Permanent Impact May 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?
Equipping and encouraging
God has given us lots of great opportunities to encourage, to equip, and to be equipped. Here are some of the highlights for us this past month:
• Encouraging . . . God frequently brings people to us who need His encouragement – here are a few specific stories from this past month . . . M and the girls have all spent time with a young boy who is learning English with our good friend. His family are not believers yet, but his mom wanted him to learn the Bible and spend time with Christians. It is wonderful to see how God uses the children to bring encouragement and joy to this boy and his family. P had the opportunity to serve at a children’s cancer hospital along with a small team from the Nizhny Vineyard. Big brother as he is to five, the team leader tells us he knew how to reach even the most reluctant children’s hearts. One of our hopes is to bring encouragement to congregations in the body of Christ, and we were able to this more intentionally this month by visiting the “Healing” church, which is lead by close friends of ours. C and Karen had the opportunity to encourage families at a celebration of Family Day for the “Association of Large Families and Invalid Children.”
• Equipping . . . Our whole family participated in teaching a group of young women from a local university how to prepare an American meal, at the invitation of their teacher, who is a friend of ours. The group did really well following American recipes, and after sharing the meal together, there was a lot of fun and laughter as our kids taught them how to play “Apples to Apples”, one of our family favorites. Karen has had the honor of preaching at the Nizhny Vineyard again, and teaching at the student group at the Medical Institute dorm. She is currently teaching a series of weekly prayer classes at the Nizhny Vineyard, and preaching again the first Sunday in June. We’ve been delighted that some of the resources we brought with us have borne such good fruit – Sheri Carr’s “Fearless Now” worship CD, Jeff & Shaunti Feldhahn’s “For Men Only” & “For Women Only”, and Elizabeth Crist’s “Get Real About . . . Relationships” book.
• Being equipped . . . P is preparing for final exams as he finishes his second semester at the University of Nizhny Novgorod and is preparing for his transition to Le Tourneau U in Texas in a couple of months’ time. J, M, C, E, and K successfully completed another year at the Sculley Academy and are excited about the summer ahead. J spent a day at a local high school, and M & J have been going lap swimming twice a week with some close friends. Karen is also studying for final exams as she wraps up her year at Linguistic U. But beyond formal studies such as all of these, God continually equips us and teaches us through others, through circumstances, through life. We each have a lot to learn!
Nizhny Vineyard . . . Dave preaching with Eva translating; Kathy & Artyom leading the worship band; Angela praying the monthly birthday blessings (a wonderful tradition that helps build relationships in the body); Karen preaching with Asya translating; ministry time
Easter . . . the children sang beautifully, assisted by Larissa, Julia, and Eva; Angie sang some stirring songs from her native Namibia; Yana and C did a little Easter egg hunt for a few friends and our gang – indoors thanks to the huge snowstorm on Easter Sunday!
Teachings . . . medical student Christian group; prayer class series
A typical evening at the soaking group at our apartment . . .
Paul’s birthday . . . including blessings at the Nizhny Vineyard and at the soaking group two weeks in a row; Marina translated her prophetic word for Paul and read it in both English and Russian; the whole group danced in a circle around Paul and sang a traditional birthday song – much fun!
The “Healing” church, lead by our close friends Andrey & Lena . . . held in Vasya & Valya’s house in nearby Doskina; a passionate growing house church
Cooking class with the sweet group from Linguistic U
Out and about in Nizhny Novgorod . . . beside the canal and rivers; the Kremlin; one of the many beautiful Orthodox temples; everywhere we see contrasts between old and new; Victory Day parade; “walk-thru” McDonald’s (instead of drive-thru)
Karen’s Russian class . . . teacher Anna and our team at the Russian language Olympiad (our team won, thanks mainly to the 2nd year Chinese students!); farewell party for Nadia, Sveta, Sasha, Llobal, and Michelle; final outing to the “Large Families & Disabled Children’s Association” organized by Oxana. In addition to our group singing some songs and teaching a few games, Karen was invited as a mother in a large family to speak to the group about family traditions, emphasizing everyday things that we do together – putting God first, eating, praying, reading the Bible, spending time in nature, reading books. This has been a wonderful experience, studying Russian along with this diverse group, especially our various outings along the way.
Other snapshots from our lives . . . Anton styling Paul’s locks; our monthly rent-paying often turns into a 3 or 4 hour chat with landlady Natasha and her mom
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
o Our current support level is 75% of our financial needs through September 2009 – praise God!
• Leadership Development
o Thanks again to your generous support, we have been able to help some leaders with financial needs in their lives. We’ve also continued to expand our little Russian library, which is still frequented by several people each week.
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:
• Praise God for His blessing on the prayer class series so far. About 20 people have participated so far, and God has greatly encouraged everyone’s faith. We thank God for stirring up hunger in His people to grow in prayer.
• Praise God for continuing to move powerfully through the soaking group every Friday evening as Misha & Larissa lead us in seeking God’s face because He is worthy to be sought. This group, attended by people from many different churches, has become very dear to all of our hearts. The twins especially enjoy praying for others in the group as they receive a special touch from the Lord.
• We praise the Lord for God’s faithfulness in every aspect of our lives, and give all the glory to Him.
Please pray for us:
• Please pray for the Wolf family – Nizhny Vineyard pastor Dave, Kathy, and Stephanie – Dave’s mom passed away last week after a battle with cancer, so they returned to the U.S. for a second visit just a few weeks after they had returned from an earlier visit. The family will be there until mid-July.
• Please pray for Youth Sunday at the Nizhny Vineyard, June 7th . . . Karen is preaching, and after church we are organizing a “Mystery Adventure” for the youth, which involves a very long walk and lots of relational stuff and food and other things essential to the care and nurture of youth 🙂 Pray that each youth who comes will encounter Jesus Christ personally and that relationships would be built and strengthened.
• Please pray for the continuing prayer class series Karen is teaching. These will continue through the end of June every Wednesday night.
• Please pray for P’s final exams, and that necessary paperwork will be prepared in a timely manner.
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
“Whoever believes in [Jesus], as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38)
