‘For the Love of Mike’

From Martial Law in Poland to a worldwide ministry and a miracle remarriage to his wife Sandy

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries


IRVINE, CA (ANS) -- On a cold and snowy Sunday morning on December 13, 1981 the Polish people woke up to find their country under Martial Law (literally - The State of War or “stan wojenny”). The Martial Law was imposed by the Military Council for National Salvation lead by, then, prime minister Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski and consisting of 20 other high ranking military officers.

Tanks rolling into the streets of Poland during Martial Law

The WRON (Wojskowa Rada Ocalenia Narodowego -- former Polish military government organization) -- declared Martial Law to “defend socialism”. They felt threatened by the members of the first independent trade union behind the Iron Curtin - the Solidarity (Solidarnosc). The Solidarity had been founded only 18 months earlier, in August of 1980 after several weeks of strikes. The workers had gone on strike to protest poor living conditions and lack of independent representation. With the birth of the Solidarity hopes were high that the new trade union would help to pressure the government to introduce economic reforms and ease restrictions.

The borders were sealed, airports were closed and road access to main cities was restricted. Travel between cities required permission. Curfew was imposed between 10 pm and 6 am. Telephone lines were disconnected. Mail was subject to censorship. All trade union and other independent organizations were de-legalized. All TV and radio transmissions were suspended (except one government TV channel and one government radio station). Public administration, health services, power generation stations, coal mines, sea ports, train stations, and most of the key factories were placed under military management. The employees had to follow military orders or face a court martial. Classes in schools and at universities were suspended.

As this was going on, a San Diego pastor, Mike MacIntosh, who had previously been in Poland to preach to large crowds of youth, felt his heart sink with sadness for the people he had met before the crackdown.

Mike MacIntosh preaching in Poland as Henryk Krol, his interpreter, looks on (Photo: Dan Wooding)

Recalling that first trip before Martial Law, Henryk Krol, who had hosted MacIntosh during that visit, “We were with Mike in a number of places -- the biggest was Kroscienko, a center of Catholic Oasis Revival Movement, where Mike was speaking to a crowd of over 5,000 kids. Then our group, DEOdecyma, played several concerts and Mike was doing the preaching. Many Bible studies were held in small, remote houses in the mountains - people filling rooms... some meetings were more than 3 hours with Mike preaching, and people wanted more.
“Then came an idea of help – a container of food was shipped with 10.000 New Testaments inserted. We did not know about it... When customs discovered that - a big problem started for us, but with the Lords Grace - some 9 months later we received them back from custody.”

MacIntosh added, “I was able to address thousands of people in Poland and I fell in love with them and their persistent faith. Under Communist rule, these people read the Bible and prayed like no people I had ever met, even though I have spent quite a bit of time in Communist countries. The Polish Christians seemed to have a strength that I needed. Their strength has deeply impacted me -- even today.”

When news came of Martial Law, MacIntosh, felt his heart stirred to do something to help the Polish believers. He began challenging his congregation at Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego to start providing food and other relief items that he could take into Poland as soon as the borders opened. He then had the supplies shipped to Heathrow Airport in London.

The first I knew about this was after I had been asked by Ray Barnett, an Irish-Canadian friend with whom I had written a book called "Uganda Holocaust", to pick up MacIntosh and Bill Goodrich, another pastor from his church, at Heathrow and drive them across the British capital to the house where they would be staying.

As I weaved my way through the busy traffic, Mike suddenly said, “Dan, why don’t you come with us?” He explained more about the project to drive the relief goods across Europe and “pray that God opens the border for us to get in.”

So, early in 1982, I became one of the drivers in a convoy of three vehicles that set off from London and finally, after a marathon journey, was able to enter Poland and present the goods in Southern Poland to the Krol family, who were very prominent in the Evangelical movement there.
Since that time, MacIntosh has been back several times to conduct his Festival of Life outreaches and I have had the privilege of joining him to report on these wonderful gatherings where thousands have found Christ.

However, if that wasn’t enough, when we returned to London, Mike then asked if I would go with him to Uganda as he said he had been deeply moved after reading our book about the terrible eight years of misrule of Idi Amin, when some 300,000 Christians were murdered by him and his thugs.

The picture taken at a road block in Uganda that nearly cost us our lives

So I agreed to fly with him, along with a small team, to Entebbe Airport so Mike could meet some of the survivors of that appalling period and preach in one of the Kampala churches that had suffered under Idi Amin. However, we had only been in the country for a short time when we posed for a picture with some soldiers at a checkpoint on the main Entebbe-Kampala road and then all hell broke loose when some superiors saw what was going on and threatened our lives. They snatched the film from my camera and exposed it, not knowing that I had another camera hidden away with the picture you can see on the left, on it.

If that wasn’t enough, when we arrived at the house where we were to stay, a gun battle broke out in front of the home and a man was shot. It was an eventful few days in Uganda.

As we touched down at Heathrow, I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that my adventure with Mike MacIntosh was over, but then he gave me another shock.

“I am going over right away to Northern Ireland to speak at a church in Londonderry,” he said. “Would you like to join me once again?”

This sign says it all

My heart dropped as it was at the time that “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland were at its height and Londonderry, known by the Catholic population as “Derry” was at the center of the violence.

Still, I was intrigued with the possibility of seeing at firsthand what was going on and after the morning service at which Mike preached, Ray Barnett, who was born in Northern Ireland, took us into the area called the Bogside where what was called “The Battle of the Bogside,” a large communal riot took place during August 12-14, 1969. The fighting was between residents of the Bogside area (allied under the Derry Citizens' Defence Association) and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

Rioting erupted after the RUC attempted to disperse Irish nationalists who were protesting against a loyalist Apprentice Boys parade along the city walls, past the nationalist Bogside and it continued for three days. The RUC was unable to enter the area and the British Army was deployed to restore control. This uprising, which sparked widespread violence elsewhere in Northern Ireland, is commonly seen as one of the first major confrontations in the conflict known as “The Troubles.”

When we entered what was then called "Free Derry," there were all kinds of scary Irish Republican Army (IRA) murals on the walls of the community, and we found it eerie as we saw young children happily playing to the backdrop of such violent pictures.

I finally bid farewell to Mike MacIntosh when he returned home, but then, when Norma and I and our two sons, Andrew and Peter, moved to Southern California, I met up with him again and had the joy of traveling with Mike to cover his many Festival of Life outreaches all over Mexico and, of course, back to Poland, which were all at the invitation of our friend Henryk Krol and were thousands accepted Christ.

Andrae Crouch and Barry McGuire share a joke at the reuinion as Mike MacIntosh looks on (Photo: Dan Wooding)

My most recent meeting with Mike MacIntosh was less dramatic than some of the previous ones. It was a unique event held on Saturday, August 27, 2011, and was called “The Jesus Movement: A Look Back and a Look Ahead” at which Mike was to speak at. It was part of the Upper Room’s monthly outreach series organized by Ron Strand and was held at Concordia University in Irvine, California. Also taking part were Chuck Girard, from Love Song, Karen Lafferty who wrote “Seek Ye First,” the powerful worship song, Barry “Eve of Destruction” McGuire, and the one and only Andrae Crouch, who performed with his wonderful backing group.

Before we began our interview outside the hall where the event was to take place, David A. Horner, Associate Professor at the Talbot Department of Philosophy/Ethics at Biola University in La Mirada, California, came up to Mike and introduced himself. He told Mike that, while working in Poland with Campus Crusade for Christ, he had helped to organized Mike’s first speaking visit to the country. It was an extraordinary reunion.

Then, as Mike was one of the early converts of the Jesus People revival that took place in “Big Tent” at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa under the leadership of Chuck Smith, I wanted to more about this historic time.

Mike revealed that, because of his life scarred with drugs and alcohol, his marriage to his lovely wife, Sandy, had broken up, and their marriage seemed doomed. Mike had followed in the footsteps of his alcoholic father and, as a result of drinking and taking LSD, his marriage to Sandy had ended, and he was committed to a mental hospital in California for two years.

But then a great miracle took place. He explained that through hearing the message of salvation at Calvary Chapel, he received Christ and was prayed for and he said, “I was completely healed of my mental illness.”

MacIntosh said, “When Jesus healed me, it was like stepping out of darkness into light. My life so radically changed that my ex-wife Sandy saw such a change in my heart that she gave her life to Jesus Christ and after three years of divorce, Sandy and I were re-married.”

Mike then spoke about his marriage to Sandy. “We had met and married in 1966 after knowing each other for only three or four weeks, but then we got divorced two-and-a-half-years later and she didn’t want anything to do with me,” said Mike.

“But then, when I gave my heart to the Lord and he just radically changed me, she could see the change, but didn’t know what it was. I was baptized with 2,500 other people.”

Mike MacIntosh, with his wife, Sandy in the background, at a mass baptism at Pirate's Cover, in the early days of Calvary Chapel

Mike said that he persuaded Sandy to attend a Calvary Chapel mass baptism at Pirates Cove in Corona de Mar, California, and she was so touched that she became a Christian “and we were reunited and remarried close to three years after the divorce.”

Mike said the wedding was conducted at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa by Chuck Smith, and one of the singers at the reunion, Chuck Girard of Love Song, played at the service.

“That was a great experience because Love Song were riding the wave of what was happening and were probably considered to be the best Christian music group in the country at the time and also we were friends,” he said. “I asked Chuck Girard if he would sing ‘Feel the Love’ at the wedding. Then, just as he was reaching the crescendo, Chuck started to break up with the emotion of the moment.

“And then Chuck Smith starts to say, ‘Dearly beloved. We are gathered here together…’ and I was crying so hard and I then thought ‘I’ll just look at Chuck as he never changes,' and just then he started to choke up a little bit as well.”

Shortly after this great re-marriage, Mike and Sandy moved to San Diego and Horizon Christian Fellowship began in 1974 as a home Bible study of twelve people. Mike, who was then director of Maranatha! Music, drove from Orange County to San Diego every week to teach and lead the group.

By August 1974, the study had grown and moved to the Ocean Beach Women's Club, where it hosted evangelistic concerts along with Bible studies. Attendance grew so fast that within three months the fellowship had to move again, this time to the House of Hospitality in Balboa Park.

A recent picture of Mike and Sandy MacIntosh (Photo: Dan Wooding)

In February 1975, the church relocated to Linda Vista. A regular nursery and Sunday School operated along with Sunday morning and evening services, and Monday night concerts. Continued growth propelled a search for new facilities, which resulted in the purchase and renovation of the old North Park Theatre in the summer of 1976.

The popular outreach concerts continued and Sunday services expanded to three, two morning and one evening, to accommodate the ever growing church.

The church also launched the Horizon School of Evangelism in 1977, Horizon International Ministries in 1980, and completed the Family Center in 1981.

By 1985 the church building had once more become inadequate to house all the members and ministries. In September of that year Horizon moved to the former site of Hale Junior High School in Clairemont.

In 1994, Horizon acquired a facility in downtown San Diego, Valley Center, and another school campus in Clairemont. Horizon now functions as one church in four locations. These locations also accommodate a pre-school, elementary school, and junior/senior high school.

Over one hundred churches and para-church organizations have grown out of this congregation world-wide, as well as Horizon's Preschool through High School educational system.

Mike MacIntosh is certainly a true “trophy of grace” and for me it all began with an invitation to be a truck driver with him to Poland.

For more information, go to: www.horizonsd.org

Note: I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing part of this interview.

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Dan Wooding, 70, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 48 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. He now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California which is also carried throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK and also in Belize and South Africa. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 200 countries. You can follow Dan on Facebook under his name there or at ASSIST News Service. He is the author of some 44 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link.Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel “Red Dagger” which is available this link.

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