John and Wanda Lee gave their son to God for the gospel ministry following his birth in 1950. That son grew to be a spirited and gifted athlete. Tim Lee was converted at age ten but would soon develop a hostile attitude toward authority.
Evangelists have played a major role in America's moral and spiritual profile over the course of the last 200 years. Their explosive forms have moved before audiences in churches, auditoriums, public meeting halls, secular school assemblies, civic clubs, on street corners and in the open air. Their life changing effects on the masses of people have been striking and dramatic in shaping the conscience of the nation.
The Lord supernaturally prepares and raises up men for a specific day, a specific hour, and a specific duty in a nation's life. Because of his widespread public awareness, the call of the evangelist is unique in the ministry. His spirit is aflame, his burden and energy is often times contagious and his anointing is evidenced even by unregenerate men and women.
Tim Lee, the rebellious teenager and son of a Baptist minister, once walked the streets of McLeansboro, Illinois, in violent protest to all ordained authority in the home, the church, the school. He was a born fighter. Every inch of his life from childhood was contested for. As Billy Sunday once stated, "I know all about the dark and seamy side of life, and if ever a man fought hard, I have fought hard for everything I have ever gained."
To escape the world around him, he joined the Marine Corps in 1969. After his training, he received orders to serve in southeast Asia. In March of 1971, Tim Lee was apprehended by the hand of God along an abandoned grassy trail in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam. In that moment, engulfed in smoke, fire and holy vengeance, a land mine explosion severed two lower limbs, and placed in a wheelchair for life a young man who was to carry, without legs, a message from God to a nation.
Returning home to protesters of the war and to the bitterness of other soldiers whose bodies and lives had been torn apart by the weaponry of modern warfare, Tim Lee made a life-changing decision to choose victory over personal defeat. The results of this most important choice manifested immediately as the former Marine began to stir and challenge people from platforms in speaking engagements across the country, to "thank God it's today!" and to embrace each day a new opportunity to reach our unlimited potential.
After his call to preach in 1973, and following a year of itinerant evangelistic preaching, Tim Lee was a pastor for five years in southern Illinois before surrendering to the full-time ministry of evangelism in 1979. The results in the lives of people were almost immediate as the former Marine began to stir and challenge God's people across the country. People of all ages listened; among them teenagers, the professional person, United States Congressmen and Senators, Governors, Mayors and elected officials. They heard a clear, uncompromising message grounded deep in old fashioned patriotism, righteous living and biblical revival.
Today, Tim Lee makes enthusiasm a daily habit and is constantly inspiring others to do the same. He proclaims his message from pulpits, in patriotic rallies, organizational conferences, crusades, public schools, veteran's organizations, the military, radio and television, college chapels and university commencements. Without the benefit of legs he is undaunted and has hunted bear in the Alaskan tundra using only his hands for mobility. He has fished marlin and other great fighters of the deep seas, he rides horseback and not once let the loss of his legs hinder him from living life to its fullest. As a true example of an overcomer and doing it with all the zeal any one person could have, he lives by his motto of "How do you stop a man who won't quit!"
