Joe Ragan

On my recent trip to northern K’stan, I had the privilege to attend my first Kazakh worship service. It is a new church start (I do not want to reveal the city to protect the family). The story of how the church started is quite remarkable, but I am going to only give [...]

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As I arrived back in Karaganda after the road trip, the sun was shining, the wind blowing and it was WARM! I was excited that maybe winter was finally gone and spring was finally here!
The temperature was 62 degrees! Wow, it was so warm. I took a walk around downtown since I [...]

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No bath for 5 days. Eating lots of stuff that isn’t on my diet. No bath for 5 days. Sleeping in a different city and a different bed every night of the trip. Yet again, no bath. Meetings lots of people in many different places. Did I mention no [...]

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Winter has made a return performance (as if it needed another shot!). It has snowed the last 4 days and last night I walked to the gym where I have been playing basketball and on the return trip the wind has started to really blow and the snow was hitting my face like needles [...]

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I enjoy traveling. I always have. One of my biggest disappointments of my childhood was traveling with my dad. When we traveled across the mid-sections of the US, we were usually going to visit family and he wanted to get to where we were going. I was happy to be going, [...]

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No bath for 5 days. Eating lots of stuff that isn’t on my diet. No bath for 5 days. Sleeping in a different city and a different bed every night of the trip. Yet again, no bath. Meetings lots of people in many different places. Did I mention no [...]

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PRIORITY: Kazakhstan Parliament to vote soon on religious restriction!
The Kazakhstan parliament is debating a new law to restrict evangelistic efforts here. Some of these restrictions include: all “missionaries” would have to be registered (however, the law is written as such that every member of every church would need to be). Sharing with friends, [...]

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After my rollercoaster day in Saran, I arrived back in Karaganda and parked my car at the parking lot.
I walked to the local shopping center and looked for a new wallet and as usual didn’t find anything I liked. I typically don’t buy anything right away, I like to look around at the options.
Well, [...]

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Today was one of those roller coaster emotion days. I went to church in Saran, which is where the leader of the Baptist Union of Kazakhstan in pastor. Saran is about 20 km from Karaganda.
When I woke up and opened my kitchen blinds the land was covered in a new blanket [...]

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Yesterday, I went to see the dentist. If you have been reading my prayer requests, you know that I have been experiencing pain since late November.
I went to the dentist in Kiev in January and she took x-rays and after consulting with another dentist, they couldn’t conclude there was anything wrong with [...]

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