Joe Ragan

Today I was at the Baptist Union office. They have a terrific map which indicates the major people groups in the major cities of Kazakhstan and of each oblast (like a state).
Here is the breakdown in the city of Karaganda and the oblast
Russians: 52.1% [...]

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I am back in Ukraine. The Lord blessed me with a good trip from Dallas to Frankfurt to Kyiv. I barely had time to walk from the gate I arrived at in Frankfurt to my departure gate before it was time to load the bus to go to the plane.
The airport [...]

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Ukraine, along with Poland, has been selected to host the UEFA Championships in 2012. Click here to read more.
I’m excited that Ukraine will have the opportunity to host such a prestigious football (known as soccer in the US) championship. This comes in the midst of protests and people living on the streets of [...]

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I just read on this site that Yanukovich, Ukraine’s prime minister, is paying young people to sleep in tents near the parliament.
How much money would it take for you to sleep in a tent for days, weeks, months (????) at the end of winter in Kyiv? I’m thinking it would take more [...]

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Today I got to do something that I never thought I would get to do… attend spring training.
I made the short drive up to Fort Lauderdale (I’m staying in Hollywood). I finally found the stadium but I wasn’t sure what time they would be practicing. As it happened, they were actually having a [...]

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Many have asked why I spell Kyiv the way I do and not Kiev. The Kyiv spelling is from Ukrainian and sometimes is spelled Kyyiv. The Kiev spelling is from Russian. Since I live in Ukraine I decided to spell it the Ukrainian way. However, at times I may spell it [...]

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During WW II, there was a segment of the population that fought against the Nazis and the Red Army of the Soviet Union. They were fighting for Ukraine’s indepence.
Yesterday, a large rally was held in the downtown area and there were a few minor clashes between the Red Army veterans and these [...]

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I found this article interesting…
It says there are over 39 million subscribers to cell phone services. This is in a country with about 48-49 million people. I knew that many (and I do mean MANY, young people have cell phones, but this is hard to believe that almost 80% of the population have [...]

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The weather in Kyiv has been simply spectacular of late. Temps in the low 70’s for highs and in the 50’s at night. In other words, near perfect for me!
I saw my neighbor on the street earlier this week and we were talking about the weather. She shared with me the following [...]

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Squeals of delight from children are filling my apartment right now. What’s unusual this time is why the children are screaming…girls playing soccer.
In my three years are living in Ukraine, I think this is the very first time I have seen girls playing soccer (the rest of the world calls it football!!).
It [...]

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