I watch all of your live shows. Sometimes I watch for 4-5 hours a day. I owe the changes in my life to SAT‑7’s programs; I don’t have any other source, as I have no Christian friends and no Bible."
— Lebanon
Almost 20 years ago, Pastor Nihad Hassan discovered that God could transform even a prison cell into a place of hope and healing. He shared his story with SAT-7 ARABIC, never knowing that, years later, his testimony would follow him into another prison this summer and change lives across the region.
In 2008, Nihad was jailed in his native Syria. As a political prisoner, he spent 55 days in solitary confinement: a space just three feet by three feet.
Nihad was already on a journey towards faith when he entered prison. But it was in solitary confinement that his belief became something profound and personal, and he experienced both physical and emotional healing.
“In that place, I heard the voice of the Lord,” he said. “He told me He loved me. I regard these as the best days of my life because in this place I was comforted and knew the Lord.”
In 2024, Nihad, now a pastor in Lebanon, told the story of his incarceration on SAT-7 ARABIC’s My Life Journey. Across social media, the episode attracted thousands of views and hundreds of comments.
But this is not the story of Nihad’s first imprisonment, nor is it about the extraordinary faith he found behind bars. It is about how far a testimony, once shared, can travel. And the lives it can touch and change along the way…
Questioned and Questions
In summer 2026, Nihad returned to Syria from Lebanon with his wife and children. He wanted his children to know the land their family came from, to see relatives and friends separated by years of war, and to explore how he might serve believers in the region.
But on July 20, while visiting Afrin, Nihad was detained once more and questioned about his Christian faith and activities. Although no charges were brought against him, Nihad was held for two weeks in prison.
On his arrival, the prison director asked who he was.
“I’m Pastor Nihad Hassan, pastor of the Kurdish Church,” Nihad replied.
The story could have stopped there. But the prison director was intrigued: he looked up his detainee on the internet. And right there was the SAT-7 video interview.
Soon, Nihad’s story was making its way around the prison. One prisoner told Nihad he had stayed up until three in the morning watching his interviews. Others recognized him from Facebook reels.
As the inmates began asking about his beliefs, Nihad answered all their questions.
He spoke about Jesus. He talked about his faith. When one prisoner asked the pastor to help reconcile him with others following a disagreement, Nihad spoke to them of forgiveness.
Uniting the Church
While he was incarcerated, SAT-7 reshared a clip from his 2024 interview. The response was extraordinary: over 15,000 reactions, more than 1,600 comments, and over 800 shares.
Churches, Christian leaders, and individuals began sharing his story and praying. Nihad’s wife received messages of support from around the world: “We really are one body,” she told SAT-7.
Nihad knew almost nothing of this during his two weeks of imprisonment. It wasn’t until his release that he discovered what had been happening beyond the prison walls.
Before his return to Syria, he had been praying about his future. “Is my own part perhaps finished? Is it time for God to raise up others?” he had wondered.
But when Nihad emerged from prison, he found that God had used his story to unite the Church…
“Assyrian, Chaldean, Maronite, Orthodox, Evangelical. There was one call: the release of Pastor Nihad Hassan,” he marvels, speaking to SAT-7’s Marianne Awaraji during a second interview recorded shortly after his release in August 2026.
“How could the son of a poor man, from a small village, cause the whole Church to unite? I never thought one day that the Lord would use me in this way.”
The Opportunities of Media
Seeing this response is why Nihad views media as such a powerful tool: “We can use it to spread the Word– any opportunity it gives us. Perhaps we put out one word, perhaps one sentence from the Gospel.”
“We never know who will pick up our testimony,” he adds.
In 2024, SAT-7 gave one man a platform to share what God had done in the darkness of a prison cell. That testimony reached thousands, encouraged a man on his own journey of faith, traveled back into prison, opened conversations about Christ, and helped unite believers across the region.
“I came to faith because of my brother Nihad,” says a SAT-7 viewer from Lebanon. “He was the first Kurd I knew who had received Christ. Seeing him greatly encouraged me.”
We can never know how far our testimony may travel, whose life it might touch, or when words spoken years ago might suddenly reach the place they are needed most.
Like Pastor Nihad, we can only tell our story, and trust God with where it goes next.
