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OXON HILL - For seven years, St. Paul UMC has served as a host church for the county-sponsored Warm Nights Program, which provides beds and meals for homeless individuals and families during the cold winter months.

'The week (March 25-April 1) was an opportunity for the entire church family to work together to provide shelter, food and Christian love to homeless men and women,' said Elaine Faison, the church communicator.

For the past two years, St. Paul UMC has had help from Grace UMC in Fort Washington. Adult Ministries prepared breakfasts and dinners, and the youth prepared the daily bag lunches. Volunteers did the shopping and cleaned the kitchen. Others turned classrooms into sleeping rooms. Men provided security from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. each night, and others shared in fellowship with their temporary guests.

'This program,' Faisel said, 'has become a time to be bountifully blessed.'