Laura Burgueño’s first encounter with American Bible Society’s trauma healing program was in a magazine advertisement.
At the time, Laura found herself in the midst of a very difficult season of church ministry with her husband, Eliu—a pastor and international church leader. She was wrestling with whether or not she could handle any more full-time ministry.
The magazine ad changed all that. Laura was intrigued to discover a program all about confronting life’s spiritual pain with the power of God’s Word. And this particular session was aimed at struggling pastoral families like hers. Stepping out in faith, Laura attended the training and faced the spiritual wounds that haunted her. She quickly realized that the advertisement was no mere coincidence. “God said, ‘I brought you here. I want you to take this training,’” says Laura.
Pretty soon, Laura was training others in the principles of Bible-based trauma healing. One of her first students? Her husband, Eliu.
With resources from American Bible Society’s generous financial partners, Laura and Eliu have begun sharing the healing power of God’s Word with the Latin American Church. “Christian people have just saved their pain and have not talked about it,” explains Laura. “Many of these people have suffered domestic violence…rape, even in Christian homes.” Laura says it is a blessing to provide this ministry to impoverished communities that would not normally be able to afford it.
Today, the Burgueños are passionate champions of Biblebased trauma healing in the southwest corner of North America. They have ministered in Arizona, California, Texas, Guatemala and Mexico. And there are no signs of slowing down. “We are opening more doors,” says Laura, who will soon launch a trauma healing program in Cuba. “We are trained…we have the passion and we really would like to help.”
