Joseph Costa
Encyclopedia
- This article is about a Lebanese evangelist, who ministered to Christian Arabs in the Middle East, the United States, and throughout the world. For the American news photographer, see Joseph Costa (photographer)Joseph Costa (photographer)Joseph Costa was an American newspaper photographer and founder of the National Press Photographers Association....
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Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, Joseph Massoud Costa was born on June 7, 1931, in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. Joseph, born "Yousef" was the third of six children, born to Massoud Yousef Costa and Saada Simaan Ghantous. A self-made man, Joseph took on the surrogate responsibilities for his father who often gambled and came home penniless. As a teenager, Joseph worked as a tailor, creating custom-made clothing to help his family financially. In 1956, he believed he was called to the ministry. With the help of Dr. James Ragland, a Southern Baptist missionary working in Lebanon at the time, he planted a church in the Ras Beirut area of the city of Beirut. On June 7, 1957, he married Nawal Anis Haddad. They had four sons, Charles http://ifl.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=Intl_Arabic&JServSessionIdr009=swt2zqcxm2.app5b (1958), William (1961), Dori (1967) and Roy http://www.roy.costabrothers.net/ (1972). In 1959, he was ordained as the pastor of this fledgling church. He then, having finished his sophomore year at Haigazian College http://www.haigazian.edu.lb/, went to the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary http://www.abtslebanon.org to pursue a diploma in Theology. He was elected president of the Lebanese Baptist Convention in 1963-1965. In 1970, on the thirteenth anniversary of his selection as pastor of the Ras Beirut Baptist Church, he resigned. He went back to Haigazian College to complete a B.A. degree in English literature which he completed in 1971. He oversaw the work of Clarion Publishing House until December 1975 when he had to flee the Lebanese civil war
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...
. During the first few months of the war, the family home was burglarized and bombed. He took his family and went to Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
from where the whole family immigrated to the United States in 1976. After living in Mobile
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
for a few months upon arrival, he moved to the Northeast and pastored an evangelical group of Arabic-speaking Christians in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. He lived in south New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
until his death.
Joseph Costa died on May 8, 1989 from complications related to cancer and is buried in Blackwood, New Jersey.
During his life he translated a number of books into the Arabic language including the musical Christmas Cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
"Night of Miracles" by John W. Peterson
John W. Peterson
John W. Peterson was a songwriter who had a major influence on evangelical Christian music in the 1950s through the 1970s. He wrote over 1000 songs, and 35 cantatas....
. He translated many of the classical hymns to Arabic such as, "I Don't Know About Tomorrow," "On a Hill Far Away," "Cum Bya My Lord," and many others. His lyrics can be found on Intisar http://www.intisar.org (or "Victory") website. He also authored a number of books: "Apples of Gold" vol. 1 & 2, "Explosive Letters", "Personalities of the Bible", "Removing the Mask", "Christ is Coming Again", "Marriage: Heaven or Hell", "The Bible: Is It The Word of God?"
He was a widely used conference speaker in the US, Canada, Australia and the Middle East. He was heard weekly on "The Hour of the Harvest" the Arabic broadcast of LifeWord http://www.lifeword.org/radio/programs.html (a ministry of the Baptist Missionary Association of America). The broadcast was heard in the Middle East on TransWorld Radio http://www.twr.org/ broadcasting from Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
and Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
from 1977-1989, and currently on Radio Station HCJB
HCJB
HCJB, "The Voice of the Andes", was the first radio station with daily programming in the South American country of Ecuador and the first Christian missionary radio station in the world. The station was founded in 1931 by Clarence W. Jones, Reuben Larson, and D. Stuart Clark.- History :Radio...
http://www.hcjb.org/.
His sermons can still be heard posthumously at ArabicBible.com http://www.arabicbible.com/audio/costa.htm and his books and sermons in text and audio are available on www.The-Livingword.com http://www.the-livingword.com.
Other pictures of Joseph Massoud Costa: