John & Jill Hutchins

We are the Hutchins Family from White Bear Lake, Minnesota. We are John and Jill, and we have two daughters, Madeline and Mariela. Prior to serving full time in missions, I (John) ran a general contracting company and was in the industry for 17 years and Jill was a high school Spanish teacher for 12 years.

While serving in outreach ministries through our local church we felt a deep calling to go help where families are living in desperate circumstances. Following the example of Jesus, His life, and our calling in Ephesians 5:1 to be “Imitators” of Christ, we left the comforts of home to serve in the mission field for one year. By 2013, after 3 months of serving, we knew that this was where we were supposed to serve, and we knew we were supposed to stay! We served our first year in two different children’s homes and gained the necessary experience to open an outreach of our own. We have been blessed with the opportunity to serve migrant and national families in extreme circumstances through our outreach programs including the Preschool “Pescaditos del Salvador” we founded in 2014.  

Our outreaches include The Mom and Baby program that is composed of 2 groups and serves over 70 mothers and over 120 children.  We visit these groups once a month and assist in education, food security, hygiene, and healthy parenting, each meeting is complete with lessons in Scripture and how it applies to our lives and circumstances.  We have a program for groups who wish to visit and learn about the conditions and needs here called the SOL Retreat.  Our campus has a team house that will serve 12 participants comfortably and is adjacent to the school.  The SOL Retreat program is an opportunity for anyone outside the culture to come and learn about how we operate our programs to Serve Observe and Learn.

The preschool Pescaditos del Salvador (Little Fish of the Savior, Matthew 4:19)  is a venue to share Jesus with the children as well as provide Bible based education, 2 healthy meals and 2 snacks per day, baths, and clean clothes. During the coffee harvest we serve more than 1,300 meals per month, we host between 25-35 children per day.  The preschool also opens a venue to share the love of Jesus to the children’s families by providing for food security, clothing, shoes, cooking items, hygiene products, and child care products as necessary.

As you follow and support these programs through the means available to you; we want to thank you in advance for helping us provide assistance to families who struggle with the most basic needs. We are a 100% give back ministry, every dollar to the ministry goes straight to helping the children and their families. Please feel free to contact us through our website Missiontocostarica.com, Facebook, Instagram, or through Globe!

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” 1 Peter 2:21