| With hammers, paint UMs celebrate Christmas in April United Methodist churches joined with thousands of volunteers across the country to do a one-day blitz of repairing and renovating run-down homes of mostly elderly or disabled people during the annual Christmas in April, Saturday, April 27. Members of Baltimore-Washington Conference churches reached out their hands and their hearts to homeowners in Southern Maryland, Frederick County, Washington, D.C., suburban Washington, D.C., Baltimore and other areas. Volunteers provided construction material, paint, cleaning supplies and labor. They supplied their own tools to accomplish the tasks. They also contributed funds to the Christmas in April organization for the purchase of supplies. Many volunteers received a T-shirt with the new name and logo: Rebuilding Together with Christmas in April. The following photos are typical of the work volunteers did on the sunny last Saturday of April. Lower left, middle left: Thirty-seven youth and adults from Montgomery UMC in Damascus included this years confirmation class. The volunteers spent the day repairing a roof, painting, replacing basement windows, installing baseboard heating and a bathroom exhaust fan, replacing the front steps and landscaping for resident June Tyeryar. Upper left, center: In the Darlington area alone, Christmas in April benefited 12 homes. Volunteers from Havre de Grace UMC began working on two of these homes at 7:30 a.m. The group of youth and adult volunteers added porches to the front and rear of Hannah Gordons home in Darlington. Gordon said she had not had a back porch for 25 years and was appreciative for their work. Right top, middle, bottom: A work crew of 25 volunteers from Metropolitan UMC repaired the home of Brenda Beagle in the northeast part of Washington,D.C. They installed drywall, cleaned the basement and put in a new ceiling, worked in the yard and built new countertops. | 
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