By JOAN G. LA BARR
Special Contributor
Fifty years ago, the Rev. Dr.
Ken McIntosh and his wife, Iweeta,
flew to Hong Kong to serve as
Methodist missionaries. They are
now returning to Hong Kong for the
160th anniversary of Methodism in
the region. They were scheduled to
be special guests of President Lung
Kwong Lo of The Methodist Church
of Hong Kong on Oct. 27.
Ken and Iweeta McIntosh arrived in Hong
Kong in 1961 just as refugees flooded in to
escape famine on mainland China. The McIntoshes now reside at the C.C. Young Retirement
Community in Dallas.

The veteran missionaries have
flown across the Pacific hundreds of
times in their years as missionaries
in Hong Kong and nearby Macau.
At that time, Hong Kong was under
British rule, and Macau was a
Portuguese possession. Today, Hong
Kong and Macau are both part of
China.
While in Hong Kong, the
McIntoshes will renew longtime ties
and remember departed friends and
colleagues, such as Rev. McIntosh's
seminary friend Chester Yang, who
first urged him to volunteer for
Hong Kong.
That decision to go on the
mission field was not easy for the
young couple, who had already
sacrificed much. They had met
as teenagers at the old Lancaster
Avenue Methodist Church in South
Dallas. World War II interrupted
their courtship as young Ken joined
the Army in 1944, getting his
father's permission to sign up. He
was training to be part of the Japan
invasion force when the war ended
in 1945.
After his discharge as a sergeant
in 1947, Ken returned to
home, church and Iweeta.
He enrolled at the Perkins School of Theology, SMU.
He and Iweeta married in
1949, despite the reservations
of his staunchly Baptist
father-in-law. The patient
young Methodist seminarian
finally won over Iweeta's
dad by listening to countless
hours of him reading from
the Baptist Standard.
Ken was ordained in
1950 and began serving
North Texas churches. He
became founding pastor of
Lake Highlands Methodist Church in Dallas. Then the
pleas of his friend in Hong
Kong tugged at his heart.
The McIntoshes began
working with what was then
called The Board of Missions
and were sent to Yale to study
Chinese and the Asian culture.
They arrived in Hong Kong in
1961 and were confronted with
enormous challenges. Refugees
were streaming in because of
famine on the Communist-ruled
mainland. There were
thousands to feed, house and
educate, as well as churches to
build.
A consummate organizer,
Ken acquired 14 noodle
makers, flour from the U.S.
surplus available through the
Meals for Millions program,
and deployed equipment
and supplies throughout the
mission area. They packed
noodles in newspaper-like
sheets for distribution to
hungry people.
They also helped organize
schools and churches, many
of them on the rooftops of the
seven-story walk-up buildings
the government built to house
refugees.
The Rev. Dr. Ken McIntosh
(third from right) helped cut the
ribbon for Ward Memorial Methodist
Church in Hong Kong.
Ken's first Hong Kong
church was composed of
seven garages. He went to the
mainland to look at land and
later became founding pastor
of a church named for Bishop
Ralph Ward, the first American
bishop in China.
A CHANCE MEETING IN TRAVELS
When Iweeta McIntosh began organizing
tours to the Chinese mainland, the U.S. had
not restored diplomatic relations with the
Communist government. She had to go through
the embassy of a country with diplomatic ties to
secure travel visas.
Ethiopia was one of these countries. Once
when her husband, the Rev. Dr. Ken McIntosh,
was on a flight that stopped in Ethiopia, the
consul general said, "I have someone I want you
to meet." That someone was a small, gray-eyed
woman in a nun's habit, unmistakably Mother
Teresa.

He ended up sitting next to
Mother Teresa on the plane.
She had been in Ethiopia to
open a church complex, but
was concerned that soldiers
were stealing food meant for
the people. Ken contacted the
United Methodist Committee
on Relief, which helped
arrange to have the food sent farther into the
interior of the country where it was less likely to
be intercepted and misused.
The two older McIntosh
children, Mark and Mary,
grew up in Hong Kong.
When the third child and
youngest son, Matthew,
returned to the U.S., he
had trouble figuring out
whether he was Chinese or
American, the couple said.
While in Hong Kong,
Ken was recalled into the
U.S. Army as a chaplain
major. He worked with
troops deployed in Hong
Kong, Taiwan and, later,
Vietnam, where he traveled
to Saigon to assist the
Protestant chaplain. He retired from the
Army after 25 years of service.
After returning to the U.S., Ken
served the General Board of Global Ministries as a representative to the
South Central Jurisdiction.
He was invited back to Hong
Kong for five more years to assist the
church during the transfer from British
to Chinese rule. Though anxieties ran
high, the transition went smoothly and
The Methodist Church continues to
thrive in the region.
Both Ken and Iweeta speak fluent
Chinese. After China began to emerge
from isolation and open up to travel
from the U.S., she became an expert
tour organizer, shepherding countless
groups to China.
Both Ken and Iweeta
have redefined the concept of
retirement. He directed the
NTC's Project Pentecost, a
foreign-language church planting
program, and she continued to
plan and lead tours. The years
have not stopped Ken from
visiting the language churches he
helped plant.
The couple now resides
at C.C. Young Retirement
Community. To contact them,
e-mail mctours@airmail.net or
iweeta@gmail.com.