Permanent Impact December 2007
. . . 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?
MOVE DATE: middle of January 2008!
A lot has happened since our last newsletter! Our biggest news is that we now know we’ll be moving to Russia in the middle of January! In October, some major changes were made to visa laws in Russia, affecting not only all religious workers, but also all long-term business workers. As a result, it is very important that we arrive in Russia before the end of January, because we will need to apply for temporary residency visas as soon as we arrive, and there is a quota associated with that kind of visa. God has given us incredible favor in preparing the massive amounts of required paperwork . . . we are very close to having everything that we need (whew!). Despite the amazingly complicated nature of moving a family of 8 across an ocean to another culture, God daily keeps us in His perfect peace and rest. Planning at least 12 months ahead for school and clothes alone is a mammoth task, but the Lord is helping us with everything and giving us the wisdom, grace, strength, and helpers that we need.
Here are some pictures from our huge outdoor Russia party in October with many of our loved ones in Atlanta . . . lots of food, fun, fire, and friendship!
At the end of November, Paul & Karen enjoyed a wonderful week in Nizhny Novgorod! We are very thankful for the generosity of our friends, the Carnahan, Fedoruk, and Roberson families, who took great care of our kids while we were away! It was a very special week for many reasons, including Paul & Karen’s 22nd anniversary, so we enjoyed a second honeymoon in the middle of all the activities of the week! We focused on building relationships and setting up our apartment – yes, we are now renting an apartment in Russia, which is a huge answer to prayer – see the praise report below for more details. We had some special times and meetings with Dave & Kathy Wolf (pastors of the Nizhny Novgorod Vineyard, where we’ll be plugging in) . . . shopping, assembling furniture, discussing, praying, eating, walking . . . and also with Luane Thomson (missions director of the Atlanta Vineyard), who joined us for our last two days there. We loved hanging out with Misha and our other friends in Nizhny, both socially and at church, prayer and leadership groups – we had some great times of eating, praying, talking, and worshiping together. We also enjoyed visiting the Agape Center, a city-wide ministry that has a heart for (among other things) developing youth, strengthening local churches, and promoting unity in the body of Christ (all of which are very dear to our hearts)! Paul and Karen enjoyed some adventures on our own around the city, and managed to not get lost, which greatly boosted our confidence that we might actually be able to do amazing things like buy groceries and get from A to B and back again without ending up at C!
Please let us know if you’d like us to mail you one of our family’s new fridge magnets, to help you remember to pray for and encourage us! Let us know if you’d like more than one to distribute to your network of friends!
We pray for you, too . . . being visual as well as techie kinds of people, we plan to have one of those computerized photo frames in our living room that can display hundreds of photos on a rotation basis. Please send us a photo of you and / or your family so we can add your faces to our gadget – thanks a bunch!
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. Contributions and monthly pledges combined put our current support level at 12% of our 2008 financial needs – praise God! Thanks to this financial support, we have been able to buy warm clothes for everyone, and begin renting and setting up our apartment in Nizhny Novgorod! Incidentally, we’ve recently discovered that Moscow is now the most expensive city in the world to live in, and Nizhny Novgorod is very similar in prices, to give you an idea of the cost of living there (Atlanta is 86th on the list; Sydney is 21st).
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.): (Please let us know if you do any of these, so we can update our personal records!)
* 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. This will simplify the process of applying donations to the correct account). Our finance team will handle the processing of all donations mailed to our 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 plan to continue to live 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 amazing favor with our paperwork – e.g. the “normal” processing time for FBI reports, according to their website, is 16 – 18 weeks . . . we received ours in only 2-1/2 weeks! We’ve also had nurses and administrators at our very large and often impersonal health clinic go out to bat for us (at their initiative, without us even asking) to get needed immunizations and health records.
* Our apartment in Nizhny Novgorod is more than we could ever have “asked or imagined” (Ephesians 3:20). It’s huge by Russian standards, with 3 bedrooms; the interior is brand new, warm, bright and cheerful; there are views on 3 sides, including a beautiful view of the Volga River from 4 windows; it is only about 10 minutes’ walk in any weather to a huge shopping mall including a very modern grocery store and hardware store; our landlady is wonderful; it’s only one bus ride away from the church we’ll be a part of; and the rent is within our budget!
* We are so thankful to God for our many loved ones all over the world who are standing with us in prayer, encouragement, and support!
* Praise God for His protection, especially after our airplane blew an engine while taking off from Frankfurt . . . we had to jettison most of the fuel over southern Germany before returning to Frankfurt to change planes.
Please pray for us:
* Pray for favor as we apply for short-term visas to enter Russia, and then temporary residency visas as soon as we get there. We’re asking God to reserve 8 places in the quota for us!
* Pray for our last-minute preparations, including goodbyes, packing, and wise use of our time.
* Pray for each one of us to make special friends in Russia.
* Pray for God to release His provision, financially, emotionally, physically, spiritually, in every way!
* Pray for God’s continued protection in all areas of our lives.
* Pray for our ongoing Russian language studies.
* “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
* “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)
Our vision:
* raise up leaders
* mobilize prayer in and for Russia
* promote unity in the body of Christ
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)
Heading for Russia with love,
Paul, Karen, P, J, M, C, E, & K Sculley
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
