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Tragedy led to renewed faith, evangelist says
By JEAN JOHNSON SPRING HILL -- Tim Lee accepted Jesus Christ as his savior when he was 10. But something happened before he turned 14 that made him stop living for the Lord, he said. "I think the fact that I got hooked up with the wrong crowd -- and sports began to control my life," he said. "Any time you push God to a back burner, you will have problems as a Christian believer." This will be only a small part of Lee's testimony as he evangelizes Sunday through Wednesday at Spring Hill Baptist Church. The 52-year-old former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant said he caused his parents pain and suffering during that period, but they never gave up on him. "They always believed God would bring me back to them," he said. The oldest son of a Baptist minister, Lee said he rebelled against his parents, the school and the church. After one year in junior college, he joined the Marine Corps. Several months later, he received orders for duty in Vietnam. "I was a real Marine," he said. While spending his three weeks of leave with his parents, Lee went to church and "tried to make things right with God," but later decided he could not live for God around other Marines. "I was afraid they would make fun of me." On March 8, 1971, with only 30 days left on his tour of duty before he was set to ship home, Lee stepped on a land mine. He lost both his legs and almost died. Lee regained consciousness in the arms of a Marine, Lee Gore. Lee had admired Gore for being unafraid to display his Christianity before fellow Marines. Gore was praying and asking God to help him. "It was touch and go for more than four weeks," Lee said, "not knowing if I would make it or not. And finally I was brought back to the States." His near-death experience, he said, was a wakeup call. "I knew I had been running from God and believed God had placed Lee Gore there for me," he said. "I knew I should be living like him and knew God was giving me a chance. I had seen (other guys step on such mines) when we had to pick up the pieces. I wanted to live. Someone said, 'You only begin to want to live when you think you're going to die.' " Lee talked about the bitterness and anger he saw during his eight months in the Philadelphia naval hospital and decided he didn't want that for himself. "Every day I get out of bed and look at that wheelchair and remember the promise that if God gave me my life and I would do what he wanted me to do," he said. Lee wants America to remember its heritage, the goodness and blessings of God, the courageous people who fought and gave us what we have today. "I especially remind the young what a privilege it is to live in America," he said. "We've got our problems, but it is a great land. America needs to turn back to God." The Rev. Ray Rouse, pastor of Spring Hill Baptist Church, was instrumental in bringing Lee to speak at the church. Associate pastor Dave Reynolds, who has heard Lee before, is cutting short a vacation to hear him again. "He carried himself as a John Wayne, a man's man," Reynolds said. "As a young boy, I was impressed with this man who was a Marine, was almost killed and was now serving God. Because of his testimony, everything he had to say made great impact on me." If you goWHAT: Tim Lee, Evangelist WHERE: Spring Hill Baptist Church, 3140 Mariner Blvd., Spring Hill WHEN: 10:50 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday; 7 p.m. Monday through Wednesday CALL: 683-5685
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From today's Hernando Times |
