Joe Ragan

Sometimes progress is measured in inches. When I returned to Kiev in September 2003, I was amazed at the progress that had happened in 5 years!
Well, last night I noticed a new product being sold here that has never been here… Dr Pepper! I had to ask myself why I gave up sugar [...]

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The weather here has been interesting to say the least. Last week, it snowed often and on Christmas Day, it snowed really hard and we had several new inches of snow! Well, two days ago, it got above freezing, so by yesterday most of the snow has melted. Right now it is [...]

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Tuesday saw lots of snow fall in the capital city of Ukraine. Lots of snow! It snowed all day, at times very heavy.
I had two appointments and needed to drive my car. Needless to say, I don’t like to drive when there is lots of snow on the road. Usually, the [...]

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Here’s what took place in my life from Christmas Eve to Christmas night…
At noon on Saturday, Christmas Eve, one of my colleagues called and said that the Price family (another IMB family) would be leaving for the states on Sunday (instead of Tuesday as planned) as Richard was having some problems with the incision from [...]

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Well, I needed to do some Christmas shopping today. So, after doing my usual morning things, I went to Andriivskiy Spoosk to buy some souvenirs but the man I was looking for was not there today. I will try back tomorrow maybe.
Then I drove to the north part of Kiev to Petrovskiy Market [...]

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With any job, it has its ups and downs. Over the last 6 months I have not been working directly with students, pastors, and congregations since I have been preparing documents, recruitment pieces and recruiting Ukrainians to go to Kazakhstan as missionaries. Plus, I have been studying, researching and preparing to attend a [...]

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Well, it has been cold here the last few days. It has been below freezing now for a couple of days. The snow has frozen to ice and the patches of snow on the sidewalks and byways are like sheets of ice.
But, for a Texas boy that only saw snow once in his [...]

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Sunday, December 18, there was a ministry group from Rovno at Grace church to share about their ministry to orphans. There were about 20 or so people in the group. They sang songs, gave testimonies, and a couple of the guys preached. There were several orphans included in the group.
This group goes [...]

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I received a small packet from Wichita Falls on Wednesday. What was interesting was that the packet was mail just six days before! I could not believe that it left Texas on December 8 and arrived here on December 14! That has to be some kind of record!
Previously, I had received a [...]

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Tonight I really got to experience my first college basketball game in Kiev! Max called me last night and told me that his college team would be playing and asked if I wanted to go. Of course I wanted to experience this!
I met him, along with two other members from my church at [...]

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