Hope Academy
Mission Statement

To assist the children with education
To help each child develop their God given gifts and talents
To encourage Christ-like attitudes and character
To encourage a personal relationship with Jesus Christ

History:
Our work in Costa Rica started in April 2016 when Pastor and Ruth went to Costa Rica for a holiday. While they were there they met Andres and Nancy during breakfast at the Resort. After talking for awhile they learned that a fire had gone through a little ‘village’ in Alajuela near San Jose and approximately 70 families had lost their homes and the Church in the community had been burned as well, but the Church was trying to help their neighbors with food and other necessities. The Church was running out of resources and Pastor felt that he should help them. After arriving back in Mississauga Pastor presented the need to the Church and everyone was willing to help them financially get food and eventually build the Church.
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That first ‘holiday’ was the beginning of many trips and before long we had a group of excited people who wanted to go to Costa Rica to provide a Christmas dinner and a Christmas party for the children in the ‘village’. Nine excited people (Pastor, Ruth, Tom, Sue, Carlos, Cristina, Sophia, Margaret, and Martha) left Mississauga and we were later joined by Lynnette from Houston and Pilar from Columbia. Excitement was running at an all time high as we cleaned the area of garbage so that we could have a safe place for the kids to play.  Cleaning was never so much fun and to be honest, this place never looked so clean.

The next day the ladies in the group shopped, bought tables and chairs, food, gifts and wrapped gifts, and the men did construction work and built the now famous bridge! For the next few days the anticipation built as the kids were so excited to have someone to play with and pay attention to them and our group developed a bond with each of these kids that was indescribable. Saturday finally arrived and the excitement and happiness was almost tangible. One hundred and fifty kids showed up for the party and food and there was hardly standing room only!!!

The place was loud with kids laughter and happiness that could not be measured! Between the Christmas dinner and the kid’s party we fed approximately 150 people.