The Meaning of Christmas

Barbara Rainey

Barbara Rainey is a wife, mother of six adult children (plus three sons-in-law and two daughters-in-law), and “Mimi” to nineteen grandchildren.

After graduating from the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, Barbara joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ in 1971. She and her husband, Dennis, whom she married in 1972, are co-founders of FamilyLife, a ministry of Cru that is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Barbara has published articles on family-related topics and is the author of Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember and When Christmas Came.  She speaks at FamilyLife’s Weekend to Remember® marriage conferences and is a frequent guest on FamilyLife Today®, a nationally syndicated, daily radio program.  She and Dennis are the coauthors of several books, including Growing a Spiritually Strong Family, Starting Your Marriage Right, Moments Together for Couples, The New Building Your Mate’s Self-Esteem, Parenting Today’s Adolescent, Rekindling the Romance, and Moments with You. She co-authored A Mother’s Legacy with her daughter, Ashley Rainey Escue and joined Dennis and their children Rebecca and Samuel on the book So You’re About To Be A Teenager. Barbara has also co-authored Barbara and Susan’s Guide to the Empty Nest, with close friend Susan Yates, and A Symphony in the Dark, written with her daughter, Rebecca Rainey Mutz. And Barbara has written a series focusing on character traits for families, including the titles Growing Together in Gratitude, Growing Together in Courage, Growing Together in Forgiveness, and Growing Together in Truth.

Having faithfully served alongside Dennis for more than 30 years, both in ministry and at home, Barbara has recently launched a new endeavor called Ever Thine Home™.  This new line of products, including Christ centered ornaments for Christmas, teaching tools for Lent and Easter, and beautiful additions for your home for thanksgiving and year round makes it easy to express faith at home in a way that is both biblical and beautiful.  Her heart for Ever Thine Home is based on the familiar Old Testament instruction:
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:9, ESV)

You can read more about Barbara’s work at EverThineHome.com.

Find Barbara online on:
Twitter @BarbaraRainey and Facebook facebook.com/raineybarbara

Radio Shema

Radio Shema started an broadcasting 24/7 via FM radio in Ankara, Turkey in 1999.  When it first started, there were only about 2,500 Christians in all of Turkey, which had a 70 million population.  Today Turkey’s population is close to 80 million, including the 4 million refugees, and only about 4,500 Christians country wide.  Radio Shema now has three stations: Ankara FM 98.0 reaching 10 million people, Samsun FM 98.0  reaching 3 million people and newly opened Antalya FM 93.5 reaching 2.3 million people.  Total Radio Shema is now reaching 15% of the Turkish populations.  To learn more about Radio Shema write to: radioshema@radioshema.net or check out their website at www.radioshema.com (click British flag for English)

Our Vision is to reconcile people to God by presenting them with a true understanding about God and what He has done for us through Jesus Christ.

Our Mission is to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Turkish speaking world in a clear and understandable way using programming produced and broadcasted in Turkish.

Terence Ascott

Terence “Terry” Ascott has lived in the Middle East and served as the leader for indigenous media ministries for more than 40 years. In 1973 Terry moved to Beirut, Lebanon and worked to launch an Arabic Christian publishing ministry. After the start of the Lebanese Civil War, Terry and his family evacuated to Egypt. In Egypt Terry launched an Arabic youth magazine called “Magalla”. This was the first Christian magazine to be successfully distributed on newsstands, in more than a dozen Arab counties. “Magalla” was published for over two decades and was, for many, their first exposure to the Christian faith.

While working on the magazine, Terry’s ministry became involved in other media projects including video production. In 1995 he, along with Middle Eastern Christian leaders and around twenty partner organizations working in the region, launched SAT-7: The first Arabic language Christian satellite television channel. The channel was a pioneer in many areas, breaking ground for other ministries to follow. In the years since its launch, SAT-7 has grown from a two-hour a week broadcast, to a network of five 24-hour channels: SAT-7 ARABIC (Arabic Christian programming for every age group), SAT-7 KIDS (the first and currently the only Arabic Christian channel for children), SAT-7 PLUS (The best Arabic programming from the other channels, broadcast to a different audience, over a different satellite), SAT-7 PARS (a 24 hour channel in Farsi/Persian, with some programming in Dari for Afghanistan) and SAT-7 TÜRK (Christian programming for 100 million Turkish-speakers in the region).

SAT-7 has more than 170 employees, mostly Middle Eastern nationals, who work in its offices and studios in Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Cyprus and the UK.

Terry holds a first class B.Sc. in Civil Engineering, with Honours, from Middlesex University, England. In December 2011, he was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Christian Ministries degree from Belhaven University “for extraordinary work and achievements in promoting Christianity throughout the Middle East and North Africa.”

He and his wife Jacqueline live in Nicosia, Cyprus and have three grown children and two grandchildren.