In Lusaka, buses are the main form of public transportation and it is very common to see blue buses filled with passengers all over the city. During the summer we use buses to bring all 10,000 kids to a central location for Camp LIFE.

Beginning in 2007, we started a program that allowed people to donate the money to purchase a bus.  These buses are a huge blessing for several reasons.

• We use the buses to bring to Camp Life more than 10,000 kids from all of Lusaka.  The more buses we have, the lower our transportation costs which means even more kids can come to camp.
• We can use the buses throughout the year to transport our staff throughout the city.  By having enough vehicles we can make sure our staff is able to move around Lusaka to where they are needed most and we can move supplies to our Community Resource Centers.  It also allows us to deliver food to kids and take them to doctor’s visits.
• When the buses are not in use, they are out around the city  on regular bus routes generating income.  The income that is generated from one Big Bus is enough to endow 12 sponsorships through the Father’s Heart Program or 3 sponsorship for children at the Tree of Life Children’s Village.

If you are interested in purchasing a Big Bus, then contact Clay Hughey for more details.

We have been enjoying some older Camp LIFE videos the past few weeks and thought we should share with you. They come from a time when video editing wasn’t quite as advanced, but the lives of the children were being changed the same as today.
In this video from 2004, a group of orphans hear that Jesus loves them for the very first time. In response they begin singing Hallelujah Hosanna!  At the point in time that this video was shot, the children had already been singing for 40 mintues because of their new-found hope in Jesus Christ!!!  As you can see, they are so excited that no one can stop them from singing.

The Camp LIFE Ambassadors of Week #3 this summer completely fell in love with a little girl named Selah.  Selah has a particularly tragic story that horrified all who heard it.  Her sponsor, Brooke Bassinger, and other Week #3 Ambassadors worked with Family Legacy, and soon Selah had been removed from her extremely abusive situation and moved into one our Community Resource Centers (CRCs).  She is living there until a place opens up for her at The Tree of Life Children’s Village.  The Ambassadors from Week #3 made it their personal mission to raise the $72,000 necessary to build “Selah’s House” in honor of her at the Tree of Life.

When Chris and Erin Phillips returned from Week #3 of Camp LIFE, they got straight to work organizing a unique golf tournament called “Birdies for Selah”.  Chris was able to convince 7 other men to join him, each playing 90 holes of golf in one day on August 31^st at the Hollytree Golf Club in Tyler, Texas.  The premise was simple — make as many birdies as possible!  Chris and Erin solicited pledges for every birdie made by the group.  They asked everyone they knew and some people they didn’t know to make a pledge.  Anyone who pledged $5 per birdie or made a straight donation of $500 or more was entered in a drawing for 4 tickets to the 2010 BCS National Championship at The Rose Bowl.  The media in Tyler were notified of the event, and covered it very well.  Click the media links below to see how God was glorified through the Phillips’ efforts!

When it was all said and done, all 8 men survived the day and made a total of 179 birdies (their goal was 150).  The drawing for the BCS tickets took place live on the air of the local CBS affiliate’s morning show on Friday, September 4^th and John Lookenbaugh of Coppell, TX was the lucky winner.  Once the pledges and donations had been totaled, Chris and Erin raised just over $35,000 to go towards the construction cost of “Selah’s House” at The Tree of Life Children’s Village.  God truly blessed their efforts and HIS HAND was all over this event!  Family Legacy would like to sincerely thank the Phillips for their hearts in desiring to bring restoration to the Zambian orphans who need it most — way to live out your faith through being active and vocal Ambassadors for these kids!

Watch all the great media cover the Birdies for Selah event received –

News story a few days before the event…

Live on air story the morning of the event…

Sports coverage the night of the event…

Live on air drawing of the winner of the BCS National Championship Game tickets…

Beauty Mulenga is a precious 13 year-old girl whose parents both died when she was a young child.  Since her parent’s death, Beauty has stayed with her drunkard aunt who was very physically and verbally abusive to her on a nightly basis.  One of her aunt’s boyfriends even raped Beauty one night when her aunt came home with him as they were both drunk.  She was only 11 years old at the time.

Beauty also lives with the very painful disease called Sickle-Cell Anemia, where extreme acute pain will attack her body for days at a time on a bi-monthly basis.  Now at Tree of Life, Beauty has FULL access to the highest quality medical care, as well as a balanced diet that is necessary to assist her in her condition.  She loves everything about her new life — nice warm clothes, plenty of food, a real family with LOTS of siblings, and she simply adores her new house mom Euphemia!  Beauty wants to be a doctor when she grows up and is thriving in school!  Watch her testimony that she shares in the video below about how much she praises the Lord for bringing her and her young cousin Temba to live in Lahema’s House at the Tree of Life Children’s Village! Before you watch, know that Beauty shares some very shocking details about her life before moving to the Tree of Life.

Sponsor a Child at the Tree of Life here