While Ugandan Little League Team Inspires Its Country By Playing World Series Games, Lighthouse Network Brings Hope, Healing to Ugandan Victims of Abuse

While Ugandan Little League Team Inspires Its Country By Playing World Series Games, Lighthouse Network Brings Hope, Healing to Ugandan Victims of Abuse
August 21, 2012 Lighthouse Network

While a Ugandan boys’ Little League team inspired their country by winning enough brackets to travel to the U.S. for the Little League World Series, a seven-member team from Lighthouse Network, the premier Christian addiction and mental health referral service, traveled to the boys’ homeland of Uganda to work with 480 children and help train their 50 mentors in Christian counseling techniques to help heal the widespread impact of severe trauma and loss in that society.

During the two-week trip, Dr. Karl Benzio and his team led a week-long mentor training program in Gulu, Uganda for the 50 Ugandan mentors. Training about trauma, addiction recovery, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, sexual abuse, and abortion trauma were all covered. During the trip, the Lighthouse Network team proved the efficacy of its Christian counseling curricula through use in some of the worst imaginable conditions in the rural areas of Northern Uganda where people live in huts with no electricity or running water.

Lighthouse Network programs brought about significant healing in the Ugandan volunteer team as well as in the victims they began to counsel. With healing occurring among victims who continue to live in poverty-stricken conditions that Americans can scarcely imagine, the same is possible for stateside victims of addiction, abuse, and sexual trauma.

Karl and Julie were able to uniquely blend their two curricula, and In The Wildflowers, in a powerful way that really facilitated a powerful healing and equipping process in the 50 mentors we ministered to at the conference. These resources are also impactful and helpful for people struggling here in the US.

Comments From Lighthouse Network Founder and Executive Director, Dr. Karl Benzio

“We watched God work in incredible ways during our trip. From the containment of an Ebola outbreak in Uganda to the smooth travel and the overall good health of our team, we were blessed in so many ways,” said Benzio. “But what was most awe-inspiring to watch was the healing that came to these mentors who constantly focus on the children, but were ignoring their own healing needs. These volunteer counselors we trained had so much of their own pain and trauma based on the truly harsh geopolitical conditions that they live under, and we were able to both initiate their own healing as well as demonstrate to them exactly how to use our programs to help the children heal from many emotional traumas. And if the people of Uganda can receive the hope and healing that God and good counseling can bring, then certainly it can work well for patients in the States as well.”

“We saw so much need in Uganda – the poor living conditions, the poverty, and yet we left with a feeling of hope that came from knowing that God helped to bring about healing,” said Benzio. “We urge victims here in the U.S. to call our helpline and get the help needed to begin healing from the traumas or addictions they suffer from. If it’s possible for Ugandans, who have so little and have suffered so much, to heal from their emotional struggles and addictions using Lighthouse techniques, so can victims here experience that same freedom.”

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