Listening to audio books and audio dramas has been one of our favorite ways to pass the time for a long time in our family. It helps when we have a long drive from home to an activity or even to keep everyone entertained as we run errands together. I like being able to make sure that what we are listening to is wholesome and appropriate for all of the ages of my kids, so it’s always my preference to preselect something rather than just take my chances listening to the radio.
We were recently given access to download Brinkman Adventures Season 6: Underground Rising, Digital version. I downloaded the files to my phone and played them on my van’s stereo system via Bluetooth. We do not have a CD player in the van, so this has been my best option for the past year, and I have really taken to it. There are no CDs to worry about losing and my phone keeps track of where we were last time we listened, so I don’t have to remember.
Past seasons have been over 5 hours long, but the company has recently moved to a 6 episode structure per season, so Season 6 runs a little over 2 hours. The episodes are:
Dutch Underground, Part 1 and Part 2
Twice Born Fly
I Wonder Why?
Free Burma Rangers, Part 1 and Part 2
If you’ve never heard Brinkman Adventures before, they are truly missionary stories in a radio drama format. This helps to keep kids engaged, and it also makes them more fun because you get to know some of the characters that will be in each episode, the Brinkman Family. Even though it had been a while since we heard from the Brinkmans last, my kids remembered!
Our favorite episode from Season 6 was I Wonder Why? In this episode, a girl name Samantha goes with her family to serve as missionaries in an orphanage in India. The kids in the orphanage start out as really rough and mean. They fight a lot and just seem like their hearts will never change, despite the family spending hours and hours ministering to them, but also just really being kind and providing some structure and love to them.
Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, the children at the orphanage seemed to all have a breakthrough and finally the light of Jesus starts pouring from them! It’s truly like they are becoming new people. The experience changed everyone’s hearts, including the missionary family.
The reason we liked that one so much was because it really addressed the stress and difficulties surrounding being a missionary family. These folks were questioning everything as their efforts started out seeming like they were fruitless. The kids they were trying to help seemed so ungrateful and were making it miserable to be there. The culture around them was SO different from at home. Sam’s little brother was having awful problems with his allergies and asthma, even having a really scary reaction one day. The missionary family didn’t think God’s plan for them made sense.
They gave up their lifestyle in America to go to India and the kids they were helping just continued to be a huge challenge. No one seemed to be happy at all for a long time! However, it all changed so suddenly and it affected so many people all at once. Suddenly, the family could see just why God had called them unexpectedly to India to spend this time with the orphan children. Suddlenly they were seeing that they were a small part in a bigger plan to grow the kingdom of God. The small things that they’d been doing over time were obviously all added together to make a giant impact on these kids. It was really cool!
The other stories on Season 6 are great, too. If you’re not sure if this style of audio drama is right for you, check out the entire first episode:
I also wanted to point out that on the Brinkman Adventures website, they feature Real Stories about each of their seasons. It contains interviews, original pictures, recipes, maps, and more enrichment content to further share these stories with families that are listening to the albums.
My kids liked checking out these with me, because it made the experience more real because the adventures are based on REAL people and places! I like having this website for them to point out the connections and to read more about the real families and experiences that inspired the episodes we just listened to.
If you’re interested in purchasing anything from Brinkman Adventures, be sure to use the coupon code Fall10. It will get you 10% off until October 31st, so hurry!
We’ve listened to other Brinkman Adventures missionary stories in the past as reviews for the Crew. To read my reviews on those, check out Season 4 and Season 3. To see what other families thought of the Season 6 release, click on the banner below: