Twenty-six new episodes are in production for the Arabic-language Nazarene program that debuted on a Christian TV channel in the Middle East last fall. Producers are also adding English subtitles to 13 of the previously produced episodes.
The new episodes of Aktar Min Kalam (More Than Words) will round out a year’s worth of weekly broadcasts on SAT-7. With that complete, Ayman Kafrouny, World Mission Broadcast Arabic coordinator, has turned his attention to translating the finished programs into English for North American audiences.
Nine episodes have been translated, and he plans to complete and deliver a total of 13 episodes subtitled in English to the U.S.A. by the end of April. The subtitled episodes will air on Al Karma TV (The Vine TV), a free Arabic-language cable station available on the Verizon network in the United States.
Many families of Arabic descent in North America have parents or grandparents who speak Arabic and children who speak English, he said. Parents have told him, “Our kids love your songs, but sometimes they don’t understand the things you say between the songs.”
If the programs include English subtitles, then several generations in each family can watchAktar Min Kalam together.
Kafrouny dreams of also subtitling the program into Spanish.
“We know in Argentina and in Venezuela and Brazil-many countries-we have a big population of Arabic-speaking people,” he said. “If we can have any access to stations where we can broadcast this program in Arabic and put the translation in Spanish, this would be an idea. This is maybe an option we can use for the future.”
Formerly a secular singer and songwriter popular with Arabic-speaking people around the world, Kafrouny developed and launched Aktar Min Kalam in November 2009. Each 30-minute program features testimonies, interviews, discussions, music, and biblical teaching on a different theme. The target audience is Christian Arabic young people.
To see episodes of the show streamed on the Internet, visit www.sat7.org. The program is aired five times a week on SAT-7.
