About a month ago I met this guy named Tyler Wilterding (here’s his facebook page), a New pastor at a New Church plant in Kearney, Nebraska (the Church is called “The Table”).

I’m generally turned off by pastors and the standardization of organized religion because of what it all stands for…I realize that not every organized religion or church is the same, or even close in some cases, but I feel when the idea of ‘togetherness’ is to believe the “I’m right, you’re wrong and you’re going to burn Forever unless you follow my way of believing…” message, I don’t really belong.

My God is different than that, not pushy, arrogant or right until the very end…in my opinion, those things are not the vision I have of what/who God is.
This is probably why I felt comfortable around Tyler right away, he didn’t push me in any direction, he let me share my viewpoints and didn’t argue anything with me, he treated me like what I imagine the Biblical Jesus Christ is supposed to represent…Love!

Tyler asked me to have lunch with him and pick my brain about beliefs, the local Kearney people and to get my idea of where the 20 something’s mindsets are when it comes to religion. I pre-warned him that I’m not an expert on any topic and I just have my opinions to share…that’s it. He was okay with this so we had a beer and burger for lunch (that’s how it should be, drinking a beer with a pastor at lunch time…) and discussed all of the above.
Tyler mentioned to me that he wasn’t happy with his website and I felt okay telling him that I also thought it looked like crap and that I’d be glad to help him set up a new one.

He paid the basic fees (like $50 – $70) and I configured / set up the new site for him. He’s been managing his new website (http://www.thetablekearney.com) for about a week now, and I’m happy that he’s happy with the results.
For the work that I did for him, we would normally charge a customer $2,200/year to do the same thing…all I wanted of him is to pay it forward to someone else that needs something. Wouldn’t our world be better if these type of ‘pay it forward actions’ were done all of the time? Could we do one remarkable thing for someone every month, week or even day, without asking anything in return?

Think about how you can help someone with a talent that you already have, after you decide on a couple things that you can do to help,  just make them happen…don’t put to much thought into it…you may think your way out of helping someone because of the time and/or energy commitment it may take to get the tasks completed…just do it!

Thank you for reading and have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

:: [Update: Tyler has since gifted me with 2 frisbee golf discs and a $20 gift certificate to a local restaurant. Thanks Tyler!

The story of charity: water - The 2009 September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo.

Last week I was at a conference of young entrepreneurs in Omaha, Nebraska and I heard a talk from Scott Harrison.

Scott is the founder of Charity: Water, he shared and explained with us the situation of water, or the lack of water, for hundreds of millions of people living on this earth.

I don’t normally rally behind fund raising campaigns because I feel like there are so many unknowns about the projects…Where’s the money actually going, how’s it actually getting spent, and who is in charge? After hearing Scott’s stories, reading on this website and learning about the situation myself, my wife and I decided to do something to help.

We get fresh drinking water everyday and we don’t think anything about it. We don’t ever stop to think about the people out there (near 1 billion people) that don’t have this privilege! If we can start a small page on the web and donate $20 to help one person have fresh drinking water for 20 years…Why wouldn’t we?

If not us, then who? If not today then when?

Start making a difference today and help change other people’s lives forever! Donate Here.

Thank you very much for reading this post and have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

:: Please let us know what you’ve heard about this company and we’ll talk to you soon!