Mission Trip | June 8-15, 2023

Mission Trip | June 8-15, 2023

Dates: June 8, 2023 – June 15, 2023 

Leaders: Nelson & Tanya Amador

Participants: OPEN REGISTRATION

Services: This trip will likely have dental, medical and optical services for refugees.

Trip Description

Offer your own time to make a difference in a refugee’s life. Refugees didn’t just escape a place. They had to escape a thousand memories until they’d put enough time and distance between them and their misery to wake to a better day.

DO SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING POWERFUL
Join us on for an impactful six days of service in Costa Rica where your gifts will be used to lighten the load of vulnerable families who have fled their own countries. Were you born in a safer place than refugees? Why not draw on your own freedoms and blessings to help those who faced danger, left, and have now arrived in Costa Rica.

More than 500,000 Nicaraguans have left Nicaragua in the last four years, weary and burdened with the dangerous situation in their homeland.

Most who cross the border arrive with little more than the clothes on their backs and their personal story of how they escaped Ortega’s violent repression against the defenseless citizens of Nicaragua.

In response to this migration crisis Corner of Love has established a headquarters close to the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border to provide relief. Every day more refugees arrive from Nicaragua, and some also come from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Angola, and other nations. The refugees are usually tired, hungry, and emotionally raw. Most are experiencing the devastating sadness of leaving behind their home and loved ones.

Help us show Jesus’ love for them and lend a hand to those seeking to resettle elsewhere. This group will stay near Dreams Las Mareas in Costa Rica and each participant purchases their own flight into LIR, Liberia, Costa Rica. (Alternatively, you may arrive in San José (SJO) and take your own transportation to our headquarters, which is 5 hours from SJO airport.)

Each trip participant will volunteer daily to organize supplies and set up Corner of Love’s Relief Center to serve migrant families. All team members will have the opportunity to meet and pray with refugees on their journey. Our group will provide clothing, medicine, towels, blankets, toiletries, and bibles to hundreds during the mission trip.

Since 2000 Corner of Love has been providing humanitarian aid to Nicaraguans in need, leading as many as 30 medical-dental-optical groups per year.
We are needed now more than ever. We hope you’ll join us!

Trip Cost

  • $100 envelope for Costa Rica spending money for tips/Left Right Center game/ice cream/treats in town (all optional).
  • $1650 payable in the U.S. (We welcome additional fundraising for our Relief Center. [Additional $500 fundraising goal for refugee medicine suggested, but not required. Corner of Love operates a full Rx pharmacy and all treatments are dispensed free of charge to refugees.] This amount ($1650 + any additional fundraising) is 100% tax deductible in the U.S.)

All team members may solicit 100% tax deductible donations in connection with their $1650 trip cost payable in the U.S. by using Corner of Love’s EIN No. 36-4612230. These contributions must include a note with the traveler’s name. For more information contact trips@corneroflove.org.

Suggested Itinerary

Your city-LIR (Liberia, Costa Rica)

  • ARRIVAL DAY: June 8, 2023
  • DEPARTURE DAY: June 15, 2023

All team members buy their own plane ticket and give Corner of Love a copy of their flight itinerary. ANY flight arriving and departing on the indicated dates is fine. It is okay to register for a trip before purchasing airfare, just indicate “not yet booked” and send when you buy your plane ticket.

Alternative Itinerary (we recommend the SUGGESTED ITINERARY above)

Your city to SJO (San Jose, Costa Rica)

Alternatively, you could fly in or out of San Jose and take a bus to or from Liberia/La Cruz. Note that this route takes 4.5 – 5 hours or more, as you will need to travel by land to La Cruz. You would likely need to arrive a day or more before the suggested arrival day.

Early Arrivals to Costa Rica /Later Departures from Costa Rica

Costa Rica has much to offer as far as tourism. For Corner of Love it is no problem if you choose to fly in before the suggested arrival day or stay after the suggested departure day. Corner of Love does not meet travelers who arrive one or more days before the suggested arrival date, unless there is a group of people and a need to collect numerous mission-donations suitcases. In that case, we may send a driver to only pick-up the cargo. This needs to be arranged and requests should be communicated to trips@corneroflove.org after registering for the trip.

At the request of participants, here are a few tips about Liberia-area accommodations:

Many team members choose to come in one day early to rest a bit before the mission starts. We recommend HILTON LIBERIA for this. They have a free shuttle from the airport. On most trips at least one or two Corner of Love participants opt to stay at the HILTON before the mission start date. If you book at the HILTON, plan on taking their free shuttle (let them know you are arriving) and take your mission cargo luggage to the hotel.

For those who want to do some shopping in Liberia, we recommend BEST WESTERN LIBERIA, which is right across the street from Liberia Walmart. (Shuttle to/from airport available for a fee).

For those who like mountain and National Park activities, zip lining, animals, and authentic Costa Rican outdoor fun, we can suggest hotels in the Fortuna/Arenal and Rincon de la Vieja areas.

If you are looking for a beach holiday, there are HUNDREDS of choices. We would be glad to share tips about staying at Tamarindo or Guanacaste-area beaches.

Contacts for trip questions

Before registering:

Ask questions via text: (206) 419-1133
Email: Trips@corneroflove.org

Meetings

If you’d like to attend informational meetings about this trip, please send an email to trips@corneroflove.org for dates and locations of Team Meetings

Cargo

For those in Washington State – Schedule pick-up of luggage at Maple Valley Western Washington Chapter Office: trips@corneroflove.org or (425) 432-0433

For those in the Houston-area – Schedule pick-up of luggage at Kingwood COL Corporate Office: (206) 954-6203

For Trip Participants originating from elsewhere (not Texas or Washington State) please collect donations and pack in your two suitcases. Use this list to know what donations to seek: What’s Needed – Costa Rica

Forms & Links

Connect-through-Houston Option

Are you an international Corner of Love partner?

This week of mission offers the option of flying first from your city to Houston, where Corner of Love can provide pre-packed mission cargo and/or meet with you, depending on your fly-in date.

This is often a convenient way for our international team members who are attending the mission week from the U.K., Japan, Canada, or Bermuda to pit-stop for one or more days in Texas before continuing on to Liberia, Costa Rica.
Reasons to arrange travel this way might be:

  1. You prefer to carry cargo already packed by Corner of Love (full of donations to distribute to refugees).
  2. You would like a day or two to shop in the Houston area prior to or after your trip.
  3. You are coming to the mission from a place other than your home airport and cannot collect donations on your own.
  4. You plan to fly United, which offers a direct flight from Houston to LIR (Liberia, Costa Rica) and LIR to IAH (Houston Intercontinental Airport).

For more information about this possibility, email trips@corneroflove.org.

Corner of Love Ministries
PO Box 5997
Kingwood, Texas 77325-5997

(206) 419-1133