To Our Supporters and Ministry Partners,
Last year, I wrote in our year-end report that we had to embrace a lesson I learned years ago: “Different isn’t bad; it’s just different.” Our calendar continued to look different in 2021. As you are well aware, the ongoing disruptions from COVID-19 to which we’ve all become accustomed have dragged on for nearly two years now. While we continue to adjust our schedules, 2022 has started off with a BANG—though not in the fireworks variety that usually accompany a New Year.
After the holidays, Karen and I went to Key West for a short vacation. On January 11, while I was on a morning walk on the sidewalk near the beach, I was run over by a moped. The driver lost control of the moped, jumped the curb, and struck me from behind. After initial assessments in the Key West Emergency Room, I was airlifted to a hospital trauma unit in Miami. I sustained five broken ribs, a collapsed left lung, and a fractured scapula; my head required sutures and staples, and my knee continues to ache. My lung was a bit stubborn at first and required a chest tube to get it back on track. After five days in the hospital, once the doctors felt I had progressed enough and Karen believed I was once again “full of hot air,” I was released on Sunday, January 16.
I am unable to fly for at least a month because of the lung; the doctors also do not want me driving for several weeks. Consequently, we rented a car in Miami, and Karen began the nearly 12-hour drive home. We stopped for two nights at my in-laws’ home in south Georgia to break up our trip and rest. I arrived home on January 18th. Thankfully, in time, all my injuries will heal.
In the midst of this surprise setback, CULTURELink had to postpone a few training events that were scheduled for the beginning of 2022. However, we are looking forward to what God has in store for us this year. Opportunities are already on the calendar to work with our partners in Costa Rica, Jordan, Lebanon, Northern Cyprus, and Turkey. We are also working on additional requests in Thailand and Romania. Churches and organizations in the U.S. are beginning to reach out to us about consulting with and training them as they look to strengthen their ministries and relaunch short-term teams. Zoom continues to be a vital tool for worker care and leadership development around the globe.
Despite the challenges over the last two years, and particularly in the last week, we continue to stay focused on our mission to make disciples of those who will make disciples of all nations. We made a commitment in March 2020 to continually “move toward ministry.” Our trust in God’s plan and provision remains steadfast, and we will continue to move forward.
Thank you for investing into the nations through CULTURELink. Your generosity allowed 2021 to be rich and meaningful for our ministry. Your giving provides for our staff, the Ragans and the Hurlburts. Your investments allow us to respond to the needs of our partners around the globe. You do more than support programs; you transform lives! The list below are some highlights of what we accomplished together over the past year. Please review and celebrate with us all that God did through CULTURELink, and remember—you are a part of this work.
With deep gratitude,
Larry Ragan, Founder
Highlights of 2021
- CULTURELink’s friendship with Elam, a ministry that trains and equips Iranian believers to reach their fellow countrymen, continues to grow. Each quarter in 2021, Larry Ragan facilitated pastor care and counseling via Zoom with dozens of Persian church planters—many of whom have had to flee their home country, never to return, and others who are discipling believers to secretly build the Church in Iran.
- In February, Ryan Hurlburt conducted two virtual workshops that focused on cross-cultural sensitivity and effectiveness for the Standards of Excellence (SOE) annual conference on short-term missions, STM ConneXion.
- Two national leaders from El Salvador visited the US in March and were hosted by Ryan and Katharine as CULTURELink continues to explore ways to develop more strategic partnerships and assist local churches throughout San Salvador.
- In May, CULTURELink conducted virtual training for a team of business-for-transformation (B4T) workers in Turkey. After participants completed a cross-cultural personality assessment, we spent a day evaluating the results and discovering how they affect the workers’ interaction with those in the Turkish culture—and with each other.
- A new virtual training series for organizational leaders was launched in June. These 90-minute Lunch & Learn sessions allow us to take a consultative approach to topics faced by many organizations. The first module was “Effective Mobilization in the Local Church.” Over twenty participants from nine organizations joined us on Zoom.
- In June, CULTURELink hosted the pastor who oversees “The Kiln People Project.” Throughout 2020, CULTURELink provided for the basic needs of over 450 Pakistani families during pandemic lockdowns and increased persecution. During the pastor’s visit, the Ragans hosted a special night of prayer. The pastor shared updates on the project, and we prayed for him and the people of Pakistan.
- This summer, we met a Persian family who has relocated to Atlanta. The husband, who works for Elam, was quickly welcomed into our office home. We have enjoyed hearing the stories coming out of Iran in real-time and learning about people who are turning to Christ every day.
- In August, we conducted our first Help! We’re Going On A Short-Term Trip! seminar since the onset of the pandemic. While the number of participants was small compared to our normal “home” seminars in Atlanta, we were thrilled to be training short-term team leaders once again. Additionally, the size of the group allowed us to host the training in our office, which added to our appreciation of this milestone.
- When the government in Afghanistan collapsed, we facilitated a connection between a military contact and the network of Christian workers involved in Groundwork (the annual prayer conference in which the Ragans are involved). Three families were safely evacuated.
- In September, we were introduced to another family through our connections with Elam. The husband and wife, originally from Afghanistan, became influential leaders of the Persian church in Turkey. However, the Turkish government abruptly denied their visas and kicked them and their five children out of the country. Each family member had only a single suitcase of belongings, so CULTURELink began to network for their needs. In a short time, they had a place to stay, transportation, and enough gift cards to begin reestablishing their lives here.
- After graduating from Covenant College with a degree in Global Studies and dual emphases in Arabic and Community Development, Luke Ragan (Larry’s son) accepted a job in October with SERV International, working with their new project in Amman, Jordan. In addition to our excitement for him, Luke is also functioning as a valuable liaison for CULTURELink with Impact Middle East, SERV’s partner in Jordan.
- Ryan traveled to Pennsylvania twice to conduct training sessions for a team of twenty high school students from Lancaster County Christian School for their 2022 Spring Break mission trip. Two more training sessions have already been facilitated virtually.
- In November, Larry and Karen traveled to Turkey to provide training and pastoral care. Half of their time was spent with Persian church leaders connected to Elam’s ministry. The other half was spent at a conference for workers serving in closed-to-Christianity locations across the Muslim world. Larry and Karen, who are now on the leadership team for Groundwork (the group hosting the conference), also helped plan more worker-care events for 2022.
- A new seminar, The Purpose of Pain, was launched in November. Larry has previously taught on this subject as part of a conference with our Middle Eastern partners, but never in the States. As the pandemic continued to disrupt daily life, we considered ways to incorporate spiritual care for our international partners back home. This half-day seminar, piloted in the Atlanta area, will become another resource available for churches and communities across the country.
- Throughout the year, CULTURELink consulted with two churches and three parachurch organizations in the areas of organizational policy and structure, leadership development, volunteer training, outreach strategy, establishing healthy partnerships, and missionary care.
- CULTURELink has also partnered with another Atlanta-area nonprofit to launch a monthly gathering of ministry leaders and mobilizers. The purpose of these events is to help other ministries better network and more effectively collaborate with each other.
- Additionally, CULTURELink continues to invest in and serve our international partners as they maneuver the pandemic and other disruptions around the globe: B4T workers in the Balkan and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions, missionaries and business-as-mission (BAM) trainers in Costa Rica, Royal Kids School in Kenya, and Heart for Lebanon.
“Each year we host interns to serve with us. During the months they are here, we are constantly reacting to cultural stress, shock, and issues. Walking through this training with CULTURELink has prepared our hearts spiritually to serve like Christ, practically to understand ourselves and anticipate cultural issues as opportunities not problems, and intellectually prepare us to appreciate our differences rather than fight them. The spiritual training set the stage for the rest of summer. In the weeks that have followed since our equipping, not a day passes when someone doesn’t bring up an aspect of the training. Problems we used to have, have now been proactively solved.”
C & A, B4T Workers in Turkey