We have been a Hot Meals church for many years and have helped with the hypothermia prevention shelters since 2009.  One of our members volunteered to secure funding from corporations and other businesses for many years.  Our congregation donates school supplies each summer, helps with the school supply parties, and provides lunches for the children during spring break week.  We never miss the opportunity to invite people to the annual "Opening Doors Benefit Breakfast" and a few members have supported the annual "A Taste of Fall with FACETS" auction since its inception.  More recently, we began  making a monthly financial contribution to support FACETS' efforts to house individuals living in homelessness in Fairfax County.

What do you feel your contribution to FACETS does for the larger community? 

It makes the community a better place to live and work for each person, whether they are in need of the services which FACETS provides or are helping to solve the needs.  We feel our contribution to the County-wide " Ten Year Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness," in cooperation with other agencies, organizations, and faith communities, will do just that; end homelessness.

What is S.P.A. Day and why did you choose FACETS as your site for service?  

Our senior pastor, Mike Bradley, continually preaches to our congregation that the most important thing we do at Parkwood is done outside the church walls, so we try to live out that commitment in the larger community.  Inspired by a young missionary couple from our church and the book, " Servant Evangelism," the chair of our Missions Committee named the mission:  SERVE in practical ways as taught in the Bible - PROCLAIM the name of Jesus as the reason for our service - and ANTICIPATE what God will do.  Pastor Mike took one look and coined our S.P.A. Days.  So S.P.A. Day is serving in our community in practical ways by as many people as possible in as many ways as possible while proclaiming the name of Jesus.  Because of our long relationship with the mission and the staff at FACETS, we chose to partner with FACETS for several of these activities and will continue to do so.

Parkwood is blessed to be celebrating its Year of Jubilee - its 50th anniversary - this year.  We began the S.P.A. Days as a special way to do missions in appreciation of that milestone and to begin a new tradition which will continue after this year.