St. Jude, Lutheran churches answer call to help others

'Tis the season for doing good deeds and helping those less fortunate.

Thanks to the never-give-up efforts of site coordinator Mike Agnew and dedicated volunteers from St. Jude the Apostle Church in Lewes and Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Rehoboth Beach, a Love INC Code Purple women's homeless shelter is available in the Cape Region. It's the seventh Code Purple shelter in Sussex County.

The LCOS shelter opened in record time to provide a place for women to seek shelter during the winter months. Without it, they would be facing the elements in tents in a secluded, forested area.

Agnew, who did most of the heavy lifting to open a men's shelter at St. Jude last year, said people continually asked him where homeless women go in the winter. So, he rallied volunteers to get a new shelter.

The nearest women’s Code Purple shelters are in Seaford and Milford; transporting Cape Region clients to them is nearly impossible.

When a call went out for a women's shelter facility, the LCOS congregation stepped up.

Each night, men and women are picked up in the Walmart parking lot by a St. Jude driver using a donated bus, and taken to the St. Jude site to register, clean up and get a meal. Several community groups are providing hot meals to the shelter.

After dinner, the women are taken to the Lutheran church.

During the day, the men and women can go to the Community Resource Center in Rehoboth Beach to get assistance with issues they are facing, take showers and wash clothes.

Both churches’ congregations should be commended for dedicating time and effort to make the shelters a reality. It takes a committed team of volunteers, and lots of coordination and planning to sponsor a shelter for 105 nights.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'”

These volunteers are answering that call to help many neglected members of our society.