As Hurricane Ike begins to fall out of the news and other stories take over, it’s too easy to forget that the damage along the Gulf Coast of Texas remains very real.
No one has to tell that to members  of Leeland, the top-notch, about-to-break-out Christian band from Baytown, Tex.
Nearly a month after the storm, and as that coastal area continues to try and clean up, the band is asking for support to help the area rebuild.
“Our hope is to rally all of the support we can for all of the people in the place we call home,” the band writes on its Web page.
Anyone who feels led to, can send a donation to:

1002 Meandering Way
Attn: David Childress
Franklin, TN 37067.

Please make checks payable to ‘Celebration of Life Church,” and checks of all amounts are welcomed, they add.
There’s a reason for the church’s name on the checks.
The five guys in the band, and their homes, are all fine, but their home-church sustained significant damage, they reported recently.
It will be at least several weeks until they can have services there, and the building will need major repairs.

*****

On a different note, the band Decyfer Down (some of us remmeber their show over at Lancaster Mennonite last spring, as an opener for Skillet) was supposed to be playing a show last week at an event in Muscle Shoals, Ala.
(Is is possible to hear the name of that town and NOT think of “Sweet Home Alabama”? Oops, popular music moment …)
Unfortunately, Decyfer Down had to cancel due to a last-minute emergency.
Luckily, Pillar had the night off, and was going to go to the Braves’ game against the New Yoek Mets in Atlanta when they received the call, and Pillar went and filled in.
Reminds me of when I was supposed to go see The Waiting at the Lititz Rec Center in late 2000, and an unknown band out of South Africa filled in at the last minute for the few hundred of us on hand.
Ever hear of Tree 63, anyone?