A supporting Seventh-day Adventist Church ministry will launch the denomination’s first Arabic-language television program on December 11.

The new channel, LLBN Arabic, will begin broadcast December 18 through the Loma Linda Broadcasting Network and is scheduled to include spiritual programs as well as health and musical features. Most programming will be recorded at LLBN Studios in Loma Linda, California, United States.

“This will be a joyous time of prayer and praise to God,” said Ganim Hanna, LLBN president and CEO. “We will thank Him for empowering us to begin this historic new outreach to the Arabic-speaking world.”

LLBN’s Arabic division chairman, Lawrence Geraty, said the Middle East holds a significant percentage of the world’s population that is often neglected in outreach efforts.

“The Seventh-day Adventist Church holds many common values with Arabic people,” Geraty said. “This is a ministry that can reach these people through television—a medium that virtually everyone can access in the Middle East.”

The programs will initially be distributed through Internet streaming, including DVD-quality PCTV, and IPTV, a revolutionary method of receiving televised broadcasts via a box connected to an Internet port. By eliminating the need for a computer and going direct to television, IPTV programs are accessible to more people, board members said.

LLBN is nearly 12 years old and now broadcasts 24/7. The network is entirely viewer-supported. Hanna said board directors are taking “an enormous leap of faith in launching the new channel.” As funding becomes available, LLBN Arabic plans to expand to a direct-to-home satellite that is popular in the Middle East.

For more information see www.llbn.tv.