From the Newsletters: On May 10th 1985, the nearly $700,000 worth of medicine and medical supplies will be shipped via boat to a hospital in Sudan, Africa. We praise the Lord that another Christian organization agree to underwrite the freight charges for an entire container, over ten tons.
“As a missionary nurse, I have the wonderful opportunity of being able to utilize my nursing skills coupled with a practical application of my faith in a Divine Healer, gentle touch, a caring word, a smile given with the treatment, seemed to mean a great deal. And never, in all my experience, did anyone refuse to allov me to pray or to speak a few words about Christ’s love. Many are now children of the King because in their pain and suffering, someone cared.“
Throughout 1985, Handclasp struggled with donations for overhead costs as well as shipping.
1986 Pakistan Film – Handclasp founder Maury Henrich along with a film team of Dan Henrich and Larry Dill traveled to Peshawar, Pakistan to produce a documentary on the Afghan Freedom Fighters who had fled the Soviet occupation of their country by walking over the Khyber Pass. The crew was taken into Afghanistan to interview a 100-year-old Afghan who recently had walked over the pass in winter with his four wives, 16 grandchildren and 100 sheep. We were carried over the border into Afghanistan illegally about 20 miles! We did get back into Pakistan!
We stayed in a hotel in Pesharwar- do not remember the name. After a day in the refugee camps shooting we would try to get some food. A menu would be handed us with all sorts of chicken dishes. We would ask, “What do you have ready?”, the waiter would say everything. So my Dad would ask for item 1. “No sir, we are out,” So Item 2 and so on always “We are out.” You would get to the last item say Chicken curry and the reply would be “Oh yes, we have chicken curry – it is very good!” What we discovered after the third night was that the aid workers stayed at this hotel but ate at the Pearl Continental. So we went there for dinner and the food was good and plentiful. After we left Peshawar we learned that a suicide bomber had driven a truck into the restaurant and the explosion killed at least 24. It could have been us! We stopped at Lahore on the way back and were at the launching of Brother Andrew’s Gods Smuggler in Urdu. Our contact was Azad Marshall who we had met at the Center for Missions in Pasadena. Azad is now the Archbishop of Pakistan for the Anglican Church of Pakistan!
HCI had sent many tons of vegetable seed to Peshawar to establish Victory Gardens. Value of supplies estimated at $500,000.
As you recall, the Soviets installed a puppet government in Afghanistan in 1981. Since that time, the war has claimed nearly one million Afghan lives men, women and children (by 1986). The Soviets use modern technology— helicopter gunships, napalm, crop burning, well poisoning and rocketry. For the most part, the Afghans are poorly equipped and trained. But, the Afghans continue to fight onward claiming that Allah will give them strength and eventually will help drive the Soviets out!
HANDCLASP has procured an initial shipment of 80,000 pounds of seeds. These vital vegetable seeds would help carry the freedom fighters through the next year. Small victory gardens must be used since the Soviets burn larger patches sometimes causing whole villages to starve!
- From the Newsletter: We are preparing a large shipment of medical and surgical supplies to help those agencies that serve the Afghan refugees. Hospital supplies like syringes, stretchers and bandages to help those doctors who treat the refugees and wounded freedom fighters who have been brought into Pakistan; Antibiotics for use by Afghan medics who return to the battle front to treat the wounded; and costly eye sutures for a Christian eye hospital in Pakistan.
While in Pakistan, Handclasp visited other development agencies:
SERVE – Pakistan: SERVE is a Christian organization doing community development work in Peshawar. They operate several worthwhile projects. The Carpet Weaving Program trains Afghan boys In the art of weaving wool carpets. Traditional designs are modified to bring out cross and fish patterns. The boys undergo the program and then are given a loom and the wool for the first carpet. Each completed carpet is purchased from the students. Serve also operates the Afghan Eye Hospital which does hundreds of surgeries by Dr Herb Freisen who served in Kabul for 14 years as an eye surgeon.
INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORP: IMC is a philanthropic group which trains Afghan paramedics to undertake simple surgeries and treat simple diseases. These medics are carefully selected by the resistance fighter leaders and must have families who remain in Afghanistan. This ensures that they will return after the six month training program.
INTERAID: INTERAID is a Church of Pakistan agency that operates schools and a refugee transient camp. Several hundred children receive a better education than they might have received in Afghanistan. The transient camp are temporary quarters for refugees who just arrive and have not been assigned a permanent camp.
- From the Newsletter: The result of the Soviet occupation and war are millions of Afghans walking across the Khyber Pass to face the sprawling refugee camps with populations of up to 500,000 or more. Each camp is administered by the Pakistani government and the feeding cost alone amounts to about a million dollars per day.
1988 – Dan Henrich & Family moved to Cairo, Egypt to assist TCI to develop the educational objectives for the “Farm of Dreams”, an 52 episode entertainment-education puppet series for children in the Middle East.
A list of the Educational Issues were research by Dan Henrich to be integrated in a dramatic, education-entertainment format were:
Emotional and Social Issues. Living Consciously – Taking responsibility for your own actions; Being honest about feelings; Being careful about the values you accept; and Living productively.
Health Issues. Basic food groups and proper eating habits which are relevant to the culture and region. The importance of clean drinking and cooking water, economic and social problems of large families, keeping their area clean, picking up trash, having pride on the outside of your living area, washing before meals, covering food left out, bathing regularly and getting the necessary shots.
Safety Issues. Electricity in home, domestic chores, gas bottles, traffic safety, glass and refuse dangers are examples of safety issues.
Newsletter Article related to the research Dan conducted in 1986: Returning to Jerusalem, we drove up the Jericho road, keeping our eyes open to spot the Nomadic Bedouins– tribes who still live in tents and wander in desert regions. We were not disappointed for we soon saw a small group Of men sitting around their camp lire in the tent entrance. Our thoughts were, ‘What a wonderful picture of the simple life-style’ but a second look brought us Into the 20th Century they were watchlng television!” Egyptian Youth Study: A 1986 study by Dr Ragya Ahmed Kandil, Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Cairo shows that 98% of young people watch television on a regular basis. Dr Ragya further observed a very negative attitude to school books by young people now preoccupied with watching television and video. The study, among 700 youth, showed that 65% watch video on a regular basis despite the fact that only 20% come from homes which own video machines. The survey also noted a marked ethical deterioration among the young people who watched video, many of whom mentioned unashamedIy that they watch uncensored adult movies.
In a separate survey, conducted by a leading Egyptian newspaper, it was noted that tradesman and blue collar workers were among the highest owners of video players. Many of this group actually bought their video players while working abroad in the Gulf nations.
COMMENT: Of course, we are looking back 37 years! One can imagine the impact social media has on the youth of today! In 2022 there were 56 million Facebook users, 49 million FB Messenger users and 18 million Instagram users.
1988 July-June 1989 – During that time, a 14-day video production workshop was conducted for the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Service with 20 students, and taught 55 Italian workers in Rome to produce dramatic video stories.
From Lois who came to visit in Egypt Fall 1987 but stopped in Rome on the way: I attended some of the Audio Visual Production classes which Dan taught in Italy. The students, as well as pastors there, were very responsive. The class was divided into several groups to produce media presentations. Within a couple of hours the film was produced. Two sessions followed where the resulting productions were presented. Narrations were in Italian, interpreted into English . The group was very enthusiastic . Each production was discussed, and evaluated. In flying on to Cairo there was a pilot’s strike of Alitalia Airlines.
To see the Pyramids, ride a camel, have a boat ride on the River Nile, and view the King Tut treasures were things I never dreamed of doing. There is a great variety of things and people to be seen and heard. Chanting of prayers from a near-by mosque awakened me each day. The streets teemed with all manner of transportation–cars, buses, trucks and donkey carts jamming up the traffic. AND a great number of pedestrians walk in the streets getting from here to there–all in a rush. A taxi-ride in the midst of all this is breath-taking. The contrast of people wearing the old garb mingling with others in Western dress surprised me. Paid mourners were in evidence in front of the Government hospital located just across the street from the apartment–another of the unusual sights and sounds. And each night, the Nile River flooded the apartment garden, awakening the many frogs!
During the time Lois was in Cairo (Fall 1987), her 92 year old mother, Carrie Cude, fell and broke her hip. After rehab, Carrie moved in with Maury and Lois and in 1988 she moved nursing facility and passed away January 1989. Maury continued to send small shipments all over the world. After a year in Cairo, the “Young Henriches” moved to Nairobi, Kenya to work with the Cinema Van ministry Cinema Leo of Maturity Audio Visuals.
Over Christmas 1988, Maury and Lois visited Kenya. On the way they stopped in Zambia and visited the hospital where Handclasp had sent so many tons of medicine and medical supplies. Maury and Lois wanted to meet their youngest grandson, Andrew Timothy who was born in Nairobi Hospital on September 13th 1988. Also, Maury wanted to be there when the large crates of Dan & Chris’ furniture and goods arrived along with the “treasures” only Maury could find and hide.
Maury wrote of a big Christmas Party in Nairobi – as usual, his heart went out to the refugee situation:
- Have you ever spent Christmas with 56 refugees from Uganda? That’s Just what Lois and I did on Christmas Day!
- I wish you could have been with me… in a small home in Nairobi… 27 adults and 29 small children… the wonderful smells of cooking groundnut stew, the Christmas songs, the Swahili singing, the laughter of many… yes, the noise of children running and playing! It is a Christmas Day I will never forget!
- Many of these gentle Ugandans have been forced to leave their native homeland because of the wars, thievery and political strife. Most who were at Dan’s house are university educated, One couple was John and Clementine Wyreki. He is a high school teacher, she a qualified primary school teacher.
- About a year ago, they fled to Kenya. After six months in the refugee camps, they were granted mandate status which means they cannot work legally, but must subsist on about $22 per month. $10 goes to rent a 10’x10′ shack and the $12 balance must feed the eight family members per month!
- Even with reduced prices, this means that they live entirely oncorn meal and a few greens. They cannot afford fruit and most go to bed with only tea to fill their stomach. My heart was moved by the malnutrition, and the need for simple medical answers.
1989 August: We found out from a friend in Brazil that Maury was having trouble with his high blood pressure and dialysis and had to be hospitalized! After making a very expensive phone call ($10 per minute) from Kenya, he flew to California on August 3, 1989. He was able to meet with Maury’s kidney doctor and things seemed to smooth out and Maury was able to do his dialysis as an out patient and flew back to Kenya on the 18th.
- From the Newsletter (Dan): Upon my return to Kenya on August 18th, I’ll be concentrating my time in several areas: (1.) The production of Sabina’s Encounter. (2.) Developing an overall analysis of the Africa Inland CHurch commnunications in literature, radio, film and bookshops — preparing long term plans for growth. (3.) Continuing to train those of other denominations in writing and production of media materials and (4.) Serving other ministries in Africa on an advisory basis – training and helping them with various media needs.
Because Dan was invited to conduct a workshop in October 1989 on Cinema Van Outreach at the World Communications Conference in Manila, Philippines, it allowed him to stop and visit his parents. After spending a week in California with Maury & Lois, he traveled to Manila for a week. He flew back to Los Angeles on Sunday night the 23rd and in the morning he called his Mom and found out that Maury had died that previous night of heart and kidney failure! Friends of church were surrounding Lois, and Dan drove in the next day and spent the following two weeks helping with the will, cremation and memorial service in Costa Mesa, CA. It was a moving time for all. It was especially helpful to Dan as Paul Verhagen flew out from Ohio to help him through the process.
1989– Maury Henrich passed into Glory in October 23,1989 with acute kidney failure. Lois Henrich remained active on the board until her death in 2009. The direction of HCI moved totally towards the use of media in prosocial development projects and Dan Henrich was elected President and CEO. Christine Henrich became Secretary/Treasurer.
Paul MarySue Verhagen had been active since 1986.
1991 – Handclasp partnered with Galilean International and the India Red Cross to produce a dramatic film called THE BIRTHDAY about blood donation.
An 8 minute film, A HEALTHY STEP was released to TV stations across Africa. It was directed by Albert Wandago who would later direct SABINA’s ENCOUNTER.
Between 1988-95- Henrich Family were based in Nairobi, Kenya. Workshops were completed for the:
Nairobi, Kenya – Brachenhurst Conference Center – Week long Video workshop for Anglican Church of Kenya – 22 students.
Jos, Nigeria – New Life for All – Single Camera Production – 16 students
- I traveled to Jos alone. During this time, there were many Soviet era Antonov planes that were leased by private airline companies in packages that included pilots and maintenance. My flight was on such an airline and I admit looked at the plane sitting on the taxiway I wondered. The paint was blistered off and it honestly looked really bad. We walked across to get into the plane and it looked like every seat was taken! A flight attendant kicked someone off the plane and I sat down. In the aisle across from me was a cage of chickens and behind me a goat on a leash. As we sat waiting it turned out that the East German pilot had arrived drunk and was forcibly ejected and we were waiting for his replacement. Finally one came and as the plane started moving off to the runway an official ran out and waved it down. Turned out a Nigerian government official wanted to get on the flight and, yes, police came on and ejected several people from business class to make way for the official and his friends. Remember the goat and chickens? The passengers were forced to put them out of the aisle during take off an landing but the aisle was full in the air!
- In Jos I stayed in a church guest house which was quite nice. But I ate a lot of black beans. For breakfast, lunch and dinner for three weeks! My host was Jerry Farouk who was the national director and our goal was to get an old studio back into operation. The equipment was in disrepair and inoperable. But we did have a fun workshop! Jerry eventually became the partnership director at Wycliffe.
Produced a family magazine and edited a weekly general circulation newspaper.
Published in World Health Magazine, “Cinema on Wheels” about using mobile cinema vans to communicate health messages.
Methodist Church of Zimbabwe in Harare – Writing Workshop 25 students and Gweru – Magazine Production for 22 students. And Communicators conference.
- We stayed in the Kentucky Airport Hotel for the conference – I remember it was painted red and white. Every morning during the conference you were served either coffee or tea at 6am in your hotel room. They came, pounded on the door and left the brew. Every day at lunch we got Oxtail soup with sadza. It was actually tasty but the bones in the soup were the tail joints. I then drove from Harare to Gerwu for the next workshop. It was amazing how good the roads were (especially compared to Nairobi)! All of the attendees stayed in a sort of hostel and it was cold. The windows did not close and the school location had only thin blankets! Our host was a Methodist circuit preacher and I was able to accompany him to some events. I remember sitting with a group of church elders in a small village. We were eating sadza which is a corn meal mush that is cooked in a pot and used variously as a foundation for a meal. The men were talking about how to cook it and how to know it was done. One older man was convinced you took some of it and threw it against the wall and it it stuck it was done. Others had equally strange opinions and all thought this the women served the men – I noticed smiles on their faces – the men had no clue because they had never cooked sadza! BTW, this same dish is called ughali in Kenya.
Accra, Ghana Cinema Today Mobile Project hosted a 14-day Single Camera Video Workshop with 15 students.
- Cinema Today Mobile Cinema van ministry was one of the first groups to receive 16mm film of Sabina’s Encounter. Then I came to do the workshop the film print was so used that they were looking for more copies. The original elements had been lost and between the release in 1991 and 2021, there were no prints available. Our project to make available digital copies to cinemavan ministries in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania is ongoing.
Sudan Literature Center Workshop – Three months teaching Sudanese Christians to write and produce local magazines in what was southern Sudan – 12 students.
Produced the first ever Swahili Worship cassette, Milele Shukrani (Forever Grateful) for Nairobi Chapel.
1989 August Dodoma, Tanzania – Produced Oil Seed Documentary for Lutheran World Relief.
- In order to get from Nairobi to Dodoma I had to get up early and take a shared taxi to the border with Tanzania. I sat in the last seat next to a man who had gone to get Yama Choma (burnt meat) to eat on the 3 hour trip. It smelled so bad and the man was sucking the fat from the bones. I was glad I had the window. The next morning in Arusha, my ride to Dodoma picked me up for the eight hour drive. It was a horrible road at the time and I felt like I had been beaten up with sticks! At Dodoma I was put into the strangest hotel. The doors to the small rooms had gaps at the bottom and you could imagine someone could sneak in – same with the common toilets! In any case I filmed the oil seed documentary which involved sunflower oil and upon completion the travel back was the same except I demanded a different hotel!
Facilitated Spread of FIDO Net Email System
- We introduced email to many as a system called FIDO Net was used between Nairobi and London, then London and New York and finally into the MCI system. If one wrote an email in Nairobi at your office, it went to the node in Nairobi and at 10pm London called Nairobi and picked up the mail (and delivered what was incoming). London, then called New York at midnight and it was on the USA computer at 6am! All for 35 cents! So much cheaper than the fax machine for $10 per page.
Set up a language dubbing studio in Nairobi, Kenya.
A unique approach to media training was developed by Dan Henrich called PROCESS TRAINING: An Alternative to Conventional Visual Media Workshops . This approach is still used in training.
Life in Nairobi was very pleasant. Because the elevation was about 6,000 feet you could stand in the sun if cold and the shade if hot. The sky had puffy white clouds and is usually rained the the evenings when it did. Sounds like heaven, right? Well, life was interesting and most people had a compound with barbed wire, a night guard and a dog. We had a German Shepard the kids named Aussie. Aussie snatched a pound of butter from the kitchen counter and ran outside to eat it. She was a great guard dog and when we found her mate she had a great litter of puppies. Our intent was to keep a female we named Sheba but Aussie saw her as competition and would attack her. We sold Sheba to other workers and she produced a series of puppies that people refer to as Sheba’s pups.
There is a separate chronicle of the escapades of our middle son, Michael but a short list is
- Loosening the brake cable on Sam’s bike so Sam ran into a pole.
- Putting needle nose pliers into the 220volt power plug and blowing the whole house fuse.
- Crawled unto the waterbed in Nairobi and closed the trap door which was the size of his head. Got stuck and we thought we were going to have to drain the bed but after several hours he got out! We nailed that door shut!
In February 1990, Lois Henrich came to visit the “Young Henrich Family” in Nairobi. She was immediately moved to help:
From the Newsletter (Lois): “I’d like to tell you about a 14 year old orphan from near Kampala, Uganda. Joseph lost his father in ldi Amin’s war and his mother dropped him off at the orphanage when he was 10. The war orphaned literally thousands like Joseph. He is a bright young Christian, wanting to serve the Lord.Joseph, however, has a problem — he has a malfunctioning heart valve and desperately needs an implant. Without it, he will die within six months….”
From the Newsletter (Dan): On the 26th of October I flew to Harare, Zimbabwe, to participate In the Consultation of the Media and Church. Over 60 African media practitioners and pastors from Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda came together to discuss how the media can be more supportive to the spreading of the Gospel. One of the chief conclusions was that more training should be offered in writing, editing and video production!
I had good fellowship with several church and media representatives. After the Consultation, I flew to Amsterdam and received final notification of a $6,000 grant and scheduling the shooting of Sabina’s Encounter in April. We signed a three year agreement with International Media Mlnlstrles (IMM) to produce the Christian Growth Serles.
During this period of time, Handclasp was involved in conducting DeskTop Publishing production and training. “Avenues of lower cost publishing and design are needed to bring the cost of Christian books down in price. The use of computerized design and laser mastering fits in. This is DeskTop Publishing.”
From the Newsletter (Dan): “1991 will also be a year of challenge for the African Christian who confronts strong cultural and social pressures like barrenness, aids, poor nutrition, ill health, polygamy, witchcraft and others. There are no easy answers to help them resist those pressures. Handclasp’s Educational Film Series film, Sabina’s Encounter, will have great impact of these problems. The power of media, together with the film’s study guide,strong teaching by pastors and your prayers will go a long way to meetingthis urgent need! I mentioned challenges in 1991 for our family, didn’t I? Challenges like:
- Travel and Teaching Schedule (January – National Religious Broadcasters, February – Nairobi, March – Harare, May – Zambia, September – ICMC London, October – Zambia, plus others)
- Inflation and increased costs of gasoline, lodging and food
- Political disruption
- Production and Editing of Sabina’s Encounter in April and June with a release date of August.“
1991 Nairobi, Kenya April 7th – PRODUCTION OF SABINA’S ENCOUNTER: The IMM team arrived for the filming and there was a last minute glitch in the shooting permit and we had to do a last minute re-write but the crew and actors arrived at an area outside Nairobi, Gikambura. It was on 15 acres with eight houses of an extended Kikuyu family.
We had a huge field, nearby commercial area and the needed extras. Kenyan Albert Wandago was instrumental in getting all these elements together as well as the professional actors! We had so many issues like having to dig a hole 500 feet up the hill for the generator to light the interiors of the corrugated Steel houses and then having the torrential rains which started to submerge the generator. But we managed to figure it all out and after the 16 day filming we were exhausted! Jack Odongo, a talented Kenyan musician composed the theme song and bridge music and his wife Joyce Odongo vas vocalist! Donors to the film were the Christian Broadcasting Network, Tearfund (UK), 3XM of Holland, Handclasp and of course, International Media Ministries. More information on Sabina’s Encounter will be available HERE.
1995 Kakuma Refugee Camp February – Produced documentary on the Lost Boys of Sudan for Radda Barnen (Swedish Save the Children) in Kenya. The documentary was about the young boys who fled from being impressed into the northern Sudanese army. In the early ’90s an estimated 20,000 boys embarked on treacherous journeys to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya where thousands were sheltered for several years. Some of the Lost Boys were offered new lives through official resettlement programs in the US. Our film was about the art program that allowed the boys to come to grips with the horrors of seeing lions snatch and kill the colleagues as well as the horrors of being attacked by the various factions in Sudan.
In order to get to the United Nations Kakuma refugee camp in Lokichogio, Kenya near the Sudan border, Katrina Runyon and I had to get into an old Soviet era cargo plane. No seats, room for cargo and we were on narrow rope benches lining the side. It was like riding in a giant tin can with someone banging on the outside. This plane had no windows and it was cold. We were glad to get out. The camp itself was very nice with a cafeteria and rooms for Katrina Runyon and I. On the way back we had seats in a very nice executive plane but I wondered when the pilot put the auto pilot on and pulled out a paperback to read! Although we have lost the film itself it aired on Swedish Television!
1995 Arusha, TZ March – Habari Malum Media Acting training and Video Production– 24 students
From the Newsletter (Katrina Runyon): I recently had the opportunity to work with Habari Maalum Television in Arusha, Tanzania. While there, I worked on technical problems with Swedish editor/cameraman Jonas Nimmersjo. I also had the opportunity to tape the Dramatic Writing workshop taught by Director, Dan Henrich and Associate, Joe Asiba.
In 1995, the Henrich family traveled to Virginia Beach, VA so Dan could attend Regent University for a Masters degree and Caren could get established in the US as she had graduated from Rosslyn Academy in Nairobi, Kenya.
1996 Virginia Beach, VA October – The AD2000 conference was held in Virginia Beach, VA for 40 international attendees and the resulting text, “Mediastrategy and Christian Witness” was edited by Dan Henrich and published by Handclasp.
