CBM Africa Team: Jose Da Silva

Rev. Jose Da Silva preaching in Quimpondo, Angola

We are very grateful for our friends and colleagues that make up the Canadian Baptist Ministries'  (CBM) Africa team. Last year, we wrote a series of blog posts introducing the CBM national staff serving with us in Kenya and Rwanda. Over the next six months, we look forward to introducing you to our Canadian field staff and colleagues serving in Africa.

Jose Da Silva is a strategic associate who serves part time as an integral mission consultant with many our French and Portuguese speaking partner churches in Brazil, Rwanda, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Jose and his wife, Johanne Gosselin, live in Montreal, Canada, with their two daughters. Along with his work with CBM, he also leads the "Multicultural Mission in Action" (AMM) in Montreal. AMM is a ministry of the French Baptist Union reaching out to refugees and immigrant communities in Montreal. Since Jose founded this outreach about thirteen years ago, AMM has made a vital impact among mostly Latin American refugees who have come to Canada in search  of a new beginning.

Jose knows what it means to start over in a new country. Born in Lisbon, Portugal, Jose moved to Angola when he was four years old and spent the next twenty years of his life living in Luanda where his father served as a Brethren minister and managed a coffee export company. With the end of the Portuguese Colony of Angola in 1974, Jose's family had to leave everything behind. They travelled back to Portugal and then to Canada where they resettled. 

One gift of living through such transitions, is the remarkable linguistic ability Jose developed. He speaks and writes in Portuguese, Spanish, French and English.

In 2012, Jose was asked to assist CBM in our response to the humanitarian crisis in Hatti. From that time, he began to serve as a strategic associate of CBM and today is assisting in areas of capacity building and theological education among several of our partner churches, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Angola. 

"I believe that I can be of help in areas of pastoral training and helping Bible Schools improve contextualized curriculum," shared Jose, who is beginning a three year project of assisting the ITECHA seminary in Cabinda, Angola. 

Jose is passionate about helping churches understand and embrace holistic ministry.  He sees the work of evangelism, social transformation, and ecological stewardship as deeply related and essential for the holistic witness of the Church. 

Please pray for our friend Jose, for his family, and for the great work that he is leading in Montreal and with our African partner churches. We especially pray for his safety as he travels to remote areas, and for the effectiveness of the training and leadership development that he is directly involved with.