To Our Supporters and Ministry Partners,
Thank you for investing in the nations through CULTURELink. Your financial generosity and prayer support allow us to respond to the needs of our partners and the numerous invitations we receive from around the globe. Through your giving and by God’ grace, we continue to deepen our relationships and expand our involvement internationally. As you review last year’s highlights, join us in celebrating God’s goodness.
- 2025 started strong with three Help! We’re Going On A Short-Term Trip! seminars—one in Atlanta, GA, one in Tampa, FL, and one closed class with a church partner in Atlanta, GA.
- In late January, Ryan Hurlburt conducted a workshop on “Designing Short-Term Trips with Your Partners” at the annual Mission Connexion Northwest Conference in Portland, OR. CULTURELink was a conference sponsor once again.
- The Ragans returned to Saudi Arabia in February for a 10-day prayer retreat, traveling throughout the country to intercede in strategic places. Afterward, Karen traveled to Tajikistan for a prayer conference, in addition to caring for workers.
- In February, Larry Ragan conducted a workshop at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church’s MOVE Conference. He also taught an Intentional Living seminar for a church partner in the Atlanta, GA area.
- Larry was invited by the Navigators staff at the University of Alabama to lead a spiritual life retreat for over 30 students in March.
- In late March, Ryan joined the Ragans in Northern Cyprus for the Groundwork West Conference, where 1000 workers gathered to pray for the Muslim world. Many of those in attendance serve in some of the toughest and most-closed-to-Christianity regions of the world. Karen again helped on the admin team and Larry’s time was filled with worker care meetings. Ryan was able to meet many of CULTURELink’s global partners for the first time.
- After Groundwork, the Ragans traveled to Morocco to visit their son, Luke, who was in the middle of a master’s degree program (he has since concluded his classwork and internship, and is in the job interview process with multiple organizations).
- In June, Larry was invited to teach and care for 75 workers (including children) in Thailand as part of Global Frontier Mission’s (GFM) 25-year anniversary. These missionaries traveled from all over Southeast Asia, sharing stories of God’s faithfulness when ministries were thriving, testimonies of His sustaining grace when people were betrayed, and accounts of God’s healing when some faced life-threatening sicknesses.
- Ryan traveled to South Texas with his family in June to meet with Border Perspective’s staff and visit their local partners. Border Perspective equips, educates, and mobilizes people through biblical resources and service-learning trips along the U. S. / Mexico border.
- Over the summer, the Ragans hosted multiple missionary families: one from Pakistan, two from Egypt, one from Saudi Arabia, and another from Indonesia. These visits allow for more informal, yet deeper conversations and worker care. This care varied from fieldsite debriefing and re-entry processing, trauma care, and marriage counseling.
- In August, Ryan once conducted a training retreat for Lancaster County Christian School in Pennsylvania to prepare their high school seniors for service with our ministry partner in Costa Rica.
- At the end of August, Larry spent a weekend conducting a debriefing and trauma care retreat for a team of eight workers who had been suddenly kicked out of a country in the Middle East. Working through their shock and pain, together they grieved their hopes and plans that were shattered after years of ministry. Slowly, we are seeing God healing and redirecting them.
- Over several weeks in September and October, the Ragans spent time in Uzbekistan, Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. A major highlight for them was serving as the spiritual directors and leaders for an eight-day prayer event throughout Saudi.
- In October, Ryan returned to Lancaster, PA, to equip leaders at a training seminar at Lancaster Evangelical Free Church.
- In November, Larry and Karen traveled to Southeast Asia for the Groundwork East Conference, where over 500 workers from across the region. Karen once again fulfilled her role on the admin team and Larry met one-on-one for multiple hours providing counseling, encouragement, and life coaching to workers.
- Just before Thanksgiving, the Hurlburts celebrated the birth of their third son, Ari.
- From relationships formed and strengthened on the trips mentioned above, Larry has been in regular communication via Zoom with several workers in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia for follow-up care sessions. These servants join the dozens of other workers CULTURELink already mentors around the globe.
- CULTURELink celebrated its 15th anniversary! In honor of the milestone, a faithful and generous friend of our ministry committed $15,000 to a matching fund. We continue to be thrilled and humbled by the response, as we surpassed that goal.
- The revised and updated edition of our curriculum, Help! We’re Going On A Short-Term Trip!, is complete and will be ready to ship soon!
- Initial planning has begun to lay out our curriculum in an online learning management system (LMS), along with initial conversations with a videographer to include teaching videos in the LMS modules.
- Since 2010, the total number of leaders CULTURELink has trained is over 3,400. These servants have gone on to mobilize teams and conduct ministry in 141nations.
- CULTURELink continues to provide leadership and resources for a network of other Atlanta-area nonprofits, now known as the Atlanta Missions Collective. Alongside other ministry leaders, the Collective hosts a monthly gathering of staff and mobilizers from a variety of churches and missions organizations. These events are helping ministries better network and more effectively collaborate.
- CULTURELink continues to invest in and serve our partners in Mombasa, Kenya.
From training church leaders, to restoring weary and wounded workers who serve in the toughest regions of the world, to equipping ministries and churches to strategically impact the globe, your partnership allows CULTURELink’s mission—making disciples of those who make disciples of all nations—to be realized. You do more than support programs; you transform lives!
Looking forward in 2026, ministry trips are already in the works to Egypt, Tajikistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia, Switzerland, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, and Costa Rica. Three training seminars are already on the calendar, with discussions for at least three more. Keep praying!
“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