Joe Ragan

Saturday, I went to the lake with several friends- Max, Anya, their children, Dima, Elvira and their two boys, and then a couple from their work and their son. We arrived around noon. The trip there was great. There were some large hills dotting the landscape along the way.
As we [...]

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I am a new convert to Firefox. I have read and heard about Firefox for a year now, and finally decided to give it a try. I heard that it loaded faster than Internet Explorer, but doubted it. However, it my one day of use, I think it is so! [...]

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In a few hours I am supposed to go to the lake with Max, Anya, Dima, Elvira, all of their children, plus a few more people. However, I woke up this morning and it is cloudy. It’s not supposed to be this way! The forecast called for sunny skies.
This will be the [...]

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I did not have grand illusions of what it meant to be a missionary in 1994 when I first moved to Ukraine. I was so sure of God’s call that it didn’t much matter where I was to live. I just wanted to be where God was leading me.
Not much has changed for [...]

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It was 61 degrees when I woke up this morning. I hate to tell you that. I understand that even places in South Dakota and Minnesota have been experiences temps over 100!
We even had a day without rain yesterday. Unfortunately, it rained again today. It was a shower really and made [...]

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Reality shows in America continue to stoop to new lows! Today on a music channel I saw that Tommy Lee, drummer and former husband of Pamela Anderson, has his own reality show.
The premise is that he is enrolled in college at Nebraska. The preview I saw has him attending classes in horticulture, chemistry and [...]

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I hate to tell my Texas friends, but it continues to rain here. The sidewalk in front of my apartment building is like a small lake and I cannot even walk that way. I think that since the first week of June when I was in Arkalik, that I have probably seen only [...]

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Saturdays are big wedding days in Kazakhstan (and Ukraine as well). All day long, I hear cars honking their horns as they travel up and down the main road in town. Since I live right on the main road, I hear them all!
Today, I went for a walk and found it humorous [...]

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Things have really changed in Karaganda in the year since I left. Last Spring, the largest supermarket closed due to lack of business (it was located right across the street from the central market). Other supermarkets were never too busy and, there was never more than one person standing in the check out [...]

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I don’t speak about SBC politics too often here. However, I am intrigued with all the talk that is going on in the blogging world concerning baptism and drinking.
There is a church in Oklahoma that is considering dropping baptism as a prerequisite for membership. Now, they aren’t saying that baptism is not important. [...]

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