Diakonia is an emergency homeless shelter serving people in Worcester County. However, it's far more than just a place to eat and sleep.

The word, "Diakonia" is a New Testament Greek word meaning "compassionate love towards the needy." If you were to visit Diakonia, you would see and feel that Diakonia lives up to its name.

The staff and volunteers at Diakonia work to create a warm and supporting family-style environment where each of the 200 to 300 "guests" they have each year is treated with dignity. The Diakonia staff and volunteers count their work a success if they help people from becoming homeless again.

"Addressing the causes of their homelessness is not an easy task," says Diakonia's director, Bee Miller says. "Ninety-seven percent of them have had problems with alcohol and or drugs."

How does Diakonia work to help individuals get their lives back on track?

Miller feels that the family atmosphere makes an important contribution. "As with any successful family," she says, "we have rules, structure and responsibility."

There are three major rules. The first is that substance abuse is not allowed. If a person is drug addicted or alcohol dependent, they are required to attend Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous on a daily basis.

The second rule is they're required to be back at Diakonia by 10:00 PM. Third, they are required to find a job and begin supporting themselves.

It's tough love, and over and over again, Miller has seen it pay off. In one recent case, one of the guests, a mother with two kids, didn't like the requirement that she get a job. "She told me that this was too much pressure and she couldn't do it," remembers Miller.

"I told her she had to do it and that she had to take responsibility for her two kids," continues Miller. "She marched out of my office, furious. She slammed the door behind her, after calling me a word that rhymes with rich."

As Miller tells it, her staff members were worried and wanted to know what to do next. Miller told them, "Wait!"

That very day, the woman got a job working in local hotel. In two weeks she received a promotion. In a couple of months she could afford her own place to live.

"On Mother's Day of this year," recalls Miller, "she stopped by to show us the car that she had just bought. She was beaming. She had her pride and her dignity back."

Miller congratulated her and then told her, "You know that I care about you and I pushed you because I knew you could do it."

And then Miller said something which is possibly the essence of what truly compassionate love is all about. She told her, "I cared more about the life you have after you leave here than I cared about whether you liked me or not."

Miller and her staff treat each case differently, but when their stay at Diakonia is over, it's not just, "See you, have a nice life!" Instead, they stay in touch. The former guests are invited back for holidays and family reunions. Also, they're supported if they're going through a rough time.

Diakonia is available to the homeless 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It deserves its name, "compassionate love towards the needy."

Wish list:

Volunteers 30
folding chairs
new carpeting
Xerox paper
Donations for prescription medications for guests. (This can be done by putting in a credit at Bailey's in Ocean City or Rite Aid in White Marlin Mall.) Sugar
Toilet Paper
C-fold towels
Latex gloves
Laundry soap
Shampoo
Combs
Brushes
Hair ties for the girls
Manila folders
Post it notes
Stamps
Stationery for the guests to write letters
Ball point pens
9 volt batteries for the smoke detectors and double A batteries for the pagers
Brown lunch bags
Paper napkins
Individual fruit juice drinks for bag lunches