“The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD” (Lamentations 3:25 – 26)
“Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today.” (Exodus 14:13)
It’s so easy to look at someone else’s life, especially one that looks appealing, and wonder if we’re on the right track. God has crafted a training schedule that He’s lovingly personalized and tailored for each of us. The creative nature of our heavenly Father guarantees that each of our pathways will be unique, just as every fingerprint and snowflake is distinct.
There was a student who turned in an assignment to his professor. The professor carefully examined the work, noting the excellence of the endeavor, attention to detail, and diligence which had been applied. “But,” he hesitated, “this was not the assignment I gave you!” No matter how well we do something, it doesn’t really count for much if we’re doing someone else’s assignment. “Well done, good and faithful servant” is reserved for those who are faithful to do what their master has entrusted them to do.
When we don’t know what to do, the Lord tells us to “seek him,” “stand firm,” and “wait quietly.” At times of indecision, we need to resist the temptations of fear, impatience, and presumption. We have nothing to fear – if God is for us, who can be against us? We must combat the urge to impatiently push ahead and “do something” just for the sake of activity or to keep up with someone else. We are walking on perilously thin ice when we act presumptuously.
We need only to stand firm and wait on the Lord. He will bring us exactly what we need at precisely the time we need it, whether revelation, reason, rest, resources, or relationships. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. Jesus said that “only one thing is needed” – sitting “at the Lord’s feet, listening” (Luke 10:39, 42). When we’re in that posture, expectantly waiting, God will make it clear. His training schedule is always best.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Permanent Impact April 2009
. . . 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?
Spring has sprung!
Spring has definitely sprung in Nizhny Novgorod, and although there is still snow on the ground, it's mostly off to the sides of the roads and paths now. We are looking forward to the imminent emergence of leaves and buds! Spring is a season of new growth, and that seems to be the season we're finding ourselves in, too. God is bringing abundant life and growth as we sow spiritual seeds and tend the soil of people's lives.
As much as we like sharing pictures with you, it's hard to capture on film how we live our lives. When people ask us what we are doing here, they seem to sometimes expect to hear a list of ministries or accomplishments. What we are doing is simply living our lives, and as we live among the people, God does stuff. May He always receive all the glory! We do all the normal stuff like study and work and chores and play and sing and pray and laugh and shop and use technology and cook and clean. But as we do normal stuff, God does His part, which is always amazing and wonderful and good. It's like what He did with the loaves and fishes - He multiplies the little we have to bring an abundant Kingdom harvest. As we live in readiness, God either brings people to us or us to people - each person is a gift from God.
Every Friday night is the Nizhny Vineyard soaking group at our place, skillfully and sensitively lead by Misha and Larissa . . . again, hard to capture on film, but we can at least show you part of the shoe pile :) Coats form a mountain on the girls' bed. There's always a plethora of goodies to snack on, as drinking tea is an essential part of any meeting. God has blessed this group with a 300% increase in average attendance over the last year. A few times we've followed the evening with an all-nighter interceding with some persevering prayer people (and lots of coffee).
Karen taught a series of prayer classes in February and March at our apartment. This eager group was such a joy to be with, as we explored Kingdom prayer, praying in unity, prayer personalities, and learned to pray Scripture in song in Russian. We're gearing up to teach a new prayer series at the Nizhny Vineyard, starting soon . . .
Our home is blessed by the presence of guests 3 or 4 times each week, and we usually just eat a bunch, talk about life, and pray with those whom God sends to us. One of our regular visitors is our good friend Anton - he's 19 years old, and was seriously injured last month, literally to within an inch of his life, when his insides were crushed by some machinery. His spleen was destroyed, and he spent a few weeks in hospital. We praise God for preserving his life and helping him to recover. Please pray with us for his healing and regarding his future, especially regarding work - he is not able to return to his truck driving job because of his injuries. He's like a son and brother to us.
Paul and the boys help set up and tear down all the equipment at the Nizhny Vineyard every weekend. P also runs slides for the overhead and keeps our girls in line. On one recent weekend, the Nizhny Vineyard had to meet on Saturday due to building rental issues, so some friends invited us to visit Jesus Embassy, the largest evangelical church in Nizhny. We returned there a few days later to attend an Alex Patlis concert - very good. Interestingly, we had met him 11 years ago when he was in Atlanta with the band, "New Jerusalem."
The Russian Vineyard national conference in Perm last month was a wonderful gathering! Here are some glimpses from the train journey, conference, and times with friends. Scroll down to the section on "leadership development" to read how your support helped send some people to this.
After the national conference, our family and Yana stayed an extra day so we could visit the Perm Vineyard. It was March 8th, which is Women's Day, one of the biggest celebrations of the year. The men in the church even got up and sang some songs for the women, much to everyone's delight.
P, J, and M spend a lot of time with their good friends, Roma and Danik. Here they are in between games of Monopoly celebrating Danik's birthday . . .
We are always on the lookout for good resources for Russian believers, and recently found one of our all-time favorite devotionals, Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost for His Highest" online in Russian. We have begun to email the daily selection to our Russian speaking friends around the world. It's such an encouraging and challenging devotional! In case you don't have a copy of this classic yourself, the English version is online at http://myutmost.org/
Karen's Russian lessons have included a few special events recently - we celebrated Maslenitsa (also known as Pancake Tuesday in some countries) by taking a blini (pancake) masterclass and enjoying songs and games with a folk group at the Linguistic University. We were given an informative tour of the Maxim Gorky museum and studied his play "На дне". In late March we entered an international music festival at the Pedagogical University and sang 3 songs in Russian. Teacher Anna and our little group received an award for "heartfelt performance of a Russian classic"!
Thanks for all your prayers, encouragement, and support! We love you and appreciate you!
Our contact information:
local U.S. number that will reach us in Russia: 678-389-9379
Russian apartment phone #: +7-910-432-81-77
facebook: Karen Sculley
snail mail: (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
Our current support level is 75% of our financial needs through September 2009 - praise God!
Leadership Development
Thanks to your generous support, we were able to send 23 Nizhny Vineyard-ites (including 7 Sculleys) to the Russian Vineyard National Conference in Perm last month. It was a huge blessing to each one to attend this wonderful time of relationship, equipping, envisioning, and encouragement. Around 120 people attended the conference from all 8 Russian Vineyards plus the U.S. and England. We were delighted that the main evangelism tool taught and practiced was prophetic ministry - many received equipping, impartation, faith, and personal ministry. We had a great time connecting with old and new friends in between sessions. The Perm Vineyard did a fantastic job hosting everyone - they are a vibrant and thriving congregation.
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 (www.atlantavineyard.com — just mention “Sculley - Russia” on the online giving comment line)
Praise Reports:
* Each Friday night we have the privilege and joy of hosting the soaking group, which continues to be a source of life and healing and encouragement to the 30 or 40 people who cram into our living room. Prayer is a team sport as we like to say, and it's always good to pray with others who are seeking God's face.
* we've had the joy of doing some prayer training classes with an enthusiastic group of believers
* we've hosted a couple of all-nights of prayer, a beautiful time of interceding for the city and for one another
* God's provision in our lives - in His great faithfulness, He has given us everything we need to do what He's asked us to do. When 7 of us attended the national conference, God provided a surrogate family for P - the wonderful Chavdar clan! Part of our financial support comes from Paul's "tentmaking" (via the internet :)) and despite the financial crisis, God has continued to provide for us through this route. We are so thankful to the Lord for this, and for each of the individuals and churches who so generously support us!
Please pray for us:
* for God's heart, direction, and timing in everything.
* teaching / preaching: spring prayer class series we're teaching at the Nizhny Vineyard; Karen will be preaching on May 3rd at the Nizhny Vineyard - Youth Sunday, which is usually very well attended by many students from a variety of universities
* for God's grace on P as he does exams this week, finishing up his first semester at the University of Nizhny Novgorod.
* The Nizhny Vineyard is sending a small team to Derbent, a city in southern Russia, next month to visit the Vineyard church there. Please pray for Misha, Larissa, Karen, and a couple of other people who are praying about going. The purpose of the journey is to encourage the believers, do some prayer teaching, and pray for the church and the city. Please pray for our preparation, and that the Lord's plans would come forth for this strategic journey.
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 all of our email and facebook friends' 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, P, J, M, C, E, & K Sculley
"I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!" (Philippians 3:10 - 11)
We're willing to go . . . are you willing to send us?
What's the latest?
Spring has sprung!
Spring has definitely sprung in Nizhny Novgorod, and although there is still snow on the ground, it's mostly off to the sides of the roads and paths now. We are looking forward to the imminent emergence of leaves and buds! Spring is a season of new growth, and that seems to be the season we're finding ourselves in, too. God is bringing abundant life and growth as we sow spiritual seeds and tend the soil of people's lives.
As much as we like sharing pictures with you, it's hard to capture on film how we live our lives. When people ask us what we are doing here, they seem to sometimes expect to hear a list of ministries or accomplishments. What we are doing is simply living our lives, and as we live among the people, God does stuff. May He always receive all the glory! We do all the normal stuff like study and work and chores and play and sing and pray and laugh and shop and use technology and cook and clean. But as we do normal stuff, God does His part, which is always amazing and wonderful and good. It's like what He did with the loaves and fishes - He multiplies the little we have to bring an abundant Kingdom harvest. As we live in readiness, God either brings people to us or us to people - each person is a gift from God.
Every Friday night is the Nizhny Vineyard soaking group at our place, skillfully and sensitively lead by Misha and Larissa . . . again, hard to capture on film, but we can at least show you part of the shoe pile :) Coats form a mountain on the girls' bed. There's always a plethora of goodies to snack on, as drinking tea is an essential part of any meeting. God has blessed this group with a 300% increase in average attendance over the last year. A few times we've followed the evening with an all-nighter interceding with some persevering prayer people (and lots of coffee).
Karen taught a series of prayer classes in February and March at our apartment. This eager group was such a joy to be with, as we explored Kingdom prayer, praying in unity, prayer personalities, and learned to pray Scripture in song in Russian. We're gearing up to teach a new prayer series at the Nizhny Vineyard, starting soon . . .
Our home is blessed by the presence of guests 3 or 4 times each week, and we usually just eat a bunch, talk about life, and pray with those whom God sends to us. One of our regular visitors is our good friend Anton - he's 19 years old, and was seriously injured last month, literally to within an inch of his life, when his insides were crushed by some machinery. His spleen was destroyed, and he spent a few weeks in hospital. We praise God for preserving his life and helping him to recover. Please pray with us for his healing and regarding his future, especially regarding work - he is not able to return to his truck driving job because of his injuries. He's like a son and brother to us.
Paul and the boys help set up and tear down all the equipment at the Nizhny Vineyard every weekend. P also runs slides for the overhead and keeps our girls in line. On one recent weekend, the Nizhny Vineyard had to meet on Saturday due to building rental issues, so some friends invited us to visit Jesus Embassy, the largest evangelical church in Nizhny. We returned there a few days later to attend an Alex Patlis concert - very good. Interestingly, we had met him 11 years ago when he was in Atlanta with the band, "New Jerusalem."
The Russian Vineyard national conference in Perm last month was a wonderful gathering! Here are some glimpses from the train journey, conference, and times with friends. Scroll down to the section on "leadership development" to read how your support helped send some people to this.
After the national conference, our family and Yana stayed an extra day so we could visit the Perm Vineyard. It was March 8th, which is Women's Day, one of the biggest celebrations of the year. The men in the church even got up and sang some songs for the women, much to everyone's delight.
P, J, and M spend a lot of time with their good friends, Roma and Danik. Here they are in between games of Monopoly celebrating Danik's birthday . . .
We are always on the lookout for good resources for Russian believers, and recently found one of our all-time favorite devotionals, Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost for His Highest" online in Russian. We have begun to email the daily selection to our Russian speaking friends around the world. It's such an encouraging and challenging devotional! In case you don't have a copy of this classic yourself, the English version is online at http://myutmost.org/
Karen's Russian lessons have included a few special events recently - we celebrated Maslenitsa (also known as Pancake Tuesday in some countries) by taking a blini (pancake) masterclass and enjoying songs and games with a folk group at the Linguistic University. We were given an informative tour of the Maxim Gorky museum and studied his play "На дне". In late March we entered an international music festival at the Pedagogical University and sang 3 songs in Russian. Teacher Anna and our little group received an award for "heartfelt performance of a Russian classic"!
Thanks for all your prayers, encouragement, and support! We love you and appreciate you!
Our contact information:
local U.S. number that will reach us in Russia: 678-389-9379
Russian apartment phone #: +7-910-432-81-77
facebook: Karen Sculley
snail mail: (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
Our current support level is 75% of our financial needs through September 2009 - praise God!
Leadership Development
Thanks to your generous support, we were able to send 23 Nizhny Vineyard-ites (including 7 Sculleys) to the Russian Vineyard National Conference in Perm last month. It was a huge blessing to each one to attend this wonderful time of relationship, equipping, envisioning, and encouragement. Around 120 people attended the conference from all 8 Russian Vineyards plus the U.S. and England. We were delighted that the main evangelism tool taught and practiced was prophetic ministry - many received equipping, impartation, faith, and personal ministry. We had a great time connecting with old and new friends in between sessions. The Perm Vineyard did a fantastic job hosting everyone - they are a vibrant and thriving congregation.
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 (www.atlantavineyard.com — just mention “Sculley - Russia” on the online giving comment line)
Praise Reports:
* Each Friday night we have the privilege and joy of hosting the soaking group, which continues to be a source of life and healing and encouragement to the 30 or 40 people who cram into our living room. Prayer is a team sport as we like to say, and it's always good to pray with others who are seeking God's face.
* we've had the joy of doing some prayer training classes with an enthusiastic group of believers
* we've hosted a couple of all-nights of prayer, a beautiful time of interceding for the city and for one another
* God's provision in our lives - in His great faithfulness, He has given us everything we need to do what He's asked us to do. When 7 of us attended the national conference, God provided a surrogate family for P - the wonderful Chavdar clan! Part of our financial support comes from Paul's "tentmaking" (via the internet :)) and despite the financial crisis, God has continued to provide for us through this route. We are so thankful to the Lord for this, and for each of the individuals and churches who so generously support us!
Please pray for us:
* for God's heart, direction, and timing in everything.
* teaching / preaching: spring prayer class series we're teaching at the Nizhny Vineyard; Karen will be preaching on May 3rd at the Nizhny Vineyard - Youth Sunday, which is usually very well attended by many students from a variety of universities
* for God's grace on P as he does exams this week, finishing up his first semester at the University of Nizhny Novgorod.
* The Nizhny Vineyard is sending a small team to Derbent, a city in southern Russia, next month to visit the Vineyard church there. Please pray for Misha, Larissa, Karen, and a couple of other people who are praying about going. The purpose of the journey is to encourage the believers, do some prayer teaching, and pray for the church and the city. Please pray for our preparation, and that the Lord's plans would come forth for this strategic journey.
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 all of our email and facebook friends' 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, P, J, M, C, E, & K Sculley
"I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!" (Philippians 3:10 - 11)
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