To Our Supporters and Ministry Partners,
Thank you for financially investing in the nations through CULTURELink. We are grateful that each of you is on our team. Below is a year-end report highlighting the difference you helped make in 2019.
- Seven Help! We’re Going on a Short-Term Trip! 15-hour instructional seminars were conducted throughout the United States. Larry Ragan led five of these weekends, and Ryan Hurlburt led two.
- CULTURELink now has over 2,100 alumni who have completed the Help! We’re Going on a Short-Term Trip!
- These alumni have now trained and deployed multiple teams to 125 nations.
- In February, Larry was asked to lead a breakout session for the MOVE Conference at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church. He taught two sessions on Worldview: Its Impact on Short-Term Missions, Evangelism, and Everyday Life.
- In March, Larry’s father, Waymon Ragan, passed away. In his honor, a memorial fund was created for gifts to be designated toward Caleb Ragan’s Spinal Muscular Atrophy Care Fund and CULTURELink’s International Projects. CULTURELink oversaw the administration of this restricted fund.
- In April, Larry and Karen attended a conference in Turkey to serve 750 missionaries who work in the most challenging, Christian-persecuted areas of the world. As a result of this trip, more opportunities are pouring in for CULTURELink to train, equip, and care for more servants reaching the Muslim world.
- In June, Larry was asked to teach a conference on suffering and temptation to 60 Lebanese and Syrian leaders. He joined his home church, Johnson Ferry Baptist, on a short-term trip to serve these workers in partnership with Heart for Lebanon.
- After Hurricane Dorian dealt catastrophic damage to the Bahamas in September, CULTURELink partnered with Island Outreach and Missionary Flights International to raise funds for immediate relief efforts. Over $14,000 was given to assist the two organizations as they provided supplies and transport to the most devastated regions of the country.
- Through connections at the Turkey conference in April, Larry was invited to attend a BAM/B4T (Business as Mission / Business for Transformation) conference in Houston. From there, he was asked to represent Open Access B4T at the New Wineskins Conference in September, which brought together over 1,500 Anglican mission leaders. Larry taught a pre-conference session entitled How to Mobilize the Church for BAM to Unreached People Groups.
- 2019 marked the sixth anniversary of CULTURELink’s partnership with Royal Kids School, orphanage, and the surrounding community of Mikindani, Kenya. In 2013, Daughters of the Word was born. From the first Inductive Bible Studies class to now, women have been trained to study the Scriptures—and now are training others. This year, with CULTURELink’s support and Karen Ragan’s mentorship, the national leaders continued to develop their long-term strategy and network for Inductive Bible Studies training throughout Kenya.
- Students at Royal Kids School in Mombasa, Kenya, were provided with another year’s worth of food through our partnership with SERV International. Over 800 students received two meals daily.
- Additionally, CULTURELink provides college scholarships for three high school graduates from Royal Kids School. One of the students, Ronald, was recently written up in an article celebrating his efforts is environmental sustainability.
- This summer, Ryan Hurlburt launched CULTURELink’s new website and began developing new communication strategies for the ministry.
- In September, Ryan and Katharine Hurlburt invited a ministry partner from El Salvador to visit Atlanta. They began exploring ideas for a more strategic partnership with local churches and ministries in San Salvador, with the goal of leading another team in 2020.
- Katharine began scouting a potential partnership on the Texas/Mexico border, spending a weekend in September serving alongside a local church in South Texas and learning about the long-term needs and goals there. In November, the pastor and his wife, along with their son (who runs a parachurch ministry that mobilizes teams to South Texas) flew to Atlanta to network with churches and explore a potential partnership with CULTURELink.
- In November, Larry and Karen traveled to Egypt to speak at Heliopolis Community Church in Cairo, and to Jordan to minister to workers in Amman from various organizations.
- In December, Ryan returned to Costa Rica for the fourth consecutive year to continue CULTURELink partnership with SCORE International and its GAP Year program. Fifteen college-age students learned about biblical discipleship, a biblical worldview, and culture shock. He also inaugurated another partnership with a ministry school in Costa Rica whose focus is training and equipping Latin-American missionaries to serve around the globe.
- CULTURELink staff consulted with three churches in the areas of policies and procedures, international partnership development, and discipleship of short-term teams. Working with these churches keeps Larry on the road regularly. There are already four more consulting partnerships, including with sending agencies, in the works for 2020.
- CULTURELink applied for and was approved to become a Resource Provider for the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Missions (SOE).
“Our family has been blessed by the pastoral care received by CULTURELink. Larry and his team continually offer biblical counseling and encouragement, which renews and refreshes our vision for cross-cultural ministry and thriving as a family overseas. The CULTURELink team has always been ready at a minute’s notice to offer pastoral care! Larry is available as a listening ear, a voice of truth and encouragement and has always been willing to partner with us in the work of bringing the Gospel of Jesus to the nations. We have been blessed by the vision and heartbeat of CULTURELink.”
A & B, Missionaries to Unreach Peoples