Abigail Loryman: How Grief and Surrender Shaped Her Christian Faith and Identity in God
Abigail Loryman grew up surrounded by faith. She knew church. She knew Scripture. She knew how to lead worship and say the right things. Her aunt, who later adopted her and is a pastor, modeled a life of faith and leadership. From the outside, her spiritual foundation appeared strong. Yet inwardly, she sensed something unfinished. “It was real, but it wasn’t fully mine yet,” she said.
Her childhood, however, was marked not only by faith, but by profound loss. At five years old, she lost her mother. At eleven, she lost her father. Grief entered her life before she fully understood what it meant to lose someone you love. “It’s a grief that doesn’t always have words. It lives quietly in the background, not always visible, but deeply real,” she reflected.
Stability shifted. Home changed. Family dynamics changed. The familiar became unfamiliar. About a year after her father’s passing, her aunt and uncle adopted her, and she moved from Zambia to the United Kingdom. It was another significant transition layered on top of loss. Yet even in the middle of uncertainty, she sensed something steady. “Even though everything around me had changed, there was still this unexplainable sense that I was not alone,” she said.
Looking back, she now recognizes what God was forming beneath the surface. “He was teaching me how to endure change, how to remain anchored when everything shifts, and how to trust Him in the unknown,” she explained. Long before she stepped into her profession, God was shaping her resilience.
Today, Abigail serves as a Change Management Consultant, helping organizations and individuals navigate transition with clarity and confidence. She holds a degree in English Literature and a Master’s degree in Forensic Linguistics and Translation, studying how language carries identity and meaning. She is fluent in English, Bemba, and Nyanja. Yet she is clear that her deepest formation did not come from academic achievement alone, but from lived experience and spiritual refinement.
After university, Abigail reached a defining realization. The faith she had grown up around was genuine, but it was not yet personal. “I wanted to know Him for myself. Not just know about Him, but know Him personally, intimately, relationally, and authentically,” she said. She no longer wanted inherited belief alone. God was inviting her into relationship.
In 2020, during lockdown, she began writing what would become Uninterrupted Faith. What began as a writing project became a spiritual turning point. “It wasn’t just a creative process, it was a spiritual one. It stripped away routine and familiarity and brought me face to face with what I truly believed,” she shared. In that quiet season, faith shifted from environment to ownership.
One story in Scripture spoke to her deeply—the woman with the issue of blood. “What moved me most was that her faith alone caused Jesus to stop. And when He spoke to her, He didn’t address her as a stranger, He called her ‘daughter,’” she said. That word reframed everything. “It showed me that faith isn’t distant or transactional, it’s deeply personal,” she explained. In that moment, something shifted. “That was when my faith became truly real to me, when I stopped standing on inherited faith and started building my own relationship with God,” she said.
Personal faith did not remove stretching; it deepened it. Starting Konnect3 and stepping into visible leadership required courage and surrender. “From the very beginning, I wrestled with a profound sense of inadequacy,” she admitted. She questioned her voice and whether she was equipped for what God had placed before her. Through that tension, she learned a deeper definition of trust. “Trust isn’t the absence of fear, it’s choosing to move forward despite it,” she said.
Obedience required daily surrender. “Obedience has required radical surrender, surrender of control, surrender of timing, and surrender of my own expectations,” she explained. God was not simply expanding her influence; He was building her dependence.
In the past year alone, Abigail launched Konnect3, released Grace Whispers: The Bible Story in Poetry, planned her wedding, and prepared to step into marriage—all while carrying the responsibilities of work and everyday life. There were moments of quiet overwhelm. “There have been nights I’ve lain awake wondering how I could possibly hold all of this together,” she shared. Yet even there, God was reshaping her understanding of strength. “My weaknesses are the canvas for His power,” she said.
What He is doing in her now feels deeper than growth alone. “What God is doing in me right now feels deeper than simple character development, it feels like identity reconstruction,” she explained. She is learning a truth that cannot be self-generated. “I am learning that my identity is not something I manufacture, it is something He forms,” she said.
Surrender has not simplified her life. It has clarified her dependence. “Surrender has not made life easier. It has made me more aware. More honest. More dependent,” she reflected. Through grief, transition, leadership, and growth, God has remained constant.
Her writing reflects that journey. Grace Whispers: The Bible Story in Poetry invites readers to encounter Scripture as a living story of grace pointing to Jesus. Her work is not driven by visibility or platform. “God’s work through me is less about platform and more about presence,” she said.
Abigail’s life is not a story of arrival. It is a testimony of how God shaped her. It is evidence that God does not waste pain, overlook quiet seasons, or abandon His daughters in grief. He shapes. He sustains. He calls. And He remains faithful.
