Stanley Tam does not have many of the traits that the world associates with greatness. He’ s not tall. His voice is rather plain. He grew up on a farm near a tiny town. He didn’ t graduate from college. But by any measure, Stanley Tam is a great man.
Stanley is a great businessman. As a young man in the 1930s, Stanley took a patented device to recover silver from photographic film and turned it into a highly profitable business with a network of customers all over the United States. Then, he turned that silver recovery company into a plastics business that continues to grow today( www. usplastic. com).
Stanley is a great community leader. He has been instrumental in starting radio and television stations and Teens for Christ, which reaches young people on middle school and high school campuses across the Midwest. Stanley has also served on the boards of multiple institutions, including Asbury University.
Stanley Tam has lived a long life. He is 98 years old. And he is in good health. By God’ s grace, he overcame life-threatening cancer years ago. Stanley drives to work each day to operate his woodworking business. You may wonder why a man who has had business success for more than 70 years needs to operate a business.
As much as Stanley enjoys making things out of walnut and oak, he doesn’ t run his business to get sawdust on his hands. His woodworking business is on a main road into Stanley’ s hometown. The sign out front says“ Come in for a free Bible.” Stanley goes to work so he can share the Good News of Jesus with people who don’ t know Him. Stanley is a great soul winner, always looking for ways to share the love of Christ with lost people. Through personal witness, from behind a lectern, in the open air or sitting on an airplane, Stanley tells people about Jesus and invites them to turn from their sin and put their trust in Him.
Stanley Tam is a great philanthropist. He loves people, and because of that love, his generosity has resulted in tens of millions of dollars being directed through One Mission Society’ s Every Community for Christ( ECC) ministry to lead people to the Savior in more than 60 countries around the world. OMS would not be the dynamic, fruitful ministry it is today without the generosity of Stanley
Tam. His provision enables OMS and our partners to deploy more than
1,000 full-time evangelistic church planters across the globe. Stanley has been honored for all of these activities. But they are not the key to his greatness. The thing that makes Stanley great is that he listens to
God and obeys Him right away. When God says to witness, Stanley does. When
God said,“ Give Me your business,” Stanley did.( His book, God Owns My Business, details that obedience.) When God says to pray for your family, your business and the ECC workers around the world, Stanley does, in a very systematic way. Stanley Tam hears from God by reading His Word and listening to the Spirit’ s voice. Then, he does what God says he should do … without delay. Obeying God right away is the key to Stanley Tam’ s greatness. Do you want to do great things? Do you want to be a great man or woman of God? Follow Stanley’ s example. Listen to God’ s voice. Obey God right away.
photo page 18: Stanley Tam, standing in front of the U. S. Plastic building. photo page 19: Stanley melts and pours silver into a mold, turning it into a highly profitable business.
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