random act of kindness

Pizza boy given $820 tip 02.08.2004By JULIET ROWAN
An Auckland pizza deliverer is thanking God for a very big tip.
Hong Fei Li, a part-time worker at Pizza Hut, delivered two pizzas to a Mt Eden church last night. Thanks to a generous congregation, he walked away with more than $800.
Mr Li, a pizza delivery worker for only two months, had no idea he was going to the Christian Life Centre.
Nor did he know that the presiding pastor had asked the congregation to dig deep to make the pizza delivery boy's night.
Associate pastor Phil Camden placed the order during evening service.
He ordered the pizzas and some garlic bread for the three sons of the head pastor, who is away overseas.
He made the call with the phone on "speaker" function so the congregation could hear, telling them, "Let's give the guy the biggest tip he's ever had".
While the pizzas baked, he passed the collection bags round the church.
The 900 members of the congregation handed over everything from 10c and 20c pieces to $10 notes.
The collection was still going on when Mr Li, a hospitality student at the New Zealand Management Academy, arrived at the church.
The 21-year-old was invited in and directed to the pastor's sons.
He gave them the food and was asked to wait a few minutes.
Despite the large number of people in the room, he still did not know where he was.
"I thought it was a meeting," he said.
A short time later, he was handed two heavy bags full of money.
Mr Li couldn't believe his luck.
"I think God gave me the money," he said from his home on the North Shore last night.
He still had not had time to count his blessings, believing the bags probably contained about $500 to $600.
But congregation member Terry Koumakis said the tip was $820.
He said Pastor Camden had concocted the idea as a "random act of kindness".
He had told the congregation that pizza workers were often robbed so it would be nice to do something for one of them.
Mr Li, who came to New Zealand from China three years ago, said he was very grateful for the money.
As a student he could do with the cash, he said. "I'm very lucky."
The windfall had made him believe in God. If he had time, he said he might even go to church.