• Provide an opportunity for every member of the congregation to get involved in mission.
• Be good stewards of every available resource this congregation makes available to missions.
• Fulfill the great commission to go into the entire world and preach the word.

That task begins at our doorstep, but it must extend throughout the entire world. Our aim is strike a balance between local missions, regional missions and world missions.

We believe our mission is not just giving money but giving our time and talents. We want every member of our congregation to be personally involved that task. Under the congregation's stated goal of missions, we have given ourselves four goals:

• Involve twenty percent of our membership in our lay ministry to the homeless and inadequately housed.
• Challenge thirty percent of our congregation to participate in some way on a mission trip.
• Challenge each member to participate in some community support activity.
• Increase use of our facilities for off-hour use by community organizations.

Global Missions (U.S. and abroad)

We send a joint youth/adult team to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico each winter.

We send a family mission team to the Sonora, in Mexico in the early summer of each year to work with the Presbyterian Border Ministry.

Our Senior High students take a summer trip to work projects in various communities. They have gone to Boston, Charleston, Cherokee, the Outer Banks, Philadelphia, Greenville SC, and a Native American reservation in South Dakota. In 2005 we began sending the Middle School youth on annual mission trips as well.

Also in 2005 we sent a team to Kenya where we spent a month working in an orphanage for children born with AIDS.

We also sent several people to help with Hurricane Katrina Relief with the first team leaving within four days of the main event. They were an advanced party for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and set up a camp, officially "Camp One", for relief workers coming down to help.

This Congregation also helped support the mission to North Darfur, Sudan and together with substantial support from other like minded Christians, is in the process of sending two teachers to a community in that war torn and troubled country. For more specifics contact the Mission Elder. Because of budget constraints this is being done outside the normal budget and contributors are asked not to make contributions to this project at the expense of contributions to our general or building funds.

Local Missions

To supplement these mission trips to other communities we are working to expand our similar type activities in our own communities for members that don't have the time or resources for one of these extended trips and to recognize the needs in our local community.

Our Building Elder oversees Project Mend-A-House and he is trying to have one project each quarter. We also support this effort financially and a fuller description is found below. This is an ideal opportunity to serve right within our own community on weekends.

Our youth also participate in the Walk for the Homeless and the 30-Hour Famine.

We continually work on the food pantry for ACTS.

We also help support the L.I.V.I.N.G. Ministry mission to the homeless in Pittsburgh.

We provide annual financial support and when possible personal support to the following local organizations. The following are planned for 2008:

(January) Prince William County Winter Shelter: The Winter Shelter is a 30-bed, overnight shelter for single adult men and women, in operation from November 1 through March 31 from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., to protect homeless residents from hypothermia during the winter season.

(February) Local Energy Assistance Program: This County program provides payments to fuel vendors for a portion of heating costs for indigent households during winter months, and medically necessary cooling assistance during the summer.

(March) Prince William County Homeless Prevention Center: The Homeless Prevention Center is a 30-bed shelter for families and single adults that offers comprehensive services such as job referral, mental health assessment and counseling, GED classes, and substance abuse counseling.

(May) CASA: CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Greater Prince William is a non-profit program that specially trains volunteers to become advocates for abused, neglected and abandoned children in the Greater Prince William area and last year served over 300 child victims through 85 volunteers. The CARE (Community Advocacy Resources for Education) project serves chronically truant youth ages 12 to 18 and their parents. This series of group sessions works to help the youth make better decisions concerning their future while increasing their awarness of the impact of today's decisions on their quality of life as adults. Last year the program served nearly 200

(June) Action in the Community Through Service (ACTS): ACTS was founded in 1969 by religious congregations to alleviate human suffering in Prince William County. It is currently supported by 70 religious organizations and many local businesses and civic groups. It provides services such temporary emergency shelter for the homeless, food, clothing and financial aid to avoid evictions and utility cut-offs. The Helpline provides crisis counseling to callers, and the housing program assists low-income families in finding affordable homes and in establishing a permanent home and in developing self-sufficiency skills. The Turning Points program provides emergency shelter and counseling to battered women and their children. The Thrift Store helps to support all ACTS programs.

(July) Healthlinks: Healthlink is a service operated by Northern Virginia Family Service in which community-minded physicians and dentists participate on a voluntary basis to provide medical and dental care for uninsured, low-to-moderate income residents of Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park.

(August) Good News Ministry: The Good News Jail and Prison Ministry ministers to the inmates at the Prince William Manassas Adult Detention Center by providing worship services, Bible study classes, and Good News Bible Correspondence Lessons. The Life Learning Program is designed to enable interested men and women in developing a new mind-set so that they live their lives differently than they have learned to do. Through a series of classes the program tries to develop a renewed mind-set (Ephesians 4.23) and a subsequent transformed lifestyle (Ephesians 4.24).

(September) Little Hands Preschool Scholarship Fund: Little Hands Preschool has established a Scholarship Program for families in financial need. Scholarships are given on a temporary basis or long-term basis and can be for full or partial monthly tuition, according to need. In the past, the Preschool has helped families where parents have lost jobs, have experienced financial hardship due to family emergencies or death of a parent, and families who have multiple children in the preschool program. The Preschool would also consider giving scholarship funds to families experiencing other types of hardship.

(November) Project Mend-A-House: The mission of Project Mend-A-House is to provide home repairs to enable the elderly, poor and disabled to remain in their homes safely and affordably. Projects including floor, ceiling, roof and wall repairs, painting and disability access repairs. Disability access projects include building wheel chair ramps, widening doorways, and replumbing and remodeling to make bathrooms and showers wheel-chair accessible. The Project relies on volunteer workers to help accomplish its mission, and all levels of skill are needed and welcomed.

(December) Prince William County Mentoring Program: The Family to Family Mentoring Program trains and matches caring adult volunteer mentors with youth within the Prince William community. Mentors are friends , confidants, role models, coaches, and companions for their assigned mentees. If you are a caring, committed adult, there is a young person in need of your help today! Do you have a couple of hours a week to be a friend, confidante and support to a young person? If so, please consider becoming a volunteer mentor. Free training, background checks and support throughout your match with a youth will be provided.

At FUPCDC we are always evolving, so this is not even a complete list of our mission activities. Nearly every organization or activity in the church becomes involved in missions in one way or another. Needless to say, with all this work on our plate, we are in need of your help. Whether you can spend only a hour once a month, or if you have great ideas of how we can do more, or if you just want to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty, we need all types of volunteers. Come join in the work of this mission outpost in Woodbridge, VA. The Mission Team meets on the third Thursday of each month at 7:30 here in the church.

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