Joe Ragan

Birthdays are a big deal here that usually means an occasion for friends and family to gather to celebrate. One of my good friends, Pasha, celebrated his 25th birthday on Monday and his family had planned a big picnic in the woods near his home.
So, with Diet Coke in hand, I traveled to the [...]

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Today I attended the services at Grace Church in Kiev. The main musician was home sick and so his wife led the music. It was a very worshipful time.
Valodia then preached from 1 Corinthians 9:19-27. It was one of the best sermons I have heard him preach. Several of [...]

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Have you ever had one of those days where you had to do something important but really didn’t want to? That was the case for me on Saturday. I had planned a trip to Cherkassy with Dema (one of the Ukrainian’s praying about serving in Kazakhstan) to visit his pastor, and also to [...]

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Being out of town takes one out of their routine. I went to Odessa to talk to young people about Kazakhstan and our project to send missionaries from Ukraine there. However, I have never been to Odessa and so I decided to go a couple of days early to see the sights.
Odessa sits [...]

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Well, I am off to Odessa, Ukraine this morning. I will be attending a youth conference on Monday-Wednesday in the city. However, I have never been to Odessa, and have heard that it is a beautiful city, so I decided to go down a few days early to take in the sites.
Several of [...]

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I wanted to share with you an email that I received from my friend and student who lives in Central Asia. His name is Peter, but due to security reasons I will not say what country.
“Hello Joe. Everything is good here for me, praise the Lord. I am eating grapes, watermelon, melons and [...]

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The only news I really watch in English is from CNN International. It helps me stay in touch with what is going on in the world. Besides, I am a news junkie (from my old journalism days) and would love to have an English newspaper to read every morning if there was a [...]

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Today I decided to take some time for myself. I was scheduled to drive to Cherkassy but it was rescheduled for later in the month, so I had the day “off”.
There is a market in north Kiev that sells lots of books, videos, DVDs and CDs. Of course, most of the music and [...]

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Wow! My 100th blog! I cannot believe it.
The Psalms are small capsules full of insight into the lives of various writers, but mostly David. This morning, I read several psalms, 34-38, and as I read them, I discovered where several Christian songs get their wording.
For example, Third Day (and probably others) sings [...]

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Well, the rainy season has hit a month early I think and with it has brought cooler temps. It felt down right fallish on Monday and the last few days have been beautiful and clear, that is until about 5 p.m.
The rain has returned and so have the cooler temps. It seems [...]

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