On November 15^th the True Life Community Church youth decided to give a gift to a member of the Troy community in a unique way.

NFusion is a youth group comprised of about 30 teens that meets every Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. The group is led by youth pastor, Noah Walkup.

Several months ago, Walkup saw a viral video on social media where a church in central Ohio gave a tip of $1,000 to a Dominos pizza delivery woman. In keeping with the spirit of Thanksgiving and a Sunday evening lesson on money, Walkup decided that a similar example would be a powerful tool to teach teenagers about giving.

The recipient of the gift was a local man by the name of Chris Bay who arrived wearing a Motley Crue t-shirt and a baseball cap and delivered four large pizzas from Al’s Pizza on Weston Road in Troy. He received a tip of $235.25 from the teens, all of whom contributed cash toward the gift prior to his arrival at the church. “It was the largest tip I’ve ever gotten,” Bay said.

He was obviously surprised and unsure how to respond to the gesture except to say “Thank you guys.”

Walkup, his leadership team, and the teenagers all prayed over Bay before he left to make his next delivery.

According to Walkup, “we live in a culture where kids today are all about taking what they want and thinking about themselves; so we’re trying to teach them what it means to give back and let them know that we’re really blessed and need to bless others with what we’ve been given.”

Walkup’s aunt, Paula Shiltz, shared a lesson that night on giving. “Basically, we’re talking about the world’s view of money versus God’s view of money,” Shiltz said. “The reason we need to give and the reason I give is because it’s a reminder to always put God first.”

NFusion leadership is hoping that this will be a launching point for the teenagers to be more involved in giving back to the community in the coming year. “We’re trying to get the kids to open their eyes and really see that there are needs, not just in other countries but right here in the community,” Walkup said. “There’s hunger, there are needs in Troy. We really feel led to make a difference here.”