Joe Ragan

The first Sunday of every month the Lord’s Supper is observed in Baptist Churches in the former Soviet Union. Most, if not all, churches use real wine and fresh bread, unlike most Baptist churches in the States.
As an ordained minister, I am called upon to help with these observances. Since children’s Sunday school [...]

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June 1 was Children’s Day in Kazakhstan.  Since it fell on a Sunday, our church had a special program honoring children.  Several children participated by singing songs, reciting poems and both sermons spent time reflecting on children.
After church I drove back to my apartment and noticed the park near my apartment full of people.  The [...]

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Sunday was an incredible day for me. Since last winter, I have been meeting with a group of young people from local churches. Each of them has a desire to know English better and to be used as a translator.
Most of them have never interpreted before a church service. Most of them [...]

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Yesterday during a meeting I shared a little of my testimony of my very first trip to Kstan in 2005.  My supervisor joked that he was dropping me off in the desert.  I heard it so much that I began to believe it!
Well, after I knew that I would be moving to Karaganda in 2007, [...]

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I am in Almaty this week.  Today I had the privilege of seeing a children’s day camp that one of our partner’s is hosting this week. They had around 70 kids from the neighborhood attending.  The area where my friend is starting his church is in an area where numerous nationalities live. Please remember [...]

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Sunday was a great day.  In the morning, I attended a church I have never been to before.  I am going to try to go to a different church once or twice a month so that I can  understand what is going on  in Karaganda.  The key verses shared that morning were from 1 Peter [...]

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Last Saturday, February 9, I showed “Facing the Giants” in English to my interpreter’s class.  I have now seen the movie several times and every time I am touched even more by the story.
Well, I discovered that there are some Bible studies on the the DVD along with clips to show.  I decided to use [...]

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It has been an interesting 3 years. I came to Kstan for the first time three years ago in January 2005. I began a website in order for people to be able to know what what happening here. It has been a fun ride.
Here is a snippet from the first entry…
…Well, the [...]

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I went to Pavlodar over the weekend to visit friends and to participate in a new church’s first service. It was great to witness. On Sunday night, a group of about 15 went to visit people and to perform a short Christmas program of about 10-15 minutes. Here are a few photos [...]

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to Ginny, Mike, Gloria, Janean, Patrice and Frank.  These dear friends in the Seattle area put together 2 boxes of gifts for me to use.  Ginny wrote me in Sept/Oct with the idea.  She (along with her gang) came up with the idea of acting as my “personal shopper”.  They asked me for gift ideas [...]

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