Permanent Impact August 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?

Transition time!

Just a short newsletter this time to let you know we're returning to Russia next week, leaving Atlanta on Tuesday, September 2nd. We're pretty much packed and as ready as we can be, saying our latest round of goodbyes for the season ahead. God has blessed us in so many ways - our visas came, Paul's & Karen's passports now have lots of extra pages, and we found terrific round trip airfares (returning early July 2009). We want to remind each of you that we would LOVE for you to come visit us in Russia any time during the year - let us know if you're thinking about it! We hope to see you on email or facebook, and our phone # in Russia is +7-910-432-81-77. If you want to send snail mail, you can print this out and stick it on the envelope:

RUSSIA
603093 Г. Нижний Новгопод
Ул. Родионова
Д. 180/1 Кв. 23
Sculley family

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 . . . it is a joy to walk this road together with you!
• Sculley Family support
o Our current support level is 64% of our financial needs through June 2009 - praise God!
• Resources for Russians
o Special thanks to our friend Sheri Carr and Varietal Records for donating multiple copies of her wonderful new CD, "Fearless Now." I highly recommend this to you - the title track is now one of my favorite songs! Visit http://www.varietalrecords.com to purchase this title, or you can download any or all of the songs on itunes.
o Special thanks also to our friend Jason Chatraw and Ampelon Publishing for donating multiple copies of the following books. They will definitely be put to good use, and we'll let you know how they work in a multi-language setting! Visit www.ampelonpublishing.com to purchase any of these great titles and many more.
 "The Way In is the Way On: John Wimber's teachings and writings on life in Christ" (Wimber was the founder of the Vineyard movement)
 "Get Real About Relationships: a 40-day journey [for teenagers]" (Elizabeth Crist, whom we met when she was a few months old, and has grown into a beautiful and godly young woman)
 "The Difference a Father Makes" (Ed Tandy McGlasson)
 "Repentance and Forgiveness" (Dr. Leah Coulter)
 "6 Habits of Highly Effective Christians" (Brian T. Anderson & Glynnis Whitwer)
 "Breakthrough" (Vicki & Jim Egli)

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 - email us at karen@srsoln.com 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 (www.atlantavineyard.com — just mention “Sculley - Russia” on the online giving comment line)

Praise Reports:
• Our short-term visas arrived in a timely manner!
• Paul & Karen realized late in the process that our passports were almost out of room (Russian visas take up 2 pages each, and we have 4 or 5 each so far), so we expedited those to Philadelphia last week, and thankfully they arrived back this morning with plenty of visa space.
• God continues to provide everything we need in every area of our lives - all glory to Him! We're so thankful for the many friends that God keeps sending us to accompany us (not necessarily literally, though you're certainly welcome to!) on this journey.
• The first part of the 2008-09 Vineyard Leaders School finished last week, and Yana (from Nizhny Novgorod) and the other students are now back in their home cities for the remainder of the school year. We're delighted that we'll have the opportunity to help Yana with her weekly studies as she continues to help us learn Russian.

Please pray for us:
• for safe travels & intact luggage! In addition to two plane flights, we'll have two bus rides on our journey - one between airports in London and another from Moscow to Nizhny - pray that they'll be there at the right times and places. It's amazing how comforting it is to see a driver holding a sign with your name on it after a long flight :)
• for our long-term visas to be issued - the short-term ones we have are good for 3 months, and the long-term ones we're waiting for are good for 3 years - those are basically the only two options available. We trust God for His timing, plans, and provision.
• for good transitions for all of us, physically, emotionally, mentally. Saying goodbyes is the hardest thing as always! It looks like we'll be doing the immediate shift from summer to winter (the weather channel predicts our high temps will go from 32C / 90F to 9C / 50F in one day!)

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)

In Russia with love,
Paul, Karen, Peter, Jonathan, Michael, Cascade, Esther, & Karis Sculley

"It's not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow." (1 Corinthians 3:7, The Message)

divine orchestration

When I was in 7th grade, my next-door neighbor, a professor of musicology, invited me to look over his numerous musical instruments and choose one to play. I had already played the piano for many years, and jumped at the chance to learn a second instrument. My short list included the oboe, but my number one choice ended up being the ‘cello. How I loved learning that beautiful instrument, receiving weekly lessons, always striving to improve my technique and tone. But the highlight of playing the ‘cello for me was the opportunity to be a part of an orchestra. Words cannot describe the sheer joy and satisfaction that comes when a group of individuals pools their talents and plays beautiful music together. But everything hinges on the orchestration. The conductor sees and implements this master plan, although the players see only their individual parts. You could conceivably gather the most brilliant musicians in the world, yet if they are not playing from the same orchestration, the results will be dismal to say the least. But a brilliant conductor can take a group of ordinary musicians who apply themselves, and draw the best out of each section, each individual, in order to blend and form a whole that far surpasses the sum of its parts. God is the penultimate brilliant conductor, who not only lovingly composes the complex scores of our lives, but also enhances and improves them continually, in order to produce the most amazing, unfolding symphonies that bring joy and glory to Him.

I want to share with you one delightful line of orchestration we discovered last week . . . our closest neighborhood friends have a close friend who will be studying in Nizhny Novgorod this semester, an off-campus program of the Christian college she attends. She will be at the same university as Peter, likely in the same building – quite amazing. I think Rebecca has already been tremendously encouraged, knowing that in a city that most of her friends and family have never even heard of, close friends of her close friends are just down the road.

When we stand before God, we will be more than amazed at His intricate orchestration in every area of our lives. I’m convinced that we see but a small fraction of His master plan for each of us and for the communities in which He has placed us. May He open our eyes to see the music He’s written for us to play, and may we each play our hearts out, for our audience of One, trusting Him to make something truly beautiful with our lives.

“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” (Ephesians 3:20, The Message)

overwhelmed

Earlier this week I felt overwhelmed. Aside from the “normal” responsibilities that go along with the blessing of a large family, aside from needing to answer email & return phone calls & write thank you cards & finish packing, aside from walking with several loved ones through really difficult stuff, aside from being assailed by some heavy duty spiritual warfare, there’s the whole moving-the-family-across-the-world-again thing that adds an element of “overwhelmedness” at times. When I feel really overwhelmed, I can’t seem to get anywhere on even the simplest tasks. So instead of pretending I’m of any use to anyone, I retreat to my favorite hangout, which in Atlanta is our outdoor fire pit. The Lord always meets me there and restores and refreshes my soul. But this week I needed more than an afternoon by the fire. I didn’t realize what I needed, but God did.

A few days ago I had shot an email to my friend Larry to see if I could join his church intercessors on Tuesday night, something that’s been on my wish list all summer. I hadn’t heard back yet, so debated with myself about going; I wasn’t sure if they were even meeting. After a lovely walk / talk / pray in the park with Susan, my friend Kathy and I and our girls wound up at a Chick-fil-A across town that I’d never been to before (they are the most anointed fast food restaurants in the world, I am convinced – God things happen there). In our short time there, the Lord gave me 3 wonderful surprises (4 if you count the Icedream ). One would have sufficed, but He seemed to have a plan in place to completely overwhelm me with His love and care. The dictionary defines “overwhelm” as “to surge over and submerge”, “to engulf”, “to present with an excessive amount”, “to affect deeply in mind or emotion”, “to turn over or upset”, “to defeat completely and decisively”. God’s love seems to do all of these. He pours out His love and care on His people in such abundance, to submerge us, deeply affect us, sometimes upsetting us, bringing us to the end of ourselves and defeating us. He surges over us, engulfs us, spills over us with an excessive amount. As soon as I walked into Chick-fil-A, the Lord gave me a brief divine appointment with a close friend’s sibling that left me thinking – “sweet!” A few minutes later I received a phone call from our Nizhny Vineyard friend Azelia (now a graduated dentist soon heading back to Malaysia), who was in Atlanta for a few days (we met this morning). Another “sweet!”

But the clincher for me happened right as we sat down in the play area to thaw out. I did a double take as I saw Helga approaching from across the parking lot. Helga is one of Larry’s intercessors, and a Holocaust survivor. Helga and I bonded a year ago when we prayed together, and reconnected in June at the prayer conference in South Carolina. She has a special heart for the Slavic nations, and is one of those rare individuals whose life verse could be 1 Thessalonians 5:17. The Lord had put her heavily on my heart, and I’d left her a prayer journal as a parting gift, thinking it would be a long time till we saw one another again. It’s a mystery . . . 70-somethings do not eat at Chick-fil-A, unless maybe they have small children in tow. But God sent Helga at just that time and place, and He used that encounter to encourage me so much (and to let me know when the prayer meeting started ). I sensed Him saying, “I see you. I know what you need. I will help you. Don’t let anything steal your joy. I have many more wonderful surprises for you. Watch for me.” The prayer meeting last night was yet another “sweet!” God always commands a blessing when ordinary people get together to share their hearts with Him and with each other. Helga shared with the group how the Lord had blessed her in a Christian bookstore a few days earlier. As I gathered my things to leave, Helga presented me with her newly acquired prayer journal, one I will always treasure as a sweet reminder of the overwhelming love and care of our sweet Lord Jesus.

Psalm 42:5 – 8 (The Message) –
5 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I'll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He's my God.

6-8 When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse
everything I know of you,
From Jordan depths to Hermon heights,
including Mount Mizar.
Chaos calls to chaos,
to the tune of whitewater rapids.
Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers
crash and crush me.
Then GOD promises to love me all day,
sing songs all through the night!
My life is God's prayer.

May the Lord overwhelm each of us with His love and care in the waves and breakers of His choosing. No matter what we feel, we can trust Him because His love is constant and our lives belong to Him.