Permanent Impact October 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?
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Sculley snapshots
We’ve been back in Nizhny Novgorod just over a month now, but it seems much longer as typically happens when there’s a lot going on! We’ve taken advantage of the warmer weather to explore our surroundings and enjoy connecting with lots of friends all over the city. The first snow fell in September, but thankfully autumn decided to return again and we’re so thankful for many unexpectedly sunny and warm days. Please enjoy these snapshots . . . scroll down for prayer requests & praise reports . . .
1. J preparing to rock climb . . . the guy on the left is finishing construction of the side wall 😉
2. Picnicking & enjoying the amazing view of the Oka River at Shveytsaria (Switzerland) Park . . . sitting on the edge of a very steep precipice
3. Hang-gliders take off from that cliff and soar – so wonderful to watch!
4. While we were gone, our landlady remodeled the little balcony off Paul & Karen’s bedroom, which doubles as a place to store suitcases and a cute playroom for E & K.
5. Riding the Volga ferris wheel while the first snow fell . . .
6. A typical birch forest (well, in the city anyway – you can tell this was planted in recent years)
7. The Volga view from our window, with J & E out collecting sand for a chemistry experiment
8. K & Vitya on Pokrofka Street (this is for Jane, who loves goats as much as I love sheep :))
We enjoy people of all ages, but our family seems to be magnetically drawn to youth and young adults, and have spent much time hanging out with, encouraging, and feeding our young friends. Although the Nizhny Vineyard youth group had not met since shortly after our return to the U.S., it regathered on our first Sunday back here and is going strong again. The youth surprised the church with a delightful drama during the service last Sunday as part of the Nizhny Vineyard’s 15th birthday celebrations! They are a wonderful group and we look forward to watching God work in and through each one. We’ve also had the joy of connecting with lots of young adults, Russians & foreigners alike . . .
1. E, Nastya, and the well-traveled Poohs (thanks again, Tatarsky’s!)
2. Nadia
3. Nizhny Vineyard youth leader, Olya
4. Rebecca . . . how amazing that God would send a close friend of our close Atlanta friends the Parkison’s & Hendry’s (C & M) to Nizhny this semester! She’s a wonderful young woman and we all love her . . . It was so cool to be invited to speak to her group of 16 Christian College students from all over the U.S. about life and missions – what a great group of young adults!
5. We love our weekly ice skating outings . . . Anton is gathering his troika!
It’s been a blessing to serve at the Nizhny Vineyard however we’re needed, whether setting up & tearing down equipment, praying, visiting the sick, counseling, opening our home, or preaching. We try to support the various ministries of the church and focus on serving, learning, and encouragement (“Encourage one another daily as long as it is called Today . . . Hebrews 3:13”). Pastor Dave, Kathy, and Stephanie returned from their furlough in the U.S.A. a few days ago, just in time to celebrate Steph’s coming-of-age (18th birthday)!
1. View from the kitchen window, flanked by the beautiful gladiolus flowers we were presented by the church on our first Sunday back
2. C enjoying beautiful baby Milana with mom Tanya
3. K – Worship banners are so cool!
4. Ministry time
5. Taking a balloon to our friend at hospital #13 🙂
6. Studying together with Yannochka
7. Almira, Zhenya, and our ever-present washing drying in the kitchen 🙂
8. Some of our dramatic youth . . . prince Michael, angels C, Olga, & Luba, princes J & P, king Ian
9. Steph’s 18th birthday party!
A highlight of our time here has been Misha & Larissa’s wedding! We have become very dear to one another, and were so delighted and honored that they invited Paul, Karen, and C to spend the entire wedding day together, to participate in all the pre-wedding festivities with about 15 others. It was our first evangelical Russian wedding (we attended Paul’s sister’s Russian Orthodox wedding in Australia many years ago). The day of crisscrossing the city began with picking up the groom from his home, and decorating the convoy of wedding vehicles. We then drove to the bride’s home, where Misha had to complete certain amusing challenges in order to win Larissa’s hand (e.g. walking up a flight of stairs on his hands, answering questions about his bride’s preferences, etc.). After satisfying her attendants and paying the bride price, the groom and the rest of us were all allowed into the apartment for tea and special refreshments like caviar, etc. We then headed to the official government building to register the marriage. In this brief but formal ceremony, they declared their intention to marry one another, exchanged rings, had their first kiss as husband and wife, and received the official blessing of the Russian federation. Interestingly, the official ceremony does not include any promises. The place was packed, as weddings are scheduled every 15 minutes in each of the rooms. We then went to several special scenic locations for photos – God blessed them with a gorgeous and warm autumn day, with highs around 64 F / 18 C. Following that, we again visited the groom’s mother’s home, where she presented her new daughter-in-law with a special decorated loaf of bread as a way of welcoming her into the family, and of course we had more tea and refreshments. Many of the traditions parallel so beautifully the love of Jesus Christ for His people (He calls us His bride in Revelation 19). Finally we went to the church hall where over 150 people joined for a celebration with pastor Dave leading a brief ceremony of commitment and blessing, followed by much food, fun, entertainment, games, and dancing, a delightful end to a very long but wonderful day!
1. Misha, Paul, and Dave scrub up pretty good, dontcha think 🙂
2. during tea at the home of Larissa’s parents
3. Steph (the official photographer) & C (her camera caddie)
4. Andrei & Lena, our new friends from the soaking group
5. The happy couple waving on the wall overlooking the confluence of the two rivers . . . Larissa was gorgeous in her pale blue
6. Some of the guests at the reception
7. Guess who caught the bride’s bouquet?
We’ve been delighted to share our apartment with several overnight guests – our friend Irina from Nizhny Novgorod, Simeon from Scotland, and Sergey, Lena, & Vitya from Ufa.
1. Some of the gang with Simeon, our new prayer-walking-radical-Scottish-seminary-student friend!
2. Enjoying a meal with Sergey & Lena, pastors of the Ufa Vineyard. P & J had met them and their older son, Zhenya, 5 years ago when they were all on a team together helping to birth the Ufa Vineyard. Karen met Lena at the Vineyard Women’s Retreat last year in Perm. It was so good to get to know them a little better and hear about what God is doing in Ufa!
3. Vitya with his two guardians 🙂
P’s studies . . . he expects to begin his Information Technology studies at the University of Nizhny Novgorod (a.k.a. Lubachevsky) within the next couple of weeks (they wait until all of the students arrive from various countries around the world). We just found out also that P has received early acceptance to study Electrical Engineering at LeTourneau University in Texas in the fall of 2009. We are so proud of P and his wonderful attitude in waiting patiently to begin his next phase of studies (he finished high school in January) . . . he’s been keeping himself occupied with M.I.T. online courses when Sculley Academy is in session . . .
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 68% of our financial needs through June 2009 – praise God!
· Resources for Russians
o We’ve had the joy of distributing many books and CDs that were donated in the U.S. The Nizhny Vineyard library is growing in English titles that we brought with us, and we are investigating available Russian titles to donate. We have found that worship CDs are the best resource to give away, as almost everyone has time to listen to music (usually on their mp3 players), and music touches the heart like nothing else! If you’d like to donate worship CDs, please get them to our Atlanta address, and we’ll arrange for a way to get them here. (Sheri Carr’s CDs have been distributed in Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa, Scotland, and Zimbabwe.)
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 (http://www.atlantavineyard.com/resources/online_giving.html — just mention “Sculley – Russia” on the online giving comment line)
Praise Reports:
· Our transition back here was much easier this time, though it was definitely much harder to leave Atlanta twice in 8 months! Thanks for praying for our travels – everything went amazingly smoothly. It was comical at best when we had to give directions in Russian only to our rented van’s somewhat impatient driver as to how to drive from Moscow to our apartment in Nizhny at 3:30am at the end of the journey.
· God’s grace has been on us in every way – we thank Him for good health, protection, favor, provision, and loved ones all over the world.
· We’ve had frequent opportunities to serve, pray with and counsel people in a variety of situations – praise God for His ordering of our steps.
· Sculley Academy is going well – 2008/09 is the 13th year of our school, and we only have 5 students this year 🙂 J is finishing off his high school studies this year and next, and the younger children have been studying Ancient Rome, doing lots of science experiments, reading “Dangerous Journey” (the youth edition of Pilgrim’s Progress), along with the usual collection of other subjects.
· Karen is studying Russian language & culture for 5 hours a week at the Linguistic University, which is close to where we live. Sample homework – “memorize 3 stanzas of this patriotic Russian song” . . . it’s very enjoyable yet one’s brain feels quite maxed out after a 2 hour class. Praise God for the blessing of being able to study the language – she longs for deeper conversations with Russian speakers, and it’s gradually becoming a reality! We all help each other with language around the meal table, and contextually.
· God continues to connect us with brothers & sisters from many different streams (denominations, demographics, locations, styles) – this has been a constant cry of our hearts, to help bring unity to the body of Christ (through prayer & serving mostly), a precursor to Kingdom transformation.
Please pray for us:
· 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. We’ve heard that half of our visas are ready, and are awaiting news on the others.
· for God’s plans in every area of our lives – we want only what He wants and continually lay everything at His feet. It’s so freeing to not have to figure everything out ourselves – we trust Him to show us each day / month / year what’s next . . . may Jesus receive ALL the glory in our lives.
· for P’s studies at Lubachevsky to go really well, and for meshing of schedules when he begins – it’s amazing how full our calendars already are – we want to maintain our family worship & fun times and continue to be balanced & flexible in reaching out to others. It would be really easy to get overloaded here as anywhere – we constantly need God’s wisdom and direction.
· for God’s abundant grace & blessing on Misha & Larissa (and four-year-old Roma) as they begin their new life together; also for Artyom & Valya who are planning their wedding for late November.
· for God to show us who, what, when, where, how He wants us to invest most in
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 1000 or so 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)
Visit our blog (updated weekly):
In Russia with love,
Paul, Karen, P, J, M, C, E, & K Sculley
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:28 – 31)
