcast by ELWA was on 26 December 1988. This was a 30-minute weekly program in classical and colloquial North African Arabic. 149 This project was cut short by the destruction of ELWA in 1990. 150 Sīkālī’s program Let’s Walk Together used several different people in each program with a linguistic mixture of MSA and colloquial, and a rotation of presenters. The broad goal of the programs was to change the listener’s negative attitude towards Christianity and to encourage the listener to correspond with RSB and to engage in BCC’s. The program was not ‘preachy’, but had a ‘low key’ approach. 151 Path of Life, the programs RSB produced since 1996, maintained the target audience and the program format of Let’s Walk Together. Its aim continued to be ‘to attract Muslim listeners who are not yet ready for extended Bible exposition. The programme is designed to interest them in the person of Christ and allow them to discover that the Bible offers true and satisfying solutions to the problems that trouble them’, RSB reported. The Sīkālīs continued presenting the programs. 152 While NAM’s radio program format and name have changed several times since 1965, the purpose and intent remained largely the same. That was, ‘to present listeners with a Biblical view of life so as to make following Christ a viable and understandable option for their lives’. 153 This ‘Biblical view of life’ of NAM and later of AWM did not entail the idea that the gospel had a socio-political component, as in all of its programs RSB focused on the individual, his relationship with God, and on micro-ethics. Therefore, in its programs, RSB did not address important parts of the context of the people they were speaking to. This meant RSB was silent about an important part of the gospel, but also about a relevant part of the context of the audience. 147 Harris and Sikaly, ‘What’s Happening in 1980’ p. 5. 148 ‘Airwaves for North Africa’, in NAM-Media (Autumn 1985), p. 1. 149 ‘News in Brief’, in Contact (November 1988), p. 1. 150 ‘Electronic Worship for the Arab World’, p. 1. 151 ‘New Arabic Broadcasting!’ in Contact (September 1990), p. 1. 152 ‘Path of Life’, in Contact (April 1996), p. 2. ‘A Modern Nicodemus’, in Contact (February 1997), p. 1. 153 ‘Walking Together’, in Contact (February 1995), p. 2. St Francis Magazine is published by Arab Vision and Interserve 21
St Francis Magazine Vol 9, No 4 | August 2013 5. Audience Response 5.1 Formative Years until 1977 For NAM, the main goal of its radio programs was to get people enrolled in BCC’s. During the 1960s, the BCC’s were popular in North Africa. ‘God is at work in the area today, there is a moving of the Spirit of God’, Gaston reported in a conference of ELWA that he attended in May 1966. Through the radio programs and through handing out brochures in North Africa, RSB received ‘overwhelming response’ for its BCC’s, ‘with over 50,000 students since November 1961’. All correspondents were put in touch with a missionary in his or her neighborhood. Since 1961, 2,870 students had completed the BCC courses that NAM had begun offering through its missionaries in 1961 in Tunis and 1962 in Algeria. These were in French and MSA. Most students preferred to use the French course, not the one in MSA. ‘Some 2000 students indicated they made a decision to follow Christ,’ according to RSB in 1966. 154 In 1967, RSB had 3,000 active BCC students. 155 In 1968, the total number of North African people that had received a first lesson of a BCC had risen to 65,000. Much of this growth in the usage of BCC’s was unrelated to radio programs of RSB though, as in its first report about audience response, RSB said it had received 525 letters only in 1967. 156 In 1969, NAM had mailed the first lesson of its BCC’s to 80,600 North Africans. Of the five different courses, one was specifically designed for Muslims; the others assumed that the students had become Christians. Until 1969, of all students 11,170 had finished at least the first course and 95 percent of all students were Muslims. 157 In 1969, NAM was the main organization working with BCC’s, as can be seen in Figure 1. These details about the BCC’s in the Arab world were supplied by the organizations themselves, in the context of a conference in Beirut where, among other things, follow-up through BCC’s was studied. 158 Organization Response Address # Courses Offered (*) # of Persons Enrolled % Muslims # Persons finished a course % Muslims Middle East Lutheran Mission Beirut 3 50,000 2,5% 4,500 5% Baptist Publications Beirut 2 6,000 60% Manārah Society Beirut 6 (1) 10,000 5,000 Assemblies of God Beirut 5 28,000 60% 6,200 60% Gospel Literature Service Beirut 2 3,300 650 Mideast Baptist Mission Beirut 2 360 80% Operation Mobilization Lebanon Beirut 1 11,000 30% 900 30% Trans World Radio Beirut 6 (1) 245 10% 80 Lebanon Bible Institute Beirut 3 120 12 Youth for Christ Beirut 1 375 85 154 ‘Transcript of Meetings’, pp. 6-7. ‘1964-1989 Acorns to Oak Trees’, p. 1. 155 Johanna Ruffin, ‘Piercing the Heart’, in Contact (April 1996), p. 1. 156 Stalley, No Frontiers, p. 59. 157‘Arabic Bible Correspondence Courses March 1969’, in Raymond H. Joyce (ed), Message to Islam. Report of Study Conference on Literature, Correspondence Courses & Broadcasting in the Arab World including Panel Discussions on Communicating the Gospel to the Muslim (Beirut, 1969), p. 81. 158 Ibid. St Francis Magazine is published by Arab Vision and Interserve 22
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