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Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Brinkman Adventures Season 3 - Review

We had a great time listening to the latest installment of the Brinkman Adventures This time we got to listen to Season 3.



We had the chance to listen to some of their adventures before....specifically their adventures in Season 2.




This time around, we got the actual physical CD's and not the downloaded version.  Even though I have figured out downloading and all of that fancy new technology....Emoji.....I was happy that we were given the chance at actual CDs and could listen to them this way.  Either through the computer or in the van....well, I guess we could have used an actual old fashioned CD player too!

My laptop always played the CD without any issue, but our desktop kept trying to recognize it as a movie DVD for some reason.  I just had to manually open the Media Player and play it from there and it worked fine.

There are 4 CD's in this particular series with 12 stories, and each story is about 25-ish minutes long.

I love this audio drama series and this family for a few reasons.  The stories in this series are based on true life stories from missionaries around the world. (There are some details that have been changed to protect people - and I am sure there was a bit of dramatic license taken - but, for the most part, what you hear is what actually happened)  The voice work is done by a mixture of actors and the kids from the Brinkman family. (Little Charlie sounds exactly like one of the voices from The Wonder Pets!  He is actually one of the Brinkman kids though and not an actor.  And, as a mom with a big family, I did sort of love the real life naughty tidbits that happened with the family.  It is always funnier when it is happening to someone else, right?)   The stories are uplifting and inspiring...with a little bit of intrigue/adventure/angst thrown in.

I will tell you the truth here, I had intended for us to take this along and listen on our road trip to and from Florida.  I packed it.....and it never made it out of the movie bag.  Never.  Plastic wrapping was still firmly in place when we got home to Georgia.

Sigh.

So, we ended up parceling out the stories one at a time at home, usually in our quiet time after lunch....sometimes in our morning time before we started out school day.

These CDs are so well done.  The sound effects are cool.  The people/actors are awesome.  The stories are awesome.  (Occasionally, I would say there might be a little too much going on at a time and your ears aren't sure which thing to listen to, the background music, the people talking or the dishes clinking. But, that is what makes it so real and like an old fashioned radio theater production - which I used to LOVE.)

Still do.  Truly every time I heard their theme music and the deep announcers voice saying, "You have been listening to the Brinkman Adventures..." I was brought back to listening to the radio station KTIS, up in Minnesota.

The website has interesting background information if you decide you want to dig in more deeply to the stories you hear.  It is basically the stories behind the stories.  (Don't read them until you listen to the stories though or you only have yourself to blame for being  your own spoiler!)



Season 3 has 12 stories, 4 Cd's  (a few of them are Part 1 - part 2 stories though).

1.  God's Mule
2  Mountain Mover
3. The Silent Ambassador
4.  Translating Trouble
5.  Man-Up
6.  Acorns & Oaks
7.  A Saint's Story, Part 1
8.  A Saint's Story, Part 2
9.  Untouched
10. Busy Bees and a Bullhorn
11. Missionary Tourist, Part 1
12. Missionary tourist, Part 2

I don't want to tell you the stories of these missionaries, because the Brinkman Adventures CD will do a much better job.

But, I will tell you this, these CDs are a good reminder to Christians in the West that Christians in other places do not get to live like we do.  They just don't.  I think we know that, in theory, but when we are faced with real life stories of what people have to do in order to get Bibles, for instance, you just can't ignore it.  You have to gain an appreciation for how blessed we are in this country - despite the turmoil and some of the people in leadership positions here.  We still live in an amazingly blessed place.

It is also a great reminder to the fact that God is still working and doing amazing things.  All things are possible with God.  Prayer changes things.  God is at work....everywhere.  Really.  It is important to remember that.

This is just a fun thing for your whole family to be able to do together.  The material isn't too scary for the littles or too dull for the olders.  As Goldilocks would say, "It is just right."

You can find them on Facebook too.  There is a suggested donation of $27.99 for the Season 3 set or $17.99 for the downloaded Mp3 version.

Take a look at what other TOS reviewers thought of the Brinkman Adventures.




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