Permanent Impact January 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?
MOVE DATE: January 31st, 2008!

Although we haven’t purchased our plane tickets yet, our expected move date is the last day of the month – still waiting for our passports to be returned with visas inside! Even though we paid for “expedited” processing, there have been a lot of holidays over Christmas, New Year’s, and Orthodox Christmas, when no official business is transacted.

Our hearts are “bistweet” and “haddy” – two words C invented to describe the bitter-sweet, happy-sad feelings we all share – excited about the amazing adventure ahead, yet finding it difficult to be separated from so many loved ones for a season! It’s caused us to treasure our relationships even more, and to savor things in our environment and climate that we normally take more for granted. We’re approaching the end of the packing phase, but better than packing, we’re trying to get with as many loved ones as we can before we fly out, enjoying one more meal together, one more play date, one more evening with friends . . . so many special memories being made! Thank God for the internet, that we can stay in touch so much better than when we moved across an ocean in the late 80’s and snail mail took 3 weeks each way. We welcome and treasure your emails, and if you want frequent mini-updates, please join Facebook and add Karen Sculley to your friend list.

Along with many others at our beloved Atlanta Vineyard Church, we are grieving the loss of our dear friend, Jack Spangler, who died on December 31st, 2007. Jack and Jill (and sons J & J) have been our faithful friends, encouragers, and prayer partners at the Atlanta Vineyard for 15 years.

Here are some recent pics . . . C’s hair donation (for kids with cancer), last days at ballet classes, P’s 16th birthday party, then Christmas at Myrtle Beach – building the Gingerbread house, six in a tub, with Grandma & Grandpa, goggle girls, and home again for J’s 14th birthday party.

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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 – let us know if you have specific prayer requests. One of our newest prayer tools is a computerized photo frame. Please email or mail 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. Our current support level is 40% of our 2008 financial needs (contributions and monthly pledges combined) – 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 – 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 address.
* online giving via PayPal

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:
* In preparing some of the paperwork required for visa applications, we found out that our firstborn already has more than enough credits, so P is officially graduating from high school this month! He hopes to begin university studies soon – we’ll share more details later as this unfolds.
* The children are close to completing year 2 of their Russian language curriculum!
* Praise God the visa-related documents we expedited to Australia finally made it there and back, despite being wrongly routed through France, Singapore, and the Philippines before reaching the correct destination.

Please pray for us:
* Pray for favor to receive the visas we need to do all that God has for us to do in Russia.
* Pray for God’s continued provision, including good airfares.
* Pray for God’s protection from illnesses and accidents.
* Pray for each one of us to make special friends in Russia.
* Pray for our ongoing Russian language studies, and for fluency in conversational Russian.
* Pray for us as we go out by faith and not according to what we can see . . . “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. . . and without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:1, 6)

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)

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

“But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume.” (2 Corinthians 2:14, NLT)

May you know more of the redemptive love of Christ in 2008!