Pizza and prayer to go

LIHU‘E — People picking up the Calvary Chapel free pizza Friday were given the option to just go, or stop for prayer at the parking lot fronting the Calvary Chapel Lihu‘e on Kuhio Highway.

“A lot of people stopped for prayer,” said Rocky Sasaki of Kaua‘i Island Ministries, who joined Calvary Chapel Pastor Bruce Baumgartner and other volunteers in offering prayers for people who had just picked up their free Domino’s pizza.

“They come from all over,” Sasaki said. “Some of them have no work, some just want to pray for someone, some just need to pray — they’re from all over the island.”

Baumgartner said he went to a church on Maui that hosted a free pizza giveaway in partnership with Domino’s pizza.

“I look at how empty this parking lot has become since COVID-19,” Baumgartner said. “It should be able to do something. We wanted to do this after I went to a church on Maui. But the Kaua‘i Baptist Church did a pizza giveaway, so we thought we would wait it out.”

Originally, Calvary Chapel Lihu‘e was planning on distributing 225 large pizzas through a registration process where people were limited to one pizza per family.

“That went quickly,” Baumgartner said. “We sold out on the first day. We committed to 175 pizzas, and Domino’s kicked in another 75 pizzas for a total of 250 pies being given out.”

The registration system worked to perfection, with no backlog of cars waiting.

Calvary Chapel Lihu‘e volunteers worked in compliance with the social-distancing and health-safety rules in place for COVID-19. Volunteers were masked and gloved while handing the pizza to customers who did not have to leave their cars, even for the prayers.

The service tent was sanitized constantly between loads of arriving hot pizza, and despite the urge for hugs, only air hugs had to suffice.

Baumgartner invited people to join the church family for an online church service today at 8 a.m. that can be viewed any time following that at www.cclihue.com.