This comes from Helen Mildenhall, our blogmaster for Off The Map (and my personal hero):

An €˜ordinary’ Christian, Bill, heard about Hemant, the friendly atheist (the €˜ebay atheist’ Jim Henderson bid on) a few weeks ago. Bill decided he wanted to follow Hemant’s lead and be €˜the friendly Christian’. He renamed his blog €˜friendlychristian.com’.

Last night I was fortunate enough to have a birthday dinner supported by a man who loved his job as a waiter €¦or so it seemed.

This guy was polite. This guy was helpful. This guy was quick! He didn’t stop by our table every 2 minutes asking if we were “still working on that?” On the contrary, he wasn’t one of those servers who brings your food and you don’t see again until you get your bill. This guy has it figured out. Every time I get this type of customer service, whether it’s at McDonalds, over the phone, or at a fancy restaurant, I always make sure to tell them how much I appreciated them. My speech typically goes something like this:

I just wanted to thank you for providing such awesome customer service tonight. It’s so rare nowadays to find somebody like you. Most people have that “I don’t care attitude.” The way you did things tonight is the way I feel it’s supposed to be. I just wanted to let you know that you’re doing an awesome job and that I definitely appreciated you tonight.

I hope to be similar to my waiter from last night. I hope to leave a lasting impression on people that I encounter. “Wow, what’s the deal with that guy?” “How is he so happy?” “When he asked me how I was doing, it seemed like he actually cared to hear my answer!”