Permanent Impact March 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?
Warming, waiting, and working!

Even though it is officially spring in the northern hemisphere now, the snow continues to fall occasionally in between periods of melting. The weather forecast promises some continuing warming this week (as high as 10 Celcius / 50 Fahrenheit), so maybe we'll see some leaves soon! Green grass is starting to peek out next to some of the sidewalks / footpaths! It really is beautiful weather here, especially when the skies clear. We've been accustomed to usually seeing only a tiny piece of sky in Atlanta, due to the amazing plethora of trees there. Here, the sky seems huge, and you can see clear to the horizon, making for gorgeous sunrises and sunsets.

We're relieved and thankful to have finally completed all the paperwork necessary for our long-term visas, and have been told to expect them to be issued in July. We may well have been among the last ones to turn everything in, due to the many delays we encountered along the way. But God is so much bigger than any obstacle - what a miracle! Meanwhile, we're waiting on God, trusting Him to move on our behalf again and open the doors for us to stay past the time that our current visas run out.

Current Russia statistics . . . In this nation of 142,000,000 people, there are 10,000,000 alcoholics; 10,000,000 drug addicts (including 4,000,000 children); 800,000 orphans; 6,000,000 homeless children; 7/10 of pregnancies end in abortion; 31,000,000 people live below the poverty line; the death rate is more than 1.5 times the birth rate. We believe God is ON THE MOVE and working here in Nizhny Novgorod, and in the nation of Russia, and these statistics will change . . . "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14). Pray with us . . .

Here's a readers' digest randomly ordered peek at our lives . . . loving God, hanging with new friends, missing old friends, email, facebook, Russian language lessons, daily bus rides, ice skating, slinging reusable grocery bags over our shoulders, learning to walk on icy paths, clothes lines in the kitchen, Sculley Academy, English-language DVDs, one-on-one family dates, Sunday morning set-up and tear-down, student ministry, youth group, youth Easter choir / band, children's ministry, prayer walking & prayer bus-ing, making care packages, blessing our neighbors, celebrating Western-Easter, editing & publishing a Russian-English pre-Orthodox-Easter-devotional-booklet written by individuals in the church, prayer groups, church leadership group, hosting afternoons of food & fun, serving the body of Christ, family devotions, praying at the Agape Center, encouraging believers, exploring the city, solving Russian crossword puzzles, squeezing in at the kitchen table since we often have a big jigsaw puzzle in progress on the table in the living room . . . Everywhere we go, and in everything we do, we are aware that despite being very ordinary people doing ordinary things, we are carriers of God's presence, and daily pray for God to direct our steps and give us opportunities to display the love of Jesus and to welcome the Kingdom of God! We want to be faithful in sowing the seeds He entrusts us with . . . now for some recent pics . . .

Financial Partnership Opportunities:
We'd like to offer you a variety of opportunities each month . . . let us know if you'd like to partner with us in any of these ways. THANK YOU for your support!

* Sculley Family support
Our current support level is 60% of our 2008 financial needs - praise God!

* Resources for Russians
Anyone who's hung out with us knows we LOVE books, DVDs, and CDs to help us learn and grow! A donation of any amount will help purchase much-needed resources to encourage Russian-speaking believers in their walk with God. The cost of living here is very expensive - many people do not have ANY disposable income, so things like books and DVDs are few and far between. (Incidentally, a long-term dream of ours, which will require a big chunk of change, is to help finance the translation of more resources into Russian.)

* Sponsor a Student
$30 will sponsor one student to be able to attend the April 5th student retreat our whole family is participating in. The retreat will include students from all over the world (mostly African and Asian), who are currently studying in Nizhny Novgorod, away from their homes for anywhere from 6 months to 6 years. The student retreat will include times of worship, teaching and prayer, and also a chance to enjoy some gym and outdoor recreation, something that is not readily available in the city (we're really looking forward to that part, too!) Many of them are strapped financially, like students everywhere! It broke our hearts to hear one student whom we invited to our apartment comment with tears in his eyes that "this is the first good meal I've had in 2 months - I've been living on potatoes." We have an amazing window of opportunity to help prepare these passionate young people for the future, as many will return to predominantly Muslim or Buddhist home countries as ambassadors for Jesus!

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's how (all financial contributions are 100% tax deductible in the U.S.A., and are processed through the Atlanta Vineyard, our sending church to whom we are accountable):

* 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.

* online giving via PayPal (http://www.atlantavineyard.com/resources/online_giving.html — just mention “Sculley - Russia” on the online giving comment line)

Praise Reports:
* Praise God for His grace, favor, direction, provision, and protection in our lives! We are very thankful for His goodness to us.
* Paul, Karen, P, J, M, & C have all begun Russian lessons with our friend and tutor, Valya.
* God has given us many wonderful opportunities to pray with, encourage, and spend time with others. We're thankful for the people God has brought into our lives, each one a special treasure.

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. Our current visas expire at the end of April - please pray that God will make a way for us to stay in the country while waiting for our long-term visas to be issued.
* Pray for the Easter devotional that is being written by individuals from the Nizhny Vineyard (we are editing and publishing in Russian & English). It will be used as a devotional guide by the whole church for the two weeks leading up to Easter (April 27th, because the Church here uses the Julian calendar to calculate Easter, in case you were wondering!).
* Pray for the Student Retreat on April 5th, that each one who attends will encounter Jesus Christ in a special way, be refreshed and empowered, and ready for what's ahead!
* Pray for the Vineyard National Conference in early May that is being hosted here at the Nizhny Novgorod Vineyard, and will be attended by people from all over Russia, the U.S., and several other nations. Pray for all the many preparations that are currently underway, provision, and unity in the body of Christ. We are so excited that some of our very own Atlanta Vineyard friends will be here for this, along with some dear friends from other cities in Russia and beyond!

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 (updated weekly):
http://permanentimpact.blogspot.com/

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

"Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." (Ephesians 2:9 - 10, New Living Translation)

"May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace." (Ephesians 1:2, NLT)

Soaking and Seeking

At Friday night’s “soaking prayer time” the Lord showed me a beautiful vision. It was very intimate and precious, something that I usually would keep hidden in my heart, but this time I felt that He wanted me to encourage others with the encouragement I received from Him through this treasure.

I saw myself having a bath, nothing unusual, just an ordinary bathtub and a few bubbles. Then as I sat there, I suddenly realized that the Lord Jesus was there with me, and He began to bathe me. I am trying to tell this as sensitively as possible – it was not weird at all – it seemed like the most normal and natural thing in the world for Him to be there. I felt no shame or embarrassment about Him being there with me (like in Genesis 2:25). You know, we all pray for God’s cleansing, purification, etc. I think when I was younger in the Lord, I probably thought of “cleansing” as a kind of self-service waterfall, but I guess growing in God includes getting more intimate with Him. Anyway, on that particular day, we’d spent much time traveling around the city, and I was frankly quite tired by the time I got to the prayer meeting. There’s no physical explanation as to why one gets so tired here doing the very minimal amounts of exercise required in riding buses and walking a little to and fro, but the stress and atmosphere of the city somehow weigh on you. The Lord conveyed to me that as I’d gone through my day, I’d managed to get some mud on me, and He wanted to wash it off. This was interesting, because I did have some literal mud on me from the melting ice / snow / dirt mixture that’s everywhere this time of year. But He was indicating more the spiritual mud that had splattered on me, due to my own and others’ sin, and the sliming of the enemy. I’d already discarded my muddy clothes outside the tub, and I willingly submitted to His cleansing. He was incredibly gentle, deliberate, and thorough – sometimes you just have to scrub to get mud off! This went on for some time, and I thought of my favorite Psalm (number 23) as I often do – the Lord was tending to me in quiet waters, and was gently restoring my soul. It then occurred to me that I was much lighter. I hadn’t realized I’d been weighed down by some heavy burdens that day, but I certainly noticed when they were gone.

The Lord impressed two things on my heart through this precious vision. In order to allow Him to cleanse us, we have to lay down two very specific things. Firstly, we give to Him our soiled clothes (sin and shame). We do this by admitting to our own wrongs and receiving His forgiveness. We also need to forgive all others who have offended or wronged us. We also have to line up our thinking with who He says we are. Shame is something that began in the Garden after Adam and Eve sinned, and Jesus can and wants to set us free from all shame. Our part is to give Him the bits we’re ashamed of and let Him heal us and change our way of thinking to His way of thinking. Secondly, we can’t get into a bath with all our bags – before He can wash us, we have to lay down all our burdens. Basically, a burden is anything that we are carrying that doesn’t result in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, or self-control. When we allow God to cleanse us, we trade the dirt and baggage we seem to accumulate for one of those big white fluffy bathrobes, which is a picture of His purity, righteousness, comfort, healing, and a myriad of other blessings that accompany the Kingdom of God.

I’m so thankful for this regular “soaking prayer time” every Friday night. There’s no way you can go wrong spending a couple of hours focusing solely on the Lord. He always meets me, always. I don’t know how the Lord will speak to you, but I am certain that He will meet you if you set aside time to seek His face. God is faithful. Every single time I’ve set aside time for Him with no agenda other than to meet with Him, He has been faithful to reveal Himself to me in some way, whether I’ve been in my kitchen, at a mountain cabin, at Unveiled or a soaking prayer time, beside a fire, or on a beach. “God cares enough to respond to those who seek him’ (Hebrews 11:6, The Message). There is a mysterious component of being together with other believers that magnifies the Lord’s presence. It’s one of those Kingdom equations that can’t be explained or calculated. But whether alone or with other believers, let’s make it a frequent habit to seek the Lord and soak in His presence . . . He is faithful to cleanse us, restore us, and use us for His glory.

Continuously Connected

To get from А to Б here, most people use public transportation. The most popular modes are buses and trams. There are a few commuter train lines on the other side of town. But in the city center, there are also trolleybuses – these look just like regular buses, except that they’re connected to overhead electric wires by two trolley poles. Unlike trams, which have tracks to run on, trolleybuses have the freedom to drive wherever they want. But if they lose contact with their wires, they lose their source of power, slow down, and when the momentum runs out, they stop. Paul saw one by the side of the road a few weeks ago that had become disconnected – it couldn’t move until a utility vehicle pushed it back into position and it could be reconnected to the power again.

(note, even though this is a Nizhny Novgorod trolleybus stock photo, if you want to get an authentic idea of what we’re seeing, imagine all colors replaced with white and grey, to simulate ice and snow :))

We’re a bit like those trolleybuses, aren’t we? God has given us a tremendous amount of freedom in this world, to go where we like and do what we want. But in order to live the abundant and flourishing life that Father God intended for each of us, we have to stay continuously connected to Him, our one and only source of real power. How impotent and ineffective we are when we try to rely on anything or anyone else (especially ourselves)! Jesus said He is the way, the truth, and the life, not one among several alternatives. Even when we fully believe that, it’s so easy to think we can coast along for awhile, especially after a period of spiritual victory or fruitfulness. There’s a very real and strong temptation to camp out on the victories of the past, to be satisfied with this far and no further, or to let momentum carry us along. The only problem with that is that if we take that route, we’re eventually going to run out of momentum and find ourselves stranded at the side of the road.

To avoid getting lulled into that kind of thinking, we need to put ourselves into “strict training” as Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 9 – daily living a disciplined life and saturating our minds with the life-giving word of God. God calls us ever forward, to lay down our lives, to take greater risks, to advance into new territory, to reach new places in the Spirit. We never “arrive” as long as we draw breath on this earth – God wants us to constantly grow in our faith and trust of Him. Motivated by His great love for each one of us, He unceasingly woos us forward out of our comfort zones. He continually transforms us “into His likeness with ever-increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Let’s press in day-by-day, hour-by-hour, moment-by-moment, and stay continuously connected to God’s power. His power supply is never-ending and always available – the choice is up to us. He will always amaze us, according to His promise, as He makes our lives “brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him” (2 Corinthians 3:18, The Message). Then we’ll have the ability to fulfill what He appointed us to do – to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last (John 15:16).

Cultural Tidbits

This will not come as a surprise to anyone, but we’ve encountered lots of little cultural differences . . . here are some of the observations various family members have made after our first 5 weeks . . . I thought these random tidbits would be interesting for you, especially if you haven’t been to Russia before:

Shopping . . .
• Most milk is sold in boxes, long-life, on the shelf, not refrigerated. There are a few brands of bottled milk (expensive), but you can also buy it cold in very thin plastic bags which may or may not be pasteurized. We’re going with the boxed milk 
• There is an entire aisle at our local grocery store dedicated to each of these – olives, mushrooms, fish, mayonnaise, tea (ok, there’s a little coffee sharing that aisle, too), chocolate.
• Checkout clerks do not place change or receipts in your hand – they always lay them down, even if you hold your hand out to receive them (reflex action for me that is taking a long time to remember not to do!)
• Large stores have security guards everywhere, sometimes one per aisle. They all remind me of “Men in Black.”
• Every receipt is slightly torn as it is handed to you (this is a complete puzzle to us!)
• Almost all the background music in every store we’ve been to is in English, including songs from the 60s and 70s, strengthening the assertion I made to our kids a few years back that the world has gone into a musical loop because the same songs are played over and over everywhere you go. It was bizarre and a little scary ;) hearing “How Deep is Your Love” (Bee Gees) on the ice rink today)!
• In the parking lot of a large shopping mall, a modern snow plow was at work just a few feet away from a man tediously sweeping the sidewalk with a birch broom – what a contrast!
• Even though indoor temps are what we consider to be very warm, we seem to be the only ones who take our coats off when shopping. The few times we’ve tried to “blend” (ha!) by keeping our coats and hats on while shopping have resulted in us dripping with sweat by the time we reached the checkout. Other people seem oblivious to the heat, even in their furs! In seeming contrast, most people tend to go without gloves outside unless the temperature is below freezing.

Buses . . .
• Almost every bus has a conductor (usually an older woman, occasionally a teenage boy), who collects fares and has a reserved seat. If there is no conductor, you have to pay the driver. If it’s really crowded, you can pass your money from person to person all the way to the front, and your ticket (and any change) will be passed back to you.
• To get off a bus at a particular stop, you could press the “next stop” button, but it’s more cool to just stand in the doorway and expect the driver to notice you. Our level of coolness depends on how badly we really want to get off at a certain stop – so far, so good 
• Only two people in the Nizhny Vineyard church of 100+ people have a car. Because of this, almost no one carries a Bible with them on the bus, unless they own a compact version AND can read the small font size. As a result, the church office and pastor’s home come equipped with lots of regular-sized Bibles in both Russian and English. I went to-and-fro about this for a few weeks, but have landed in the I-like-bringing-my-personal-Bible corner, because I know where to find what I’m looking for, so stuff my 10-pound Bible in my bag and lug it along anyway, looking like a tourist but glad to have my copy of the Word with me.

Out and about . . .
• Just because a street has a crosswalk marked doesn’t mean the pedestrians have any right of way, unless there are 3 or more people crossing at the same time – the first time I was trying to cross at a zebra crossing with just one other person, I nearly got stuck in the middle of the very busy 4-lane road – yikes!
• Although Russians are for the most part immaculate in their dress, the environment is generally filthy. Mountains of accumulated winter refuse are starting to peek through the melting snow.

Protocol . . .
• It’s not official unless it’s written down. Even at the ice rink, everyone’s skate sizes must be written down before the attendant retrieves them one pair at a time from a few feet away.

Public behavior . . .
• Strangers rarely make eye contact or smile (similar to Australia in this regard – I remember noticing the complete opposite when I moved to Georgia). I don’t know if people think I am mentally unstable, but I still find myself smiling at people, especially old women and young children – can’t help it.
• Even though men here are very chivalrous when it comes to things like lifting heavy objects, other acts that we would consider “gentlemanly” do not seem to be part of the culture (e.g. opening doors, allowing a woman to pass first, offering a seat, etc.)

Repairs . . .
• We grab showers when we can, because hot water often goes out for hours at a time at really odd times as they have been fixing the pipes outside our building – this has been going on for weeks, not sure when they’ll be done. The place where they’re working has ominous amounts of steam rising up just inches away from the “sidewalk” (wooden boards placed over a sinkhole) . . . we always hurry over those!
• Astonishingly, when our phone service died this week, the repairman not only showed up within a few hours, but also fixed the problem within a few minutes. This is highly unusual, so we’re told. Normally this kind of thing would be a multi-day or multi-week process.

Water . . .
• You can get water delivered to your door – this is a huge blessing since city water is completely undrinkable and not easily filterable. Our water man hoists four 19-liter bottles up our two flights of stairs every week.

Relationships . . .
• It’s important to “drink tea” (always includes lots of food) together before a meeting, but when the meeting is to begin, all food & drink must be completely & rapidly cleared away.
• If someone is more than ten years older than you or holds a certain status (?), you’re supposed to use the formal language system, unless they speak informally to you or they’re a brother or sister in the church, and then you can speak informally, which you can also use with close friends and all children . . . we’re still flailing around in the language but thankfully are still new enough that we haven’t managed to offend anyone too much yet (or at least we’re so oblivious we don’t even know who we’ve offended and why)!
• Compared to Atlanta, there don’t seem to be very many children here – this breaks our hearts. There also don’t seem to be very many elderly men. You rarely see a father with a child, or more than one child in a family. The children we see seem to be accompanied by their mother or babushka (grandmother).

Civic duty . . .
• The focus on the Russian national election was quite minimal in comparison to the intense attention given to this in the U.S. electoral system. Several people I spoke with here seemed apathetic about voting in last weekend’s Presidential election. We did not see any signage, indoors or outdoors, indicating that there was an election coming up, or in support of any candidate. Last September when I was here, I saw one billboard encouraging people to vote for Putin (who was not even one of the candidates, as you know!) The media seemed to decide beforehand who the winner was going to be. Whether it was that directly, or a fatalistic approach to life, I don’t know, but it seems to have influenced some people into choosing not to vote (“why bother?”)