Charlie Costa

Insight for Living Arabic

In 1998, Pastor Chuck and Cynthia Swindoll invited Charlie Costa to serve as Insight for Living (IFL) Arabic’s pastor and radio voice. The next year, our Arabic-language program, Nafitha Ala l’Hayat, “Window to Life” in English, launched onto the airwaves through Trans World Radio. The broadcast is available to listeners in the Middle East and North Africa through the IFL Arabic website and our mobile app. It has the potential to reach more than 400 million Arabic-speaking people around the world. Remarkably, several churches of new believers have even sprung up in the Middle East because of the broadcast! Christians living in countries closed to the gospel thrive on biblical resources they can find via IFL Arabic. Many listeners contact the ministry with follow-up questions via IFL Arabic’s mobile app and social media.

Because of recent economic hardships in Lebanon and the influx of 2.5 million Syrian and Iraqi refugees, IFL Arabic has had unprecedented opportunities to share the gospel and offer biblical counseling.

Charlie and Mona Costa

As a prominent Arabic-speaking evangelical leader who comes from a family with a strong legacy in ministry, Charlie Costa already had a heart and vision for reaching Arabic-speakers with God’s Word. That’s why he jumped at the opportunity to join IFL Arabic when Pastor Chuck and Cynthia invited him to record the program and establish an office in Lebanon. For decades, Charlie had served as pastor for a local church in Beirut, in addition to leading IFL Arabic, but, in 2022, he stepped aside to focus more on IFL Arabic. He continues to preside as judge of the Family Court for the Evangelical Community in Lebanon. He served for several years as the chairman of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary and worked to train leaders and plant churches throughout the Middle East. Furthermore, Charlie mentors pastors and utilizes the Arabic version of the Searching the Scriptures pastor-training curriculum. Charlie’s wife, Mona, has served for many years with a ministry to abused girls.

Grace is often a foreign concept to Muslims who make up the majority of Arabic speakers across the world, so it is IFL Arabic’s passion to help them find truth and internal peace through Christ, despite the external tumult of the world.

Country

• Lebanon

Language

• Arabic