Just a reminder that the Team Meetings start this weekend.  We are about to head off to Austin and we are really excited to see everyone.  Don’t forget that if you are in Dallas, we have changed the location of the Team Meeting.  The details for each team meeting can be found below.  See you soon!

Well the time is drawing near to meet with your fellow Camp LIFEers to get ready for Camp LIFE 2009. Make sure to mark your calendars for the dates below for your city. Just like last year we are holding meetings in three cities so that you can come to the one closest to you. Even if you haven’t signed up for Camp yet, you are welcome to come and support those who are going…and who knows, maybe you’ll decide to join us…we are very persuasive.

Team Meeting #1

Austin: Friday, February 20th from 7 PM until 10 PM
Houston: Saturday, February 21st from 1 PM until 4 PM
Dallas: Sunday, February 22nd from 2 PM until 5 PM

Team Meeting #2

Austin: Friday, March 27th from 7 PM until 10 PM
Houston: Saturday, March 28th from 1 PM until 4 PM
Dallas: Sunday, March 29th from 2 PM until 5 PM

Team Meeting #3

Austin: Friday, April 17th from 7 PM until 10 PM
Houston: Saturday, April 18th from 1 PM until 4 PM
Dallas: Sunday, April 19th from 2 PM until 5 PM

All AUSTIN meetings will be held at:

Great Hills Baptist Church
10500 Jollyville Road
Austin, TX 78759

All HOUSTON meetings will be held at:

Cypress Bible Church
11711 Cypress-N. Houston Rd.
Cypress, Texas 77429-2817

All DALLAS meetings will be held at:

Valley Ranch Baptist Church
1501 E Belt Line Road
Coppell, TX 75019

For those of you outside of Texas, we will send you the information about the conference call. I’ll also post some Frequently Asked Questions about Team Meetings tomorrow so stay tuned…

The very first Camp LIFE was put on in 2002.  It was much smaller and looked a lot different that it did in 2008.  As we start planning for our eighth year of Camp LIFE we wanted to share this video from the very first Camp LIFE.  This video shows the despair and hurt that many of these kids live with everyday.  We are very humbled that God has chosen to bring His light and peace through Family Legacy and our American Ambassadors.

Below is an excerpt from a press release that is going out to the Dallas area media this week.  We hope that many of you will join us for this exciting event.  The larger the crowd, the better chance there is for media coverage.  We hope to expose many new people to our ministry as well as increase our Father’s Heart child sponsorship.   Invite your friends, and come join Family Legacy on the UTA campus next Wednesday night.

Press Release -

During her team’s upcoming head-to-head battle with Lamar University on Feb. 25, University of Texas at Arlington women’s basketball coach Samantha Morrow is opting to go toe-to-toe instead.

The Lady Mavericks head coach will patrol the sidelines at Texas Hall in her bare feet in an effort to raise awareness for impoverished children around the world. Morrow is teaming up with Samaritan’s Feet and Family Legacy to go “Barefoot for a Cause” during her squad’s 7 p.m. game against the Lady Cardinals.

To participate in this campaign, UTA students and fans are encouraged to bring new child-sized athletic shoes and monetary donations to cover shipping for Samaritan’s Feet and Family Legacy which will be collected upon entry to the game. To further support the cause, they are encouraged to join Morrow in going shoeless during the game.  Fans will have the chance to sponsor Zambian orphans through Family Legacy’s Father’s Heart Child Sponsorship program.

“The partnership between Samaritan’s Feet and Family Legacy is something I want to be a part of,” Morrow said. “I am lucky to have the things I have … others aren’t so fortunate. I hope this brings more awareness to the needs of these children. Anything we can do, we should!”

The UTA coach is joining basketball coaches around the country who are helping to shed a more visible spotlight on the plight of individuals in need of shoes to protect their feet from injury, infections, and disease. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, three hundred AAU, high school, and college coaches pledged to coach one game barefoot this season in order to drive donations of shoes from fans and corporations alike. According to statistics, approximately 300 million people around the world are without a pair of shoes.

Through its Shoes of Hope distribution program, Samaritan’s Feet’s goal is to provide shoes for 10 million people over the next 10 years. Family Legacy Missions will take the shoes collected along with thousands more to Zambia this summer and place them on the feet of the orphans.

Family Legacy Missions International is very excited about partnering with UTA, Coach Morrow, and Samaritan’s Feet.   As an organization, Samaritan’s Feet has been able to bring awareness of the issue of extreme poverty throughout the world.  Their focus on putting new shoes on the feet of the world’s poorest children parallels with Family Legacy’s mission of serving the needs of the Zambian AIDS orphans. With the help of Samaritan’s Feet, and through efforts such as UTA’s ‘Barefoot for a Cause,’ we will be able to put shoes on more than 28,000 Zambian orphans this year.

Morrow and other coaches are following in the footsteps of IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis) head men’s basketball coach Ron Hunter, who in January 2008 was the first to coach a game barefoot. Hunter’s goal-to raise 40,000 pairs of athletic shoes to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s death-was surpassed almost three-fold. More than 100,000 pairs of shoes were donated during the game and as a result of the publicity that followed.

Family Legacy hopes to rally more Dallas-area coaches to the cause this coming year by expanding the campaign to schools and teams throughout the Metroplex.  Our desire is that next year we can do it again in conjunction with the coaches nationwide and have many local high school coaches join Coach Morrow and coach a game in their bare feet.

When: Wednesday, February 25, 2009; 7 p.m.

Where: Texas Hall, UT Arlington Campus

Paige Baten-Locke grew up attending St.  Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church and Day school from 3 year old pre-school to 6^th grade.  It was in daily chapel time that her personal relationship with Jesus Christ as her Savior was sparked in her 4 year old kindergarten year.  Moving on to Highland Park Junior High and High School, Paige enjoyed many fun Episcopal Young Churchmen and Young Life ski trips.  A lot of great memories at various New Mexico and Colorado slopes occurred.  Upon graduating from high school, it was on to the University of Texas at Austin where she enjoyed wonderful fellowship and a deepening of her faith.  Moving on to graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design from the University of North Texas in Denton, she has experienced running her own interior design firm since 1979.  She still appreciates and enjoys having her practice today.

Paige is also a wife to Coach Chuck Locke, the Athletic Director and head coach at The Shelton School in Dallas.  Paige met “Coach” while her precious daughter, Katie Leigh, attended Shelton.  Katie Leigh is now a Baylor Bear.  But, it was during her years attending Shelton that spurred her on to tell Paige that she wanted to go on a mission trip for her graduation present from high school.  In 2007, Paige and Katie Leigh went to their first Camp Life session and the rest is history.