Permanent Impact February 2008

. . . a newsletter to keep you up-to-date with Sculley family adventures in Russia and beyond

We're willing to go . . . are you willing to send us?

What's the latest?
We're in Russia!

We arrived here on the 1st of February - apologies for not writing sooner. I intended to send this newsletter as soon as we turned in our long-term visa applications, which took a bit longer than we'd anticipated - we had a lot of little glitches along the way. But we are happy to report that we've submitted those now, before the quota ran out!! It is not an exaggeration to say that this is a miracle! God continues to amaze us in the ways He leads and blesses us. We've begun the many transitions involved with a move of this magnitude . . . some things that we expected to have more difficulty with haven't turned out to be as much of a challenge as we thought they would be and have turned out in many ways to be blessings in disguise (e.g. winter weather, smaller living environment, no car). Other things are difficult as we knew they would be - being away from loved ones is definitely the hardest part! But God is faithful and we are depending on Him and His strength to get us through. Your emails are such a source of encouragement to each of us! We're enjoying the journey - hope you enjoy the photos below, which give you a tiny glimpse into our lives here. I've started writing a weekly blog entry to encourage you - check it out and sign up for automatic emails if you'd like to have them emailed to you (there's a button on the left side of the blog where you can subscribe) - http://permanentimpact.blogspot.com/

Here's our physical address, if you'd like to send any flat items - we don't recommend mailing anything larger. You can print this page out and paste this on the envelope:
Paul and Karen Sculley
Нижний Новгород г
Родионова ул, 180, #23
RUSSIA

Support:
We are inviting all our friends & family to be our partners in ministry through prayer, financial, and moral support. We need you! We invite you to join us in this mission. We can go much further together—it’s teamwork! Our sending church provides some financial support; however, we are responsible to raise most of what our budget will require. Our current support level is 49% of our 2008 financial needs - praise God!

We trust God to provide everything we need to do all that He wants us to do in and through us. If you would like to invest what God has given you in Kingdom activity, through financial partnership, here are some options (all financial contributions are processed through the Atlanta Vineyard, our sending church, and are 100% tax deductible in the U.S.A.):

* automated giving (automatic monthly deductions from your checking or savings account - click here for the form - be sure to write "Sculley - Russia" in the space under "recommended giving"). Once you print out and fill in the form, please mail it to the address indicated at the bottom of the form.
* billpay using your bank's system - just mention "Sculley - Russia" on the comment line
* snail-mail (please make checks payable to the “Atlanta Vineyard”, leave the comment line blank, and mail them to our address - please ask us for it, to simplify the process of applying donations to the correct account). Our personal finance team will handle the processing of all donations mailed to our U.S. address.
* online giving via PayPal (http://www.atlantavineyard.com/resources/online_giving.html — just mention “Sculley - Russia” on the online giving comment line)

We are committed to integrity, and the Atlanta Vineyard missions and financial departments hold us accountable in financial matters. We are living simply and debt-free in Russia, as we always have, and have prepared a budget which we'd be happy to share with anyone who's interested. Thanks for your support!

Praise Reports:
* Praise God for His presence in our lives! We are very aware of His grace and blessing in myriads of ways. It truly is an exciting adventure we're on, and we're enjoying the journey. Of course there are ups and downs, but God has given us His joy and peace throughout.
* Thank God for clearing the pathway ahead of us for all our paperwork! We are so thankful for the huge help that our friends Dave, Kathy, and Misha have been in the many hours this has required.
* Our friend Valya is going to tutor Paul & Karen, and P & J, in our Russian studies. We've all been using the Russian we have, and look forward to learning more!
* We've really enjoyed connecting at the Nizhny Novgorod Vinogradnik (Vineyard), building relationships, youth group, children's ministry, student ministry, prayer and leadership groups, and serving the church.
* God has given us many opportunities to pray with and for others, and to frequently prayerwalk around the city (often in buses and malls where it's warm!).
* In response to our prayers for unity, God continues to connect us with others from various nationalities and streams in the body of Christ. P and J are connecting with young adults from all over the world who are studying in Nizhny at the medical institute. Karen enjoys praying on a weekly basis with people from churches all over the city. We were delighted that a week after we arrived, the first edition of a brand new newspaper was published, the purpose of which is to connect churches in Nizhny Novgorod.
* The Lord has given us creative ways to encourage leaders including sharing a daily devotional guide during the season of Lent that our family is also using.
* We've started building relationships with neighbors in our community. People are generally very friendly and helpful in our crowded yet quiet neighborhood.

Please pray for us:
* Pray that God will continue to open doors for us to do all that He has for us to do in Russia. We trust God for His timing, plans, and provision.
* Pray for God's protection from illnesses and accidents.
* Pray for each one of us to make special friends here, and to stay connected with our friends elsewhere. We're also seeking ways for our children to plug into groups, classes, sports, and other opportunities.
* Pray for our ongoing Russian language studies, and for fluency in conversational Russian.
We pray for you, too - please let us know your specific prayer requests. It's such a joy to pray for one another! We have each of your names written on our prayer wall in the kitchen.

Our vision:
*mobilize prayer
*promote unity in the body of Christ
*raise up leaders

We appreciate your prayers so much! Thank you!

“The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.” (1 Samuel 30:24)

Visit our blog:
http://permanentimpact.blogspot.com/

In Russia with love,
Paul, Karen, P, J, M, C, E, & K Sculley

"God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us." (Ephesians 3:20 - 21, The Message)

May God bless you and keep you, smile on you and gift you, look you full in the face and prosper you!" (Numbers 6)

Reveal the Treasure

For the first three weeks we were here, I thought we had floral curtains in our bedroom. But then we bought a lamp last week. The first time we turned on the lamp, it highlighted the presence of many beautiful white embossed butterflies fluttering among the flowers all over the fabric. It’s surprising in retrospect that we didn’t see them before, but they weren’t very noticeable until there was strong lighting in close proximity.

As carriers of Christ’s presence, we are treasure hunters, treasure seekers. Graham Cooke, a well-known author and speaker, has a wonderful teaching on this. God wants us to shine brightly, in close proximity, the light of Christ on people’s lives, to reveal the treasure He has placed within them. God made each person in His image – a good thing to ponder regularly. Unfortunately, sin horribly mars the image, but God’s heart is that each person would become fully all that He intended them to be. That’s why Jesus came – to find and restore the lost (Luke 19:10, The Message). As followers of Christ, God sends us with His eyes, to see people the way He sees them. Whenever God brings someone into our lives, we can ask Him, “How do you see this person?” Usually the first thing we see is the obvious stuff, their problems, their shortcomings. We need to look beyond that and see what God wants to bring forth in their lives. We can shine the light of Christ on them – He will reveal the treasures we didn’t notice at first. By ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can release people into healing and freedom and fullness. What an amazing privilege! Every interaction we have with someone is an opportunity to reveal the treasure.

I love going into our bedroom each evening and turning on that lamp. It’s a fresh daily reminder to look beyond the obvious and see what treasures God wants to reveal.

Credited to our Account

Last week we received a phone bill in our mailbox – first piece of real mail we’d received! Not understanding the words, we saw only the numbers – one very big number, actually – about 7000 rubles (somewhere around $300). Our jaws dropped and we wondered if we’d misunderstood the price for dialup internet we’ve been using – is it really 25 rubles a minute instead of 25 rubles an hour? Yikes! The following day we asked a friend about the bill. Turns out, the total was printed in bold type, indicating that the amount wasn’t how much we owed, but instead was CREDITED to our account! Our landlady apparently wanted to pay a sizeable amount ahead of time, probably to save herself the trouble of visiting the payments office each month (that’s how all bills are paid here – a real hassle considering the traffic, which is as bad if not worse than Atlanta’s). Whew – what a huge relief! Now imagine how we would have lived if we hadn’t realized it was a credit. For that one day when the bill arrived, we fasted internet, believing falsely that every minute of connect time was another dollar in the hole. Sure, one day is no big deal, but if we hadn’t understood the truth behind the statement, we would have gone on living that way every day. Same thing with the Word of God. We have to know the truth, we have to understand what God has said, in order to be able to receive all of His blessings! Otherwise we go on living with far less than what God has already given us, as though He hadn’t given those blessings to us at all. Our generous God has already “blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3) and “seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 2:6). Genesis 15:6 says that Abraham (Abram) believed the Lord, and God “credited it to him as righteousness.” God has given us His Word, and it’s our job to believe what He has said! Then whenever we look at our accounts, every time, we will see a huge credit, a credit of righteousness, much bigger than we ever expect, because God can and always does do “far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” (Ephesians 3:20, The Message). “So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.” (Hebrews 4:16, The Message)

Walking in Russia

One of my favorite lines from an early Vineyard worship song (“God is so good”) is, “for the natural things . . . speak of the invisible.” God talks to me a lot through ordinary everyday experiences. Here are a few “lessons from walking in Russia” – I’m talking about actual walking, nothing super-spiritual here, just getting from place to place on foot.
· Pay attention to light and shadows. We have to walk a lot on one-lane side roads, and with a hat and hood on, it’s honestly really hard to hear or see cars coming up behind you. But there are clues, especially at night when their headlights are on. I’m learning to pay more attention to the light and the shadows. The Lord really spoke to me through this – we can easily get sideswiped or rear-ended if we’re not paying attention. “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) “For we are not unaware of his schemes.” (2 Corinthians 10:11)
· Don’t stand too close to murky water. While waiting to cross a street, some of us stood too close to the gutter, and a zooming car splattered mud all over our jeans. There’s no way we can allow even a tiny bit of sin in our lives and expect good results. As Keith Green said, “no compromise!” “Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?” (Proverbs 6:27 – 28) “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8) “I will set before my eyes no vile thing.” (Psalm 101:3)
· It’s good to walk on paths that those who have gone before you have trod. Coming back from the grocery store, C stepped off to the side of a small road, thinking she was standing on solid ground. By the grace of God, she didn’t fall into the huge hole that appeared beneath one of her feet (thank You, Jesus, for Your divine protection)! Those who have gone before us in Christ have made pathways for us to follow, and we can learn from them and avoid hidden pitfalls by walking as they walked. I love to learn from others and stir faith by frequently reading stories of “heroes of the faith” (in the Bible, biographies, devotionals, etc). We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before – what a blessing! “Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.” (Proverbs 1:8 – 9) “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” (2 Timothy 1:5 – 6)

God’s Glorious Grace

The agent who checked us in at the Lufthansa counter in Atlanta waived *many* overweight baggage fees (at $50 a pop), even though the adjacent agent was being very strict and charging the fee. As much as we tried to pack each bag to the exact limit, bathroom scales aren’t precision weighing instruments. Thank you, Jesus, for giving us favor!

A nice German stranger handed us 2 blankets and a pillow at the exact moment we decided to set up “camp” for our 11 hour layover in Frankfurt airport. Thanks to those plus the 2 Pooh bears our twins brought, we all caught some great naps on the floor!

Paul’s Russian reading skills ramped up when he inadvertently bought six 1-liter bottles of Kafir instead of milk (Kafir falls somewhere between buttermilk and runny yogurt). I’ve discovered it’s a great ingredient for muffins, popovers, and tuna pot pie.

The two Russian repairmen who came to our apartment to fix some leaking radiators apparently didn’t require any privacy when changing their clothes in the middle of our living room – a bit of a surprise for the Sculley females! A walk around the neighborhood at night also reveals that closing curtains is optional, too . . .

Paul figured out how to adjust the heat in our apartment, thanks to new radiator technology, so now we can sleep with the windows closed. Too much snow was blowing in, anyway!
What would be considered very minor medical issues in the U.S. translate here to phone calls to other believers for urgent prayer. We received one such call this week from some friends. Imagine having even a minor complication with no readily accessible drug store or trustworthy clinic. Living here is giving us a greater appreciation that our dependence is totally on God, because as wonderful as great medical care is, it can lure us into thinking of that as our first line of defense and only really praying about the “biggies”.

My morning quiet times have been so lovely – in our bright, cheerful little kitchen on the 3rd floor, I sit at the table facing the window. I see the city lights, then as dawn breaks through, I see many of our neighbors come out to de-ice / snow their cars or make their way to the bus stop for work or school. The sun casts a beautiful glow on the side of the adjacent building, and beyond that is the beautiful Volga River, a sash of ice at this time of year. It’s a lovely way to start the day, and I’m enjoying the arsenal of devotionals we brought (those and itunes worship music are essentials!). There really is something to “praying in high places” . . . it helps me to have much more of a heavenly perspective in praying God’s Kingdom down on a neighborhood, a city, a nation!