Joe Ragan

I am so blessed to live in Karaganda.  Today I met a brother for tea/coffee and we had a good time visiting.  Zhenya has been such a big help to me from time to time.  He is a genius when it comes to the computer.  After the computer specialists were here for 4 hours last [...]

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I have lived in my current apartment for 6 weeks now. On Friday, I was visiting some Americans that live in Karaganda. One of them mentioned that he watched a college football game. I asked him what satellite channel he watched and he said that it was through the local cable system. [...]

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The IMB’s focus this year is the former Soviet Union.  The week of Prayer in December will feature personnel from the former Soviet Union.
Tonight I ordered some GREAT materials from the site.  Check it out and order some of the materials for yourself or your church.

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Remember the slogan “I want my MTV”?  It popularized MTV in the 80’s and one could hear it expressed on the streets as it became part of the pop culture in the US.
Well, the six months I was in the US, I became somewhat addicted to House MD.  Hugh Laurie is perfect in the role [...]

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I remember Sam Wyche as he coached the Cincinnati Bengals.  I ran across this story on ESPN.com.  It was neat to hear how he is still coaching… as a volunteer coach for a high school team.  Way to go coach…

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For those who know me well, they know that I LOVE Mexican food!  Whenever I fly to the US, I try to make Mexican my first meal.  I could probably eat it every day…
Last week, I began planning a Mexican feast for myself.  I had some corn tortillas and a can of chili left over [...]

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Today was Republic Day in Kazakhstan.  There were celebrations in every center I visited today.  Eastern European/ Central Asians like their celebrations and they were celebrating all over the city.
Government offices will be closed until Sunday so there will be fewer people driving for the next few days.
I was able to play basketball tonight and [...]

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It has turned off cold again… right now at 9 p.m. it is 29 degrees. Thursday night’s low is supposed to be around 9! I guess that ba-ba letom is gone for good and made way for us to go from “summer” to “winter”.
This afternoon I had to walk to the grocery store [...]

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I have a Vonage phone that I purchased while on my last trip to the US in August.  I haven’t been able to get it to work properly here.  I have spent 2 hours on the phone the Vonage tech people who finally told me to contact my local internet provider.
I told one of my [...]

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It has been a great week in many regards. I spent parts of 3 days getting my car registered and tagged. Finally on Wednesday afternoon that happened…
A colleague from Astana came down and we had some very good meetings with ministry partners. We are in agreement in several issues to see Kingdom [...]

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