It began with his visit to assist in the cleanup work after the deadly tornados that ravished Macon County, TN on February 5th. Brandon Heath returned from that experience with a continued burden to help, rather than a self-satisfied smugness that he had gone at all. I say that I guess because I could imagine myself doing it; feeling so good that I had contributed at all that I missed the opportunity to do more. Not Brandon. In less than ten days he managed to put together a songwriters-in-the-round show to raise funds for his beleaguered neighbors. Seventeen people had been killed by the storms, and 150 homes and businesses were destroyed, but Brandon and friends Bebo Norman, Jason Ingram, Nathan & Christy Nockels, and Michael W. Smith came together to provide support, to shine a light into the darkness of those devastated lives.
The free concert took up a love offering of $18,690 for the survivors, and another 85 people committed to join in the clean-up project. It did my heart good just reading about it, for several reasons. The obvious, of course, is that one man cared this much. I love it that Brandon Heath didn’t just write a check; he traveled to the hurting community and picked up a shovel to show his concerns. And he broke through the scheduling challenges to bring together other artists who cared enough to give their time as well. To put together a concert in less than ten days is impressive in itself. Together the arts community raised a significant amount of support for the hurting survivors.
It’s gratifying to see people beginning finally to take up the cause of Africa. But it’s heartwarming too to see the same cup of cool water offered to sufferers close to home. I pray that the broken-hearted of Macon County feel strengthened by the efforts of Brandon and Friends. I know I do.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 8:42 am and is filed under Staff Blogs.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.