Prayer letter - November 13, 2009

Friday, November 13, 2009

Dear friends,

I had hoped to send out a prayer letter about 2 weeks ago, but our house has been hit with sickness for the past several weeks, so I am finally getting to it now. Thank you for your prayers for us, and please keep them coming! Here’s an update from the Palmers…


Preparation for Urbana

In September, I traveled to St. Louis for a training in preparation for the Urbana missions convention, at which I will lead a Bible study of up to 1,000 people. The training was super helpful. I appreciate your ongoing prayers for my preparation for Urbana. As part of those preparations, I plan to hold two all-day-Saturday Bible study sessions at which I will lead all four of the texts in John’s gospel that I will be leading at Urbana. Anyone who wants to attend is welcome – Saturday, December 5 in Paramount (next to Long Beach), and Saturday, December 12 in Pomona. If you’d like more information about attending one of these studies, please email me.


SP update

Three of the missionaries I have been training this year are hoping to be ready to join our SP team in the Middle East by early January, less than 2 months from now. The Team Leader of that team is in the Middle East right now, continuing to do research and make preparations for the rest of the team to join him and his wife in the coming months. I welcome your prayers at this time for this team and the new members who are seeking to wrap up their fundraising and other preparation.


Ministry in Long Beach

Our small group Bible study has been meeting at our house for 2 months now. It has been very encouraging, to get to know this group of people in a deeper way, and to study and apply the Word with them each week. This Bible study group has been a particular answer to prayer for Mini also, as she values deep relationships, and has really connected deeply with some of the women in our study.


Family update

Lily is thoroughly enjoying pre-school and amazing us with how smart she is. She will be 3-and-a-half next month. Emily is 15 months, and is starting to say some words. She loves to have us read children’s books to her.

Lily wore the green sari that appears in a blog post just below this letter to an Indian wedding we attended, to the delight of the Indian people present. Someone at the wedding asked Lily if she was Indian, or white. She responded, “I’m GREEN!” Good answer!


Smile Pinki

2008 was a great year for Indians in cinema! Slumdog Millionaire was NOT the only movie filmed in India to win an “Oscar” at the Academy Awards earlier this year. The other film was Smile Pinki, which won the 2008 Oscar for Best Documentary Short. It is a 45 minute true story documentary produced by “The Smile Train,” a charitable organization that trains and equips local doctors in the “developing” world to do free cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries, thus changing the lives of thousands of poor children affected by this deformity. Mini had received some unexpected money earlier this year, and she wanted to give it to the Smile Train to provide a cleft lip surgery for a needy child. The Smile Train sent us the Smile Pinki DVD as a thank you. The DVD is so amazing and inspiring. It is profound to realize that for a few hundred dollars you can help change the life of someone like the little girl and boy portrayed in this film. After watching the DVD Mini and I both readily agreed that, though we are raising support ourselves for our ministry, if any of you wanted to make a donation to the Smile Train, even if it were at the expense of making a donation to us, we would be completely in favor of that! The extras on the DVD are very inspiring as well. I thought I would share this with you all, in case you would like to check it out. As far as I know you can’t rent Smile Pinki on Netflix, but you can go to the Smile Train website (www.smiletrain.org) and request your own free copy from the home page.

We are so grateful for your prayers for our ministry and family, and are always happy to hear from you!

For the joy set before us,

Dave, Mini, Lily, and Emily

A quote to ponder:

You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give. – Winston Churchill

Mischievious smile

This has got to be one of the cutest pictures of Emily ever! She's 13 months in this picture:

Lily's sari

Mini's cousin Anil got married yesterday to Reeja, and we dressed Lily up for the Indian wedding in this beautiful sari that our friends Jason and Jen gave to her as a gift. When Mini's brother Manoj saw her in the sari, he asked her, “Lily, are you Indian, or White?”, to which she confidently responded, “I’m GREEN !!!” :^) Smart girl!!

Prayer letter - September 20, 2009

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for your prayers for us! Here’s an update from the Palmers…


Preparation for teaching at Urbana, this Monday – Wednesday

Please pray for me as I travel to St. Louis tomorrow (Monday) morning for a training in preparation for the upcoming Urbana missions convention. I have been asked to lead a morning manuscript study in the Gospel of John for the International Poverty Track, which will have up to 1,000 participants. I’ve never led a Bible study remotely that large before! Please pray for my preparations, and also for Mini, Lily, and Emily as I am away for the next three days.


Lots of teaching this past month

In my last prayer letter (August 10), I asked you to pray for several upcoming speaking engagements that I had in the past month. Thank you for praying for me; each one went really well. Mini and I had the opportunity to present our ministry to one of our supporting churches at their annual camp, which was a fabulous time and a lot of fun. I also gave a message at our church in Long Beach on forgiveness, from the example of Joseph in Genesis 45. And, I taught at our Commissioning Service for seven new Servant Partners missionaries. As they are about to embark on their lives and ministries among the poor, I shared about on Jesus’ example of incarnation and his identification with society’s poor and vulnerable.

One thing I really love about our annual Commissioning Service is the sharing that each new missionary does of how God has led them to this point of committing their lives to serving the urban poor. It brings tears to my eyes to hear them share their stories and to see their dedication to God and his Kingdom. I praise God for these seven new workers that he has raised up, and thank him that he has graciously allowed me to work with and influence them at this stage of their preparation. Please pray for our missionaries on the field in Servant Partners, as they work in very difficult and demanding places, the urban slums of the developing world.


Long Beach update

We’ve been in our “new” home for a month and a half and are enjoying it very much. We hosted our first small group Bible study at our house this past week, and we plan to continue hosting them weekly. Please pray with us that as we follow Jesus in this community, and as God’s Word is taught, God would make us and our home a beacon of light for our neighbors.


Family update

Lily started pre-school this past week! It’s just a morning program, but quite a milestone nonetheless for our little girl who is growing up fast. Lily loves going to school. She cried when school let out because she didn’t want to go back home! Check out the attached picture of Lily and Emily if you’d like.

We are so grateful for your prayers for our family and are always happy to hear from you!

For the joy set before us,

Dave, Mini, Lily, and Emily

Lily starts preschool.

Here are a few pictures from Lily's very first day of preschool, September 15. Lily loves preschool so much that she cries when it is time to go home!

Here's a cute picture of Lily and Emily together, taken September 15. Lily is 3 years 3 months in this picture, and Emily is 1 year, 1 month.

Emily at 13 months

Here is a very cute picture of Emily at 13 and a half months