August Update...

No! It can’t be. Can it? Jacob is 5 years old.
Greetings Family and Friends, 
Danielle and I just celebrated our Anniversary this past August 2nd. It has been eight wonderful and adventurous years for us. It is really amazing how God has worked in so many ways in our lives together and it is still so clear to both of us that His calling on our lives as missionaries to Chile is even stronger today than when we first felt it. 
Another clear calling on us, is that of being the parents to Jacob and Elijah. Jacob, who just turned 5 years old on July 24th is ready to start kindergarten. I know!!! How can he be 5 years old and ready for school? Anyway, Danielle has been working hard to get him into a magnet school here in Hartford, CT. This has been a long and frustrating challenge. Here in Hartford you can enter a lottery system to try and get your child into a magnet school, go to a public school, or try for “open choice”. Jacob is on a waiting list for the two magnet schools  we like and is not likely to get into one of those which leaves either the public school in Hartford or a school in Portland, CT which would require a 45 minute bus ride twice a day. We are not comfortable with putting him in the public school which he would be allowed to attend and the school in Portland is just way too far away. So, we will be home schooling him this year. We found a curriculum that we like and feel this is the best, for Jacob for now. We are planning on eventually homeschooling our children once in Chile anyway for similar reasons why we have chosen this route now for Jacob. The program we will be using is My Father’s World and it is a classical style curriculum. It is a commitment of about two hours a day for five days a week. We will do the bulk of the one on one teaching when Elijah is napping and story time and other activities we can include Elijah for overlap teaching. It will be a challenge for me to keep a steady schedule but I am looking forward to doing this with Jacob. He is a very smart boy and really loves learning and reading and sharing what he has learned with others. God has blessed us greatly with him and Elijah. We will also be hoping to be able to enroll him in either an entry level gymnastics/tumbling class or perhaps martial arts classes for physical training and socialization outside of church. We are all looking forward to this.

Prayer & Praise

• Praise God for the new financial partners that have joined our team.
• Pray for financial partners to make a pledge of support. 
• Praise for God's continued provision for our needs while we are in the States.
• Pray for the energy needed to continue our itineration and the patience needed to be present and involved while we are in the States. 
• Pray that David and Jacob will have a good and productive experience with homeschooling during the coming year.  

Busy Summer.While we have not gone on any trips “away” this summer, we have had an enjoyable and busy summer.  Jacob has attended two Vacation Bible Schools - one at our former church, Ellington Baptist Church and the other at Avery Street Reformed Church in South Windsor. We have taken a few day trips and long rides in the van with no real destination but just to enjoy the scenery and each other. We have attended a couple of the evening jazz concerts at Elizabeth Park. We also held a birthday party for Jacob at Crystal Lake which was a lot of fun.  
1% at a time!!
We have had a few more ministry partners join us recently and our monthly support pledged is currently at 39%. An example of a donation would be if you pledged $100.00 a month for the duration of our term, which would represent 1% of our yearly budget. In our experience this has been the most common monthly pledge others have made. If you would like to help us knock out another 1% or some other amount as a ministry financial partner please either contact us or follow the link to the donation web site. Thank you for considering this.
Danielle’s Job update.As we mentioned in our last update, Danielle has started work at a different law firm as a paralegal. While this new position has had many new challenges and Danielle is still settling into her responsibilities, it has proven to be a good move for Danielle and the family. 
General Assembly Update.
Also as mentioned in our last prayer letter, David attended General Assembly in Mobile, AL. He was able to re-connect with many of the pastors we have met over time and make a few new contacts while working at the MTW booth. This was a nice encouragement to us and I either have or will be following up with emails thanking them for their time. I also really liked just hanging out with the MTW staff and other missionaries.