It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… perhaps in the West. Most of the places where Feba and its partners broadcast, Christmas is not a national holiday. In fact many Christians must celebrate this joyous occasion of Jesus Christ’s birth in the privacy of their homes. Here are some highlights of how Feba is bringing Christmas to the hard-to-reach by radio in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa.

Iraq FM
After the church bombing last year, churches in Baghdad are on high alert, with a general mourning among all Christian churches. “People are allowed to decorate inside their homes, but not allowed to show any decoration or celebrations outside. Only churches are allowed to hold Christmas meetings,” says Noor, Middle East Project Coordinator. “Even some shops have received threats, so there is no outward celebration of Christmas this year. People usually go to church on Christmas and families meet over lunch.”

The FM team in Iraq plans to bring Christmas joy to people by radio directly into their homes. During this season they will be interviewing people in the community with these questions:
• “Do you wish your Christian fellow citizens a “Merry Christmas”? (The background of this question is that in Islam, some fundamentalists forbid Muslims from wishing Christians a “Merry Christmas”.)
• How do you feel this year during Christmas?
• What does it mean for you that Christ was born 2000 years ago? How did this change history?”

Morning Break programme
24 Dec: We will talk about several important historical events and explain how the birth of Christ is the most important one.
26 Dec: What did Jesus mean when he said: “I came to give them a better life?”
31 Dec: Entertainment, news, events, taking phone calls about the most important events of 2011.

How are you Iraq programme
24 Dec: Old Testament prophecies and how they were fulfilled in Jesus.
26 Dec: Importance of Christmas, the purpose of the coming of Jesus and why it is important to have faith in him.
31 Dec: What are the things you were able to accomplish this year? Do you regret anything you did this year? What is your New Year’s resolution? How was this year for you?

Online News programme
25 Dec: Interviewing Iraqi people and explaining how Christmas is celebrated in Baghdad.

Morning of Joy programme
25 Dec: Interviewing someone who experienced the birth of Christ in his life and heart, explaining what it means, “Christ is born in me.”

Middle East short wave
The programmes produced in the Feba Middle East office in Arabic will all include special episodes for Christmas and New Year’s, including the music programme A Word and a Tune that is broadcast once a week. “We’ll also be broadcasting several special segments addressing the various aspects of Christmas,” says Saleh. “We seek to inform our audience about Jesus' virgin birth, which the Koran admits, and we use that to highlight his uniqueness.

“We will also discuss:
- Who is Christ and why he was born?
- Why do we celebrate his birth?
- Did he come for Christians or for the world?
- Christmas as a traditional celebration as opposed to what it really means.”

Afghanistan short wave
For security reasons, you won’t find any Christian traditions in Afghanistan and we don’t name our programmer producers. But radio does break through in this hard-to-reach region. From 20 to 24 December, Feba will be broadcasting in Dari for Afghanistan – 5 half-hour episodes of the audio version of the Jesus Film morning and evening. On 25 December they’ll have a Christmas special morning and evening.

Pakistan
Although the Christian community may be only around 2% of the population, Christians in Pakistan have Christmas day off. This is because 25 December is a national holiday because it is the birth anniversary of Quaid-e-Azam (Great Leader) Muhammad Ali Jinnah, whose tenacity was responsible for the birth of the country.

On FM…
“We will air a live 1-hour programme on FM on 22 December,” says Shahzad. “We will talk about Christmas and about people’s activities at Christmas. I’ve invited guests Professor Ashak Naz ZBI Principal (Zarephath Bible College) and Sammy Lyall (Feba Pakistan) to share their views. We will feature a Christian singer (Mehboob Gill), our listeners’ favourite, who has joined us previously. We’ll also hear recorded clips from different church congregations about how they celebrate Christmas.

We will also air a recorded half-hour programme on 25 December, over a network of 3 FM stations. We’ve sent a CD of the recorded programme to other FM stations for airing on 25th December too.”

On short wave…
“In our daily ZKS (Along with Life) programme in Urdu we will be presenting a Christmas story in narration, then in drama form on 24 and 25 December,” says Saleem. “The New Year’s programmes will be carrying some special messages and best wishes for the listeners.”

Other special Urdu programmes include: Light for the Way drama programme that will present the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Eternal Life programme with a special Christmas Day message, and the Along with Children programme includes a specially produced children’s version of the Christmas story. They will also air a New Year’s special. The Gifts of Songs programme in Urdu will also air special programmes on Christmas and New Year’s Day.

The Sindhi Drama programme on Saturday will present a drama on the birth of Jesus Christ, and the Punjabi True Words programme will also present a message on Christmas.

Central Asia medium wave and web
In Central Asia Russian Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on 7 January. But western influence is responsible for the appearance of Christmas trees, Christmas sales and the giving of small gifts on 24 December. The occasional Santa Claus can be seen – all in a region which is predominantly Muslim. Our team has produced 3 Christmas specials for the radio series that supports believers, looking at the significance of the festival. Besides medium wave radio these will also be made available on a website.

Horn of Africa short wave
Following the ancient Julian calendar, Christians here celebrate Christmas on 7 January. “Usually it is not big holiday like in Europe,” says Dawit. “Even for people who celebrate Christmas it is more of the day of eating, drinking and enjoying in different activities. So the centre of the “holy” day is missed. Our producers are preparing programmes to bring the missed centre into the occasion.”

“One of our producers who is doing programmes in the national language, producing 4 programmes to be aired for 5 weeks, starting 4 weeks before Christmas Day:
1- How people exchange gifts in different cultures and relate how God gave a precious gift to the whole world, Luke 2:7.
2 - Good news proclaimed by angels, Luke 2: 8-12
3 - Birthday song to Jesus, Luke 13-14
4 and 5 – Drama and poetry about the message of salvation and the power of Jesus to save”

Please pray that the Word that people hear during the Christmas broadcasts will bring many to the true centre of Christmas — Jesus Christ.