To Our Supporters and Ministry Partners,
Like each of you, 2020 was different than we expected. As I learned years ago, different isn’t bad, it’s just different. When last year started, CULTURELink was set to have its strongest training and international outreach year ever. On March 11th, as we wrapped up a seminar at Chick-Fil-A headquarters and looked forward to launching our training partnership for their international projects, everyone’s phones started pinging. The staff was told that headquarters was shutting down immediately. I knew that this partnership was either over or, at best, postponed.
The next day, the conference in Turkey—where we were to serve over 700 missionaries working in the toughest closed-to-Christianity countries—got cancelled. We had just completed trips to Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, and now each follow up trip for 2020 was cancelled. Multiple training seminars were taken off the calendar. Missionaries contacted us to help get their teams and families home while others needed help getting family members from the states to their home countries.
A week later, all was quiet. My kids came home from college. A missionary kid moved in our home to quarantine for two months when she couldn’t make it back to Jordan to be with her family. My calendar was empty. I knew 2020 had to be redefined and that our mission to make disciples of those who would make disciples of all nations would look differently.
I was reminded to pay attention to what was in front of me, rather than being frustrated by what was not taking place. God said move forward. With this shift in thinking, numerous Zoom calls took place where Karen and I provided missionary care for workers who were now trying to redefine their lives. I joined the instructional teams for different virtual training conferences to mobilize workers around the globe. Ryan and I grabbed the opportunity to launch a new seminar—Intentional Living. Between two seminars, one in South Carolina and the other in Atlanta, we taught 65 people face-to-face and another 28 virtually.
Opportunities kept rolling in. In Pakistan, we partnered with a pastor to care for 450 families who were being persecuted. No government aid would be provided to them unless they renounced Christ and converted to Islam. Three faithful Christ followers there lost their lives—martyred. We began funding $30 per month to each family in order to satisfy their daily needs. By faith, we sent financial resources and then watched as God faithfully provided the resources back to us. This project ran for four months until the families were able to work again. We came alongside our partners in El Salvador in a similar way. Through a nonprofit that ministers to prostitutes, we helped provide food for many of the women and their children. Without it, their only alternative was to continue working in prostitution. By helping to supply the daily bread for these families, we invested in our partners’ long-term credibility and influence in their communities.
With schools mandated to close in Kenya, our partners at Royal Kids School in Mombasa were desperate to stay afloat and keep paying their 70 staff. Every employee was reduced to $50 per month salary. Royal Kids needed $5000 a month to meet their basic operating expenses while they waited for the country to reopen. CULTURELink committed to walk alongside of them for 6 months—$30,000—to help cover their need. Some months we sent the $5000 from our operating budget and trusted God to bring it back to us. Other months, unexpected gifts miraculously came through. From July through December 2020, God provided exactly $5000 the day the funds were needed—all $30,000! As of January 2021, Royal Kids has reopened, all 750 students are back in class, and monthly tuition is being collected again. God bridged the gap and we got to be a part.
In November, an opportunity opened up to go to Turkey to work with refugee Persian pastors and network with Business for Transformation (B4T) workers who are using their businesses as a platform to reach Muslims. Karen and I went with three stateside B4T partners and helped them network across Turkey. Closed-door meetings with Persian pastors took place where we could care for and counsel them. God’s timing was perfect: the day we flew home, the country returned to extreme lockdown.
The last thing I want to share is something that happened right here in Atlanta. Over the second quarter of 2020, through unplanned and unusual introductions, Ryan and I met six men. All six are in ministry and serve around the globe. And they all saw their plans to get to their field sites delayed or derailed because of COVID-19. All were total strangers to us before 2020. By the end of the summer, however, we were gathering together to pray and we were meeting regularly with them individually. They opened their hearts to us and shared their dreams, fears, and frustrations. They allowed us to strategize, develop, train, mobilize, and encourage them. One Friday during our group prayer time, I saw God’s heart for the nations. There was a Canadian hoping to head to Australia with his family to join an evangelism movement. Next to him was a Palestinian believer, raised in Bethlehem, using his travel business to reach Muslims. Across from me, leading our devotion, was a young former professional soccer player from England, who focuses his time and energy on the Iran-region and the Persian church. To my right sat a U.S. citizen, who works for the Israeli government, crying out to God for the Middle East. (As God would have it, this man had met our Palestinian friend at a conference in Colorado six months earlier. Both were shocked to see each other in my office!) At the end of the table sat a Brazilian who was heading to Albania and Macedonia to plant churches among Muslims. And next to me was a Kenyan, who is helping to feed hungry villages across East Africa, praying blessings over us all as only Africans can do. Two other Americans joined us as well, one having served in South America and the other with a ministry in East Africa.
In that moment, I realized God was continuing to fulfill His call on me, Ryan, and CULTURELink to make disciples of those who make disciples of all nations. Last year, I was not able to travel to encourage missionaries around the globe as much as I had planned. I was not able to train and mobilize laborers to the field in the same manner as in previous years. However, God accomplished His plan perfectly. Our year was full, rich, and meaningful. Remember, different isn’t bad, it’s just different!
Thank you for being on our team!
Highlights of 2020
- Three Help! We’re Going On A Short-Term Trip! seminars were conducted in January.
- The Ragans returned to Lebanon in February to care for and equip Lebanese and Syrian workers who are serving refugees.
- In February, Larry was the guest speaker at a marriage conference at in Huntsville, AL, as well as a workshop facilitator at the MOVE Conference at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church Marietta, GA.
- An all-day training seminar was facilitated for Chick-Fil-A’s international missions ministry, Lifeshape, in March.
- Ryan participated in a virtual panel discussion with Standards of Excellence (SOE) on the topic of discipleship and cross-cultural training for short-term missions in May.
- Over 450 persecuted Christian families in Pakistan were given food and daily essentials for four months when COVID-19 shut down their employment and the government refused aid.
- 300 families in El Salvador were supplied with food and hygiene essentials after strict lockdowns were enforced and business halted.
- The 70 staff at Royal Kids School in Mombasa, Kenya were ensured a salary from July through December when schools were forced to close due to the pandemic.
- In July, we hosted Live Missions, a missions organization from Texas, for a 2-day consultation on mobilization and partnership development for short-term teams.
- A new seminar, Intentional Living, was created and piloted in Columbia, SC in October to teach believers how to be the Church as Jesus intended in everyday life. A second seminar was hosted in the Atlanta area in November. In total, over 90 people were trained.
- The Ragans traveled to Turkey in November to care for refugee Persian pastors and network with B4T workers.
- Over the course of 8 months, we cared for and helped mobilize a Brazilian family to their field site in Albania. After their training in the U.S. was delayed and ultimately cancelled, CULTURELink served as their networking hub, provided care and cultural training, and became their extended family. They finally made it to Albania in December.
- From May through December, we consulted with an AFCI missionary from Canada, who is moving his family to the field in Australia, on small group discipleship curriculum and training churches in evangelism movements.
- CULTURELink celebrated its 10th anniversary!
“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