Joe Ragan

I have written on a number of ocassions that I love new adventures (sometimes they happen to find me when I am not looking for them). Wednesday happened to be one of those days.
James and Julie Kim had stored some personal things here in Kiev after they moved to K’stan. They were to [...]

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Missionary at large. A man without a country.
Yesterday I met with the administration team for our field. It was explained what I am going to be doing over the next few months and one person asked what my title was going to be. Several laughed and I thought about the [...]

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On Sunday, June 12 I flew from Astana (the new capital of K’stan) to Kiev. When I purchased the ticket, I knew the flight also flew to Almaty to pick up passengers and then would fly on to Kiev. The flight was scheduled to leave at 4:30 a.m. from Astana so the Kim’s [...]

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PRIORITY: UPDATE
No word yet if the upper house of Parliament in Kazakhstan voted on the second reading yet. Please continue to pray.
FOCUS ON NATIONAL PASTORS/ LEADERS:
Viktor, is a missionary working with the Arkalik church in a village about 100 km from Arkalik. He is working to plant a new church in the village. [...]

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The word for fireworks show in Russian is “sa-lut”. The neighborhood where my apartment in Kiev is located threw a big party for my return and had a huge fireworks show around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday night. I felt so honored that they would do this for me on my return…
Well, it really [...]

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PRIORITY: UPDATE
I still have not heard anything on whether or not the parliament has voted. Please continue to pray.
FOCUS ON NATIONAL PASTORS/ LEADERS:
Sasha, is the leader of the work in Arkalik. He is an ordained deacon. Arkalik is one of the most unique cities I have ever visited in Kazakhstan (or any [...]

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Zhenya came by to see me today. He had an empty bag in his hands so I knew his family needed food.
I met Zhenya last month when he and his sister were going door to door to ask for food. After my last contact with him I was very happy to see him.
I [...]

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Summer has arrived in K’stan. When I left for Arkalik last Thursday I was wearing a jacket. The weather had turned a little cool and so I took the jacket. When I arrived in Arkalik it was really hot. On Monday it was 35 degrees Celsius. Fortunately for me, Tuesday [...]

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Wow! It seems like forever since I last posted anything on the site. I have been in Arkalik for 5 days. I went there to lead a seminar on small group ministry. I preached on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday morning and then had the seminar on Sunday afternoon.
It [...]

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June 1st is the first day of summer and we begin by having a day that should turn out in the low 60’s. Yesterday we had a brief rain storm and then it was windy and cool last night.
This morning the skies are clear and the sun was up early, around 5 a.m. [...]

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