Joe Ragan

I am traveling to north-eastern Kazakhstan today to visit some friends.  I will spend 8-9 hours on the bus there today, spend the night and then travel the same 8-9 bus ride back to Karaganda tomorrow.

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This video speaks for itself.

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This week the dollar’s exchange rate versus the Kazakh tenge has gone up. I was walking down the street on Monday and noticed the exchange rate was 128 tenge to $1. The usual rate this summer was around 123-124. Not much differenc but still significant.
Well, the next morning it was 130 to [...]

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to declare that fall might be here. The past two days have been downright hot! It is 10 p.m. here now and it is still 70 warm degrees. The last 2 days have been around 90 for a high and that is true for the next few days. However, I am [...]

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Now that I am back in Karaganda, I have a busy week ahead.
Primarily, I will be preparing to teach two classes at the Bible Institute. I am teaching research methods and Apologetics.
While I taught both of them before I am trying to revamp the classes, especially the Apologetics class.
I am [...]

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September 1 is traditionally the first day of school across the former Soviet Union. They call it “first bell.”
I don’t think they actually have class that day. It is filled with pomp and circumstance (I’m using this phrase to see if my friend Max can figure it out…).
The Baptist churches in [...]

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Woke up this morning to rain. It rained until around 10 a.m. and the sun finally began to shine around noon.
I went to the garage to get a few more things I needed to set up house. I noticed as soon as I stepped out the door that it was cooler than the [...]

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As many of you know, my mother passed away on August 4.  My sisters and I wanted the funeral to be a celebration of her life and so I penned the following tribute to my mom.
Sunday, August 5, I woke up knowing that both of my parents are no longer on this earth.  My mom [...]

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After a more than one hour delay, we left Frankfurt and arrived in Astana at 11:40 p.m. local time.  I was able to get to the passport control area early and was one of the first through.  It didn’t help…
Once luggage from our plane arrived, I noticed that they had the wrong airport code.  You [...]

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I arrived in Frankfurt this am.  It is a BUSY airport!  I went to McDonald’s for coffee and waited in line for a long time, and then the coffee wasn’t very good…
I was able to sleep on the plane.  That is VERY unusual.  I think I slept through both movies so that’s pretty good!  I [...]

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