Brinkman Adventures Season 6 ~ a Crew review

Having Season 6: Underground Rising, Digital version, arrive in our inbox created a lot of excitement from all three of the giggly girls. They thoroughly enjoy Brinkman Adventures and so it was a fun surprise to show the girls that we were going to get to review their newest stories.

Brinkman Adventures tells the stories of a fictional family that is involved with a number of different missionaries. Over the years, they have encountered people from all over the world serving God in varied ways. It is an audiodrama (focus on DRAMA here) and much is not true. They note that all stories are based on real people and real stories but they are dramatized, some of them quite extensively.

Season 6 includes only 6 episodes, four total stories as two of them each have two parts. The stories run about 30 minutes per episode. This season includes Dutch Underground, parts 1 and 2, Twice Born Fly, I Wonder Why, and Free Burma Rangers, parts 1 and 2.

Dutch Underground takes place during WWII. The story is narrated by the children’s great grandmother and tells of her and her husband’s participation in the Dutch Underground Resistance during the German occupation of the Netherlands. It does a very good job of showing the danger and difficulty faced by those seeking to serve God by helping those in danger.

Twice Born Fly addresses facing fears that you have and following God. In this story, one of the young boys accidentally swallows a fly and faces his fear of dying. The father helps by telling a story about a dream he had about being in prison and not being afraid when you are following the right person. This is an allegorical story and includes a lot about life in prison, including a few implied statements that were unnecessary for the actual story.

I Wonder Why is about a family who moves to India to serve in an orphanage. The daughter doesn’t understand why God would send them there and has difficulty in seeing any good. After time, changes take place (though I have a problem with the miraculous way they show this). The daughter has a changed heart and it ends with her happy to be in India.

Free Burma Rangers is about a missionary family, particularly the father. It talks about his growing up and becoming a Green Beret. Then it transitions into a mission they are on to free people in Burma, fleeing an approaching army that is causing destruction and damage to people and property. The Brinkman family are on this dangerous mission with the Free Burma Rangers.

These fictional adventures are an interesting look into lives of missionary minded people around the world. BUT, they are fictional. Names are changed to protect people but also, the episodes are written and changed to be more adventurous and dangerous in the name of entertainment.

There are a couple of places I would want to be aware of before young children listen.

Twice Born Fly has a large part that takes place in a prison. It is not a happy place and there is a lot of bullying and extortion that goes on in the story. It is easy to think that the father is a bad man; they do end up saying it was a dream but not until very close to the end. It is very misleading and I do not feel it was appropriate for children under about age 12. My 12 year old questioned many things, stopping it in the middle to discuss it with her older sister to make sure she understood it. Without that, she was confused.
I Wonder Why contained much that was “miraculous” and life is not that way for most people. The miracles that took place lead one to think that if you follow Jesus then life will be wonderful and all will be okay in the end. Even with her confidence in her own understanding of the Bible and what God tells us, my 12 year old daughter was concerned about the way the miraculous changes of heart occurred. She expressed concern that people would think that if they just said “God, please come into my heart” then their whole life would be changed and all would be well, that they would be saved. She knows that God does not promise that in the Bible so this is a concern with this particular story.
Also, in I Wonder Why, one of the miracles is that a child is healed miraculously from life-threatening allergies. While there is a disclaimer at the end of the recording, warning children with allergies not to just expose themselves and trust God to cure them, it is easy to miss it. (I did – my daughter informed me that I turned it off too soon since I turned it off when they began their “thanks for listening.”) If you have a child with allergies, know that this is in there and needs to be addressed prior to listening to this story.
There was a warning in Underground Rising, Part 2 for intense scenes but I did not feel it was necessary. I felt that the prison scenes in another story were much more likely to scare and intimidate a child.

There is much good in Brinkman Adventures and I would not stop my girls from listening to it. It opens up good discussions when they hear things they don’t believe follow God’s word and it shows them how other parts of the world live and encounter God. The view of other places and the work others do for God is wonderful and enlightening. I really like this about these stories.

This season of the Brinkman Adventures reminds us that we should know God’s Word, the Bible, and know what God actually teaches. I would cautiously recommend this season due to the content that specifically states that you can be saved just by silently saying you want God in your life. The Bible tells us differently. Even my daughters registered this issue and asked me to mention it (which I was going to do anyway).

A neat feature of Brinkman Adventures is that they are based on real people and their stories. One the Brinkman Adventures page, they have a link for the Real Stories that inspired these episodes. Please visit their website to read more about these real people who serve God around the world.

Miss L’s thoughts:
I would have liked more of the family because it makes it more relatable. I was expecting that since they have it in the other albums. It is fun to get to listen to the kids. Of Season 6, they were all okay but I didn’t really have a favorite. Two of these didn’t follow our beliefs so it was harder to relate to those.

Miss E’s thoughts:
It was a really good season. I really liked the Dutch Underground episodes because I like reading about that time period. I also really liked I Wonder Why. I enjoy the Brinkman Adventures so much because it is generally about a family that has all sorts of crazy problems. But because they are a family, they are living their life like normal and I like that. Even the things that go wrong. The only thing I didn’t like about this season is that it wasn’t really about the Brinkman family. It was more about other people and their lives, though there were a few appearances. They were in each episode in a small way but I would have liked to have more of them. Because I really like this series, I was a bit disappointed that there were only 6 episodes. But then when there were really only 4 stories, it was really disappointing.

DISCOUNT: Brinkman Adventures is offering a 10% discount to my readers. The code is FALL10 and is good off of purchases from their online store. The code is good from October 10 – October 31, 2018.

Blessings,
At Home.

There are many other families who have been listening to Season 6: Underground Rising. Please visit the Homeschool Review Crew to read what they have to say about these stories.