How would your life change if you turned away from the person the world insists you are and become the eternal person Jesus sees in you? Who Jesus always meant you to be is someone of greatness being made fit for eternity with him. Dan Palmer is fired up to help people see that truth become reality in their lives. He believes God is calling each of us to take our next step of courage and follow his son, Jesus Christ, into being transformed into that person through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Dan has completed a devotional manuscript titled “Jesus Sees Your Greatness.” In it, he calls upon his experience and a habit of noticing the unconventional to discover simple, challenging steps towards living a transformational life of faith. He uses a plain-spoken, conversational tone to encourage readers to live courageously. Dan has also written a large catalog of small group Bible study curriculum for himself and others. He recently won two third place awards at the 2024 St David’s Christian Writer’s Conference. One for his Flash Fiction entry “A Day in the Life of the Dying” and another for Novel Beginnings “The (Re)Making of Elias Birdsong.”
God has gifted Dan a life of helping people discover and develop their gifts and skills. He is committed to leading change by helping people grow. Dan earned two meritorious service awards as a firefighter for the rescue of multiple people. He led the development of the Northwest Pennsylvania Urban Search and Rescue team from concept to certification. Dan worked in international disaster relief with Samaritan’s Purse after firefighting. He helped build field hospitals in a combat zone in Iraq and an Ebola epidemic zone in the Democratic Republic of Congo, among others. Dan served with his wife Barb as instructors and staff at Doulos Discovery School in the Dominican Republic.
Dan is grateful for the career he had because he enjoys being the tip of the spear in chaotic situations, and because firefighting allowed him the freedom to hold maturity at arm’s length and ruined him for honest labor. Dan is more grateful for our merciful savior, Jesus, who waited for the teenager who walked away to run back to him as a broken man.
Barb and Dan live in eastern North Carolina with their Lab-mix, Molly, who sheds hair like it’s her only job. Their primary pursuit is spending time with their grown children and beautiful granddaughter.
Among many, two lessons will drive Dan forward for the rest of his eternal life. His daughter was a competitive swimmer. A common encouragement he gave her was to “Leave it all in the pool.” If she gave everything she had to touch the wall at the end of the race as quickly as she could, she could trust she would be pulled out of the water at the end. How could he ask her to finish with nothing left to give and not himself do the same for Jesus?
While a vocational instructor, Dan had a student with a big heart who struggled academically. After high school, that student went into the army. Later, he wrote Dan a letter describing how he had received a commendation for rewiring a transformer, allowing his unit to complete their mission. He used a skill Dan had taught him to put a crucial piece of equipment into service. Thirty years have passed and Eric’s excitement at his accomplishment is still a memory Dan holds dear.
Dan has found no better purpose in life than to help someone discover they can do more than they ever imagined because of a savior who made them for greatness.
