War heroes find their strength

AMerican hero — Dr. Tim Lee receives a standing ovation at Military Emphasis Week convocation.

Thousands of students rose to their feet to applaud American heroes Dr. Tim Lee and Captain Scotty Smiley during convocation Wednesday.

Lee lost both of his legs while serving with the United States Marine Corp in the Vietnam War. Captain Scotty Smiley was also injured during a tour of duty. After a car bomb explosion, Smiley was left without his vision.

“I am lucky to be alive,” Lee said.

In his testimony Lee recalls stepping on the 60 pound box mine that could have blown him to pieces. What would be devastating to most people, Lee turned into an opportunity. After years of running from God, Lee’s wounds brought him back.

“It wasn’t long after (I came back from Vietnam) that I felt God calling me to preach,” Lee said. “I pastored for five years and I wasn’t really a very good pastor, but those five years God was getting me ready to be an evangelist, which I’m getting ready to start my 33rd year. I love doing this, it’s my calling. It’s what God wants.”

Lee said when he first started preaching he did not have any invitations to speak. It was a ministry that required faith and trust in God.

“After I had been in evangelism for about eight or nine months, I went to a conference in Charlotte and the moderator said, ‘Tim, tonight at the end of the service, you be ready. I want you to give a five minute testimony,’” Lee said.  “I got up there and out of that five minute testimony I got 83 invitations for meetings. It started a snowball-type effect, and it hasn’t ever slowed down.  I don’t take it for granted but God has given me the opportunity to speak at some of the greatest and largest churches in America.”

Lee found the courage to begin this ministry from God. Lee said that quiet times are crucial for building that confidence and gaining comfort from the Lord.

“It’s great to be here (convocation) with the masses, but you and God need some alone time. That’s where he’s really going to get your attention and say things and do things in your life that are very personal,” Lee said.

Lee and Smiley agree that the most rewarding part of their ministries is seeing lives changed.

“I think everyone has trials and tribulations in their lives and they have to stand up and recognize that God still has a purpose for them, it’s that purpose that they have to know still exists,” Smiley said. “Just like my book ‘Hope Unseen,’ it’s that hope that we all should have despite the trials that we’re going through. We all should recognize and continue to love the Lord.”

Smiley is the first blind active duty serviceman in the United States Army.

“(At first) it was a very difficult process and the state which I was at was very low. I had forsaken God, I wanted nothing to do with the army and with my life,” Smiley said.

But it took time for Smiley to understand the life God had given him.

Smiley said he knew that he still had a purpose and that God could still use him.

“God developed plans in my life, that He could still use me, not only in the civilian world but even still on active duty,” Smiley said. “So I continued to serve. I’m active duty even today, serving my country. It’s just the awesome opportunities God has given me by understanding what his purpose is for me in my life.”

Smiley is currently a company commander of the West Point warrior transition unit. The unit’s mission is to assist the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded soldiers in the United States Army and try to get them back to service.

“At West Point, we’re doing an amazing job of taking care of the soldiers,” Smiley said. “It is challenging to understand everyone’s abilities or even disabilities, but it’s creating those personal relationships with them that give you the ability to understand where they’re coming from and to assist them in returning to active duty.”

According to Smiley and Lee the mission field consists of telling their stories. Facing trials and questions is inevitable, but it is those questions that made them stronger and those stories that allow them to inspire hope.

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