The Brinkman Adventures–Missions Made Exciting!

Since we travel a lot, we are always looking for things to entertain our kids in the car. We recently listened to a couple of fantastic audio productions during our summer travels, so, I must admit, when the opportunity came to review The Brinkman Adventures: Season 3 part of the Brinkman Adventures series, I thought it would be a fun set of compact discs to have to possibly listen to on our next auto trip. However, when we received the four CDs and began listening to them, we found that they were much more than some ordinary dramatic recordings.
As I’m sure you can figure out by the name, The Brinkman Adventures: Season 3 is the third series of the Brinkman Adventures. I have never heard the other two series but I can tell you that they are going to be on our wish list. This season has 12 recordings that, together, last more than five hours. I haven’t personally listened to all 12 recordings but my kids love them and ask for me to put them on during our homeschool time and even other times when I’m not around. Although we really try to monitor what they listen to and watch on there own, I have no qualms in allowing them to listen to these audio recordings.
The Brinkman family from the CDs is actually a real family. Although the names have been changed, the real family members play the same members in the Brinkman Adventures CDs. The stories that they tell are real stories as well. Although they might alter things a bit to simplify them for the listeners or for dramatic effect, the core of the story is never altered. For example, in one story there is an African family that only has one son when in real life they have three children but the basic story was not changed at all.

Because Brinkman Adventures talks about missions and we are full time missionaries these recordings have really provided some interesting discussions. What really got us hooked were the first couple of episodes that told the true story of Tomas a Hispanic boy from a rich family who found the Lord while going to college in the United States and then felt God calling him to missions. When he called his father to tell him that he was going on the mission field his father disowned him on the spot. The story goes on to tell how Tomas (whose name has been changed because he is still an active missionary), ended up meeting an amazing missionary, learned under this missionary and  smuggling Bibles into the country of Bishmar (country name has been changed as well) - a country where Bibles were illegal. I won’t tell you about the part where Tomas had to unload all of the suitcases containing the Bibles onto a table in customs and about the guard’s hand flying off of the Bible’s when he touched them and how he told Tomas to hurriedly  pack all of the Bibles and get out as quickly as possible. I won’t tell you any of those things because it would spoil you listening to the first episode. Oops! I just told you! Well, anyway, this episode speared a great discussion with my two youngest on how God work’s miraculously today if we trust Him and how He can protect us in any tough situation.
We also had a great discussion after hearing the story of a girl who was one of the Brinkman’s neighbors. The Brinkman’s had been talking to the girl about the Lord for a long time but she never was interested until the Brinkman’s invited her over for a backyard Bible study where a missionary was going to speak. I won’t spoil the story this time by telling you what happened, but I loved the discussion that I had, again with Joshua and Jacob, about how being missionaries at home is just as important as being missionaries in a foreign country.
As you can tell, we have become new fans of the Brinkman Adventures and are so glad that we got to review The Brinkman Adventures: Season 3. The recordings are professionally done with fantastic sound effects but it is the great true stories that make them so awesome. They are stories that talk about living out missions to your friends and other family members every day and trusting the Lord to help you and get you through any circumstance. I’m thinking of other ways to use these great CD’s as well, like in children’s church or in one of our Bible clubs.
To find out more about Brinkman Adventures, especially about The Brinkman Adventures: Season 3, just click on any one of the highlighted links above. I know that you will have a lot of great discussions with your kids and come up with a lot of ways that you can use these recordings or ideas sparked from these recordings to reach others for the Lord. When God does work “mission miracles” with you and your family please stop back by and leave me a comment and tell me your story. I’d love to hear it and praise God with you. Happy Listening!