1982 started out with some optimistic goals from Maury and Lois Henrich:
- To increase by 30% the amount of medicine and medical supplies sent overseas .
- To reach out via medical missions to enable more souls to be reached for the Kingdom.
- To complete the sorting and re-arranging of the large stock of supplies onto the new storage shelves the Lord provided to HANDCLASP.
- To interest 20 partners in supporting the overhead costs related to warehouse rent and utilities. Each partner would need to give $25.00 per month to this worthy cause!
- To interest more people to assist in the sorting and packing of overseas shipments. No special skills are needed, only a willing heart and an ability to read.
- To communicate to you, the supporters of HANDCLASP, how the people overseas appreciate your financial support, thereby allowing HANDCLASP to ship vitally needed medicines to them.
From the Newsletter:
- Have you ever wanted to travel to a far-off land and teach a tribal person better nutrition and sanitation methods? Have you ever wanted to volunteer in a hospital.. perhaps in Africa? Have you ever seen pictures of small, under-nourished children in India and wanted to reach out to them so they can have a better life? Has the thought ever crossed your mind that there are children and adults all over the world that will go to bed tonight, perhaps suffering, perhaps lonely and hungry?
- I received a letter from Tanzania today that made me want to reach out and help.. . A village pastor wrote “the temptation is great to leave the ministry and get a comfortable government job so my family can eat better.. . pray that God will help us all to resist leaving our congregations and getting work in the city. I am touched by the sincerity and dedication of this fine Christian; aren’t you?
- Through HANDCLASP, you can have an opportunity to reach out and touch those less fortunate in Tanzania. We can provide vitamins, food supplements and simple medications to this village pastor, and other struggling ministers. We have food supplements, we have vitamins.. and yes, we have simple medications to send; but we don’t have the money necessary to ship the crates! We have written this many times: FOOD, MEDICINES AND VITAMINS ARE AVAILABLE, BUT NO MONEY IS AVAILABLE FOR SHIPPING!
- From Samuel U, of Dodoma, Tanzania: God Bless you. Pray for our country as it is running out of her economy and bribes being very much practiced without fear. We Lack so much of important needles like soap, sugar, and clothing are go expensive– we can ‘t purchase —— my family has run out of food, clothing, even bedding! ! It is even shameful to tell you of this. I am afraid of my country that it can get into revolution! Will you pray, and pray for my country, please?
- We have sent two recent shipments to Ghana. The first is tied up on the docks. The communist- controlled dock officials will not release it to the Church. Pray about this .
- Another missionary in Ghana reports that it took him a lot of effort to get his shipment freed. The good news is that it came at an opportune time. A case of baby food was taken from the crate and given to a mother who simply had nothing to feed her infant. You can imagine the grateful tears!
December 1984 was productive and Handclasp was able to send to:
- Haiti–a large pallet of antibiotics, assorted vitamins and food supplements–about 900 pounds .
- Singapore–one large box with antibiotics–1200 pounds
- Tanzania–one large box with food items and gospel materials to a pastor with several churches on the verge of starving-1+50 pounds
- Small shipments via surface mail were as follows :
- Missionary in Mexico City–vitamins and non-prescription items .
- Philippines–BohoI Christian Hospital, antibiotics and vitamins
- South Africa–MaIuti Adventist Hospital, Injectible medications
- Uganda–Mengo Hospital, arithritis and anti-inflammatory drugs
- Malaysia Wycliffe Bible Translators, vitamins and assorted items .
- Flying Doctors of Liga International received requested supplies for the December clinic trip into Mexico .
- Baja–assorted medications for auto caravan travelling to hospital and orphanage in Cabo San Lucas
A side note that Dan had met C. Ray Carlson of International Films in Pasadena in 1982/3 and started driving out from Garden Grove to work with him and his son, Glenn Carlson, on some Christian film projects. These included a couple of Indian Children’s projects. During that time Dan met Dr C.D.(Jeba) Jebasingh of Galilean International and Jeba asked Dan to direct the upcoming training in Bangalore.
Dan, Christine, Caren and Sam Henrich left for Bangalore in January 1984.
From the Newsletter: Our younger son, Dan, and his wife and children (our only grandchildren,) left for India in January(1984). What mixed feelings this brought us. We pray for the Lord to send workers into His Harvest, but then how selfish we are when it is our own He chooses to send!
A note that Dan, Chris, Caren and Sam traveled to India via London where we stayed with Nigel and Helen Cooke of International Films UK in their old home Umberslade Cottage. Chris & I stayed in an addition with a one foot thick brick wall in-between us and the children. When jet lagged Caren and Sam woke up they started playing and laughing and woke up the Cookes!
Due to what Maury wrote as precarious conditions in Africa (May 1984), sea freighting a ton of needed supplies to Zambia was not possible and air freight cost was prohibitive. But the Airline Employees Relief Organization agreed to carry the supplies for free!
- In November 1984 he wrote: Here is an example of what your gifts can help provide for famine-torn Ethiopia:
- $260 will buy 500 pounds of powdered milk or 100 pounds of powdered eggs
- $70 will buy 200 pounds of rolled oats or 12 gallons cooking oil or $150 will buy 100 pounds of rice
- Will you send a special “Thanksgiving” offering for some one you will never see, who needs your help immediately? Will you pray, with us, that the concerned workers who prepare and distribute the food will show the love of Christ, thus ministering spiritually, as well as physically?
1984-5 THE SHIFT TO MEDIA AND EDUCATION – Handclasp sent Dan & Chris and children to conduct training in Bangalore with Galilean International (20 students) and Methodist Youth (40 students). Production of two major films in Tamil, “Crowned and Crucified” and “The Pearl”. The Pearl won the Golden Halo Award from the 1000 member Southern California Motion Picture Council for “Outstanding Contribution to the Entertainment Industry and Award of Special Merit.”
Writing and production of a live action traditional folk drama in the Villapatu format. Hundreds of Indians came a watch it and a cassette with produced which sold hundreds of copies. No video was available in 1984 and some stills are included below. This traditional drama attracted the attention of the state TV committee and the were willing to air it if was recorded on video! Alas, no money! Today we would have filmed it on our smartphone! We all left India end of June. Spent time in Switzerland eating chocolate, stopped in England and returned to California. In August 1984 Dan conducted a Literacy workshop in Lagos, Nigeria and in November traveled to Lahore, Pakistan at the behest of World Vision to investigate a proposed film. On his way home there was a bomb scare on one of the flights and he spent Christmas in Thailand!
Life in Bangalore in 1984 was interesting. The first day we were there Sam was bit by the resident dog and it was determined he needed the in-stomach rabies shots! Our host, John, took Sam on the back of his scooter. Needles were not disposable and what the doctor was doing amounted to using the syringe twice with a needle change in between. Uncle was a retired Army officer and gave this doctor an ultimatum. Use newly sterilized needles and syringes on Sam or else! The first time the doctor used a needle fresh out of the sterilizer and Sam got a bad welt out of it! But Sam was what his mother called a “trooper” and if there were tears, a piece of candy from Uncle and that fun ride on the scooter wiped them away!
The Bangalore house had no fridge or A/C and the electricity went off at 8pm and if you were not under your mosquito nets those nasty bugs bit you up. In fact, Sam Henrich was under his net but rolled up against it and he got about 100 bites! We bought our un-pasturized buffalo milk each day from a vendor on a bike and put it in a milk pasteurizer to make it drinkable. We would use it with Wheat-a-bix and at the end of the day (if we had milk left) we put a British malted milk powder in it called Horlicks. For transport we hailed a small three wheeled taxi called an “Auto” and the four of us packed in for the ride. Next door to us was the chief of police and his family. Let me start by saying that small boys could get away with anything and Sam was four. One day he went into their house and locked the door to the toilet from the outside with the chief inside. Sam lost the key and the chief had to throw his spare key out the window so the servant could let him out. We were appalled and embarrassed but the chief laughed, patted Sam on the head and pinched those rosy white cheeks. Another memory was when Chris’ cousin Carl visited us in Bangalore. We all decided to take the train to Chennai and on the way there was a derailment and we were stuck for hours. But what we remembered was the fact that he brought us Oreo cookies!
During a trip to Chennai we met with one of the training assistants at the Bangalore workshop. Ilford Joseph had just graduated from the India Film Institute and brought his friend Edward Raj. Chris asked them what they wanted to do and they talked about a passion play on St Thomas Mount where 120,000 people came each Easter. It was a sound and light show and Ilford and Edward wanted to film it but had no money. Chris asked, “how much?” The response $100! We said we have $100 and this resulted in visiting the director and presenting the idea to the actors and technicians who agreed to stay up overnight to let us film! That resulting film was shown in 100s of Tamil language video parlors and eventually we filmed “The Pearl”.
The audio-visual workshop for the India Communication Institute, now Galilean International was held at the Ecumentical Christian Center(ECC) outside Bangalore. We lived there and Chris home schooled Caren and Sam. In 1984 it was a 20 mile ride through heavy forests but when we visited in Bangalore 2009 the city extended all the way to what was the city of Whitefield. Of course, the food served at the ECC was spicy and Sam got welts on his tongue from the chili. Finally, we were able to convince them to give us different food! Remember, in 1984 there was no bottled water and we carried a candle filter everywhere we went. There was no video training just writing, photography and sound/slides. We had brought a Kaypro computer and dot matrix printer with us. The Kaypro was about the size of a suitcase. One day it started to smell at the desk where the computer sat and we thought a mouse had crawled inside and died. I disassembled that machine and could not figure out where the smell was coming from until I pulled out the desk drawer and discovered the dead mouse body at the back!
At the workshop we stayed in one of the small houses and ants were always a problem. Did you know that ants in India take naps? Yes, we found a group of them curled up in the cupboard, blew softly on them and they jumped up and picked up their burdens and scurried off. In any case, we had large water bugs who would hide in the overflow of the bathroom sink and when we turned on the faucet they would stick out their antennas and wave them at us! One day, we discovered that one had died from the poison and was on the floor in the kitchen.
The ants had also discovered this 3 inch delectable item and decided to carry it out to their nest. First, they started dismantling the body leg by leg and carry the legs up over the door stoop. Then they linked together and picked up the by now dried out body and slowly move it to the doorway 20 feet away. Slowly. Then over the course of the next several days they figured out how to get it up the first 8 inch step, then the next 8 inch step, over the stoop and down to the outside. This is called working together and was a great home school project. Another interesting insect were the flying termites who swarmed each night at the conference when the outside lights were turned on. One night on the way to dinner, we noticed a larger toad, maybe 5-6 inches across. He was under the lights and his tongue busily flicking in and out to eat as many termites as possible. One evening we noticed that he had stopped eating so we nudged him with a foot. He tried to move but had eaten so much his stomach dragged on the concrete and he couldn’t move to get away! Sam’s favorite thing are “Bucket Baths.”
