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, he 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.
After his call to preach in 1973, and following a year of itinerant evangelistic preaching, Tim Lee pastored for five years in southern Illinois before surrendering to the full-time ministry of evangelism in 1979. The results in the lives of people was 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.