{"id":25061,"date":"2025-11-25T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/?p=25061"},"modified":"2025-11-26T17:48:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T17:48:37","slug":"pastor-augustus-lawrence-shares-journey-of-pain-hope-and-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/pastor-augustus-lawrence-shares-journey-of-pain-hope-and-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor Augustus Lawrence Shares Journey of Pain, Hope, and Healing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>25 November 2025 | Belgrade, Serbia [Joe Philpott]<\/p>\n<p>In a deeply moving conversation recorded at the 2024 European Pastors\u2019 Council (EPC) in Belgrade, Serbia, Pastor Augustus Lawrence sat down with Pastor David Neal to share how his ministry has been shaped by both profound grief and enduring hope. The interview explored Lawrence\u2019s personal journey following the sudden loss of his wife due to a delayed emergency medical response. Rather than responding with anger, he explained that healing has come through retelling the story, leaning on God\u2019s presence, and walking alongside others in their pain.<\/p>\n<p>Describing his relationship with God, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s not perfect. I\u2019m not perfect. [It] can never be perfect.\u201d He continued, \u201cIt\u2019s dynamic in the sense that it\u2019s a relationship that is constantly growing\u2026 It\u2019s personal, and it\u2019s intimate. I call it a love relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This honest and inspiring dialogue offers a rare glimpse into the inner life of a pastor whose experiences have deepened his empathy and sharpened his call to serve.<\/p>\n<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_34814\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"  data-origwidth=\"800\" data-origheight=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jhU5-yxHk_k?enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/ted.adventist.org&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=0&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"When Life Breaks You, Love Lifts You: Pastor Augustus Lawrence\u2019s Testimony\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>[Photo: Screenshot from the video interview on YouTube]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A candid conversation about living with loss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":25063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1592,1569,7,1578],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bosnia-herzegovina-montenegro-north-macedonia-serbia","category-communication-media-technology","category-news","category-religious-liberty-public-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25061"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25092,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25061\/revisions\/25092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}