Ravensworth is also committed to providing opportunities for our members to participate in hands-on service activities. These include volunteer opportunities with the Annandale Christian Community for Action (ACCA), construction projects with Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together, ministry to the residents of the Leewood Nursing Center, CROP Walks, Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters, and others. Some of these projects include:

Volunteering at ACCA
Working on construction projects with Habitat for Humanity
Working with Rebuilding Together
Making peace at home and abroad
Walking in the CROP Walk
Conducting an annual Offering of Letters
Ministering to senior adults at Leewood Healthcare Center

Volunteering at ACCA
Annandale Christian Community for Action (ACCA) is always looking for volunteers for the many facets of their ministry to the Annandale community. Volunteer opportunities include the following:

• Delivering furniture
• Providing transportation to medical appointments
• Delivering food
• Providing supplies for the Child Development Center
• Recruiting and advertising for the CROP Walk
• Working on construction projects with Rebuilding Together (see below)

To find out more, e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit the volunteering page at the ACCA web site.

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Habitat for Humanity
Ravensworth has a history of involvement in, and commitment to, Habitat for Humanity . For the past eighteen years, mission teams have traveled to North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, to build and renovate homes. We are a covenant church member of Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia , and on one occasion contributed $25,000 towards building a house in Alexandria.

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Rebuilding Together
An outreach program of ACCA, Rebuilding Together brings together volunteers from area churches to rehabilitate the homes of needy residents who otherwise would not be able to afford such construction. RBC volunteers participate every April in a Rebuilding Together project in Fairfax County.

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Peacemaking efforts
Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God" (Matthew 5:9). RBC members take this seriously, and are deeply engaged in peacemaking efforts both locally and internationally. On the home front, we seek to break down walls of hostility by reaching out to sexual minorities as a participating congregation in the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, by building friendships and engaging in dialogue with our neighbors from other faith traditions, and by teaching our children and youth to be peacemakers.

Internationally, we are passionate about making peace in the Middle East. To this end, we have sent two groups to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, established relationships with Christian, Jewish, and Muslim peacemakers in the Holy Land, and formed a Holy Land Peacemaking Initiative, which seeks to take an active role in bringing justice and peace to the troubled birthplace of our faith.

Find out more about RBC's Holy Land Peacemaking Initiative

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CROP Walk
Each October, RBC participates in the CROP Walk , a ten-kilometer walk to raise awareness about and funds to combat hunger in the United States and abroad. Of the money raised at the Walks, which are sponsored by Church World Service, 25% comes back to the local community. ACCA, a ministry near and dear to us at Ravensworth, is a major recipient of this money in the Annandale area.

Starting in 2007, we added a new twist by incorporating advocacy into the walk. Inspired by our close connection with Bread for the World , RBC members set up a display at the finish line and invited walkers to “take the next step” by writing letters to their Senators and Representatives, urging them to take action on behalf of poor and hungry people in the US and around the world. More than twenty walkers took the time to write letters, which members of RBC hand-delivered to the appropriate offices on Capitol Hill.

For more information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , RBC CROP Walk coordinator.

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Offering of Letters
Ravensworth Baptist Church has a long-standing relationship with the anti-hunger lobbying group Bread for the World. We are a Bread for the World Covenant Church, and participate annually in Bread for the World Sunday (in October, around the time of World Food Day) and the Offering of Letters.

Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters provides a means for putting into action our belief that working for justice can be as much an act of worship as praying or singing hymns. At least once each year, we set aside a time during the Sunday School hour to learn about a specific hunger-related issue that Bread for the World has identified as its advocacy focus for the year. After being briefed on the issue, RBC members take a few minutes to write letters to their elected representatives in Washington, urging them to specific courses of action related to that issue. They take those letters with them into the worship service and, after praying over them, present them as an offering to God. In past years, church members have traveled to Capitol Hill to hand-deliver the letters to the appropriate offices and meet with Members of Congress or their aides.

For more information about the Offering of Letters, visit the web site of Bread for the World, or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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Leewood Healthcare Center
For nearly fifty years—since the very beginning of our church’s life—Ravensworth Baptist Church has maintained a ministry to the residents of Leewood Healthcare Center, about 1½ miles from the church on Braddock Road. Two Sundays out of every month, church members, including a number of our youth, hold a short worship service for the residents, including familiar hymns, prayers, and occasionally a brief sermon. Most importantly, they spend time with the residents and let them know they are loved and cared for.

For more information about our Leewood ministry, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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