Brianne Henry

Wow friends, I have been a serious blogging slacker! Life has been so incredibly busy over the past month and a half. Blogging has crossed my mind, but actually taking the time to do it obviously hasn't happened. I started teaching at Pleasant Ridge High School in August. I am loving my job. It is a little bit of a commute (about 40 minutes one way) but the kids and my co-workers are definitely worth it. It's a small, farming community so I feel right at home there. My days are crazy busy! I have 5 class periods before lunch (which also means I'm starving by lunch time!). I also travel between 3 classrooms. After lunch I have my prep period and one more class. So my afternoons are super quick. I am teaching 4 different subjects (Computer Applications, Digital Multimedia, Graphic Design & Entrepreneurship), along with a Personal Finance 30-minute, 2-day a week course for juniors. The kids are great! I have had very little discipline problems without having to be really

Hey everyone! Can you believe summer is almost over? I must say this summer has flown by and it's been so. stinking. hot. I pray that fall will come soon - although I'm sure it wont! Just wanted to give everyone a quick update on the Henry family. Remember when I wrote this...it was in May... "Anyway, Luke took a new job at Dick's Sporting Goods that is full-time, going to provide really good, super cheap insurance and a larger paycheck.  However, this job is, like mentioned above, full-time. Which cramps his seminary style. He'll still be going - but it will be more online and evening classes and possibly part-time. Fast forward a couple weeks and I land a teaching job for the fall. Is it sad that we are so excited and think we'll be so financially secure from a teaching salary?! So, beginning with my first paycheck in September, we won't NEED Luke's income from DSG to get us by (but we do WANT it!)." - Quoted from May's blog titled Obedie

Fast forward our trip to Friday. Tuesday through Thursday were pretty similar. All days were split between the orphanage and the construction site. Wednesday we took the girls to a water park and then Thursday we did the regular park and Pizza Hut - just like in January. Friday morning after breakfast we headed to a city called La Libertad. This is actually the city that we flew into and where the team the week before us spent a few days. La Libertad has an orphanage through the same company (if you will) as the one we go to in San Miguel. This orphanage is HUGE though. They have around 80 kids, chicken & pig farms, greenhouses, etc. They are pretty much self-sufficient. The goal of San Miguel orphanage is to become like that in the future. The best part of the La Libertad orphanage was Samuel. Samuel was in San Miguel in January. After we left, the fire marshals came through and made them send some kids elsewhere because they were over the maximum amount. Samuel was one of tho

I can't actually remember what night we took the trip to Alegria so I think it's worthy of it's very own post! Alegria is a town up in the mountains...along the way we stopped inside a volcano (!) and then had pupusas at the very best place in the entire country. I ate 6, which is a lot. I was very hungry! The temperature in Alegria was probably 15-20 degrees cooler than in the city. When we had to leave, we all chanted, "No Joe, we won't go!" We did NOT want to head back into the humidity of the city. We pray that mission opportunities will open up in Alegria so we can stay there instead! Haha! :) It was very foggy but this is a beautiful scenic view on our way up the mountains. Okay so the Lagoon de Alegria. Whoa, I was inside a volcano! The best part was probably the fact that I needed to go pee (imagine that!). So Joe decided he would show me where the bathroom was. It ended up that the door didn't close and everyone could see me so he had t

Looking back on the week, Monday was my favorite day. I was SO incredibly hot and sweaty at the time though, that I didn't appreciate the day for what it actually was. We started out after breakfast and headed to a school. Our teams would visit 3 schools this day. The first school was a big assembly where all students gathered in the courtyard area. We partnered with a church in town where they did a drama, we shared the Gospel, Mike shared the history & played the saxophone and Randy gave an English lesson. Outside of the school. The dark blue is a locked gate at all times. The concrete all around makes for not much airflow inside!!! The kids waiting for the assembly to start The second school was a walk up the road. Lucky for me, I got to hop in the back of Walter's truck and missed the walk to the school (darn!). The rest of the team was walking pretty slowly to the school when Milton (translator) told everyone to start walking faster. Now, Milton is the type

Luke and I got back last night from our second trip to El Salvador. This trip was different from our last one in many ways, but both were equally fantastic. Sunday was our first day on the mission field. We spent Saturday traveling and didn't arrive to our hotel until late that evening. We started off Sunday morning with two groups going to different churches. I went with a group to a church no one had been to in the middle of nowhere (not scary at all!). We met in a mud hut with about 10 people from the village. Then the church members joined our group and we headed down the paths to talk to the people of the community. We shared Christ with a few households and spent time getting to know the locals in that area. Rachel, Me & Luke leading singing (I know...me singing?!) Outside the door of a home where we shared the Gospel Around 11am, we met up with the other group that went to a different church, ate some lunch and then headed to the military base in Usulutan. I

Well, I completed my very first 5K this past Saturday. Actually, according to someone's calculations it was 3.4 miles, which is .3 miles over a 5K. :) I don't know if you have ever heard of The Color Run but it was way fun. I spent approximately 3 months training for the run to only learn that it wasn't a competitive thing (not even timed!). I was a little disappointed, but it was still a great experience. At every kilometer, there was a group of people with colored powder (cornstarch actually) to spray, throw, and shoot at us as we ran by. I ran with three other lovely ladies, who will be pictured below (thanks Jesse for all the great pictures). We got to Arrowhead Stadium about 6:30am and stood in line for over an hour before the race actually started. I'm so glad we went that early...there were 15 waves of people at the starting line (supposedly 1,000 in each wave) and we were in Wave 1. It was SO crowded! When we rounded the finish line, there were still TONS of

Next Thursday will be one year to the day that we loaded up our Harley trailer and headed for the big 'ol city. How time flies! Seriously, I can't believe it's been a year. In that year, we've had 3 different addresses...Luke's had two different jobs...we've traveled out of the US for the first time (well, for me)... What a crazy year it has been. I kind of wish I could go back in time and see myself on the day we moved. I definitely remember dealing with some nerves and some tears. It was a rough day, that's for sure. God has shown his provision and grace for us countless times over the past year. Let's take a look... #1 - Job at OG. Sure, sometimes I dislike my job at the OG. Especially when a little boy yells at me for not having Mountain Dew when his mom sits by with a smile on her face. Teach your children manners, people! But, I have met some really great people at Olive Garden. I have been given the opportunity to see how through Christ I am &

I attend a women's Bible study through my church on Tuesday nights. At 8:30pm...I'm generally super tired by the time I'm home at 10:30! Anyway, we are currently studying Nehemiah: A Heart That Can Break by Kelly Minter (good stuff, by the way!). A couple weeks ago, we touched on obedience. In the book of Nehemiah, the wall is being rebuilt. The book begins with Nehemiah in Susa, which I have now learned is like a winter resort (maybe like a retirement neighborhood in Florida, if you will). Anyway, Nehemiah heard about the wall being destroyed and that his fellow Jews were in "great trouble and shame" (1:3). So, instead of saying "Oh, well that really stinks for them...I believe I'll continue enjoying my time here in Susa" he immediately becomes distraught for his people, weeping and mourning for their sake. Fast forward a little while, Nehemiah is back leading the people to rebuild the wall and he's met with lots of opposition - both intention

I realized that I never posted pictures of where we are living now. Originally upon moving to KC, we lived in an apartment on the seminary campus. I posted pics of that precious, miniature apartment when we first got here :) Oh, and how did we get to five homes? Well, the "bat" house we rented in Ramsey, the house we bought in Ramsey, upstairs apartment on campus, downstairs apartment on campus and number 5 - the duplex. Wow! In December (I know that was 5 months ago!), we couldn't take the 700 square foot apartment anymore! Well, maybe I couldn't take it but friends, coming from a 1400 square foot 3-bedroom, 2 bath home...with a giant kitchen, garage, shed, yard....ohhhhhh, I still miss our house SO much! :( Anyway, I refused to cook and/or bake in our apartment because the small kitchen stressed me out so much. And if you know me, you know that's a big deal because I love to bake!!!! BUT, back to the point, we moved into a duplex about 15 minutes campus righ