Skip to content
Ripened GrainGrain
New GrainRipened HarvestJournal

Frontline Missions International

Dispatches from the Front

A documentary series in journal form that follows gospel work in hard places: Southeast Asia, the Balkans, West Africa, India, Ethiopia and South Sudan, North Africa, China, Indochina and the Middle East. Each episode visits believers and churches on the ground rather than reporting from a studio.

ProvisionalFilm & seriesReformed
Where to watch

Why this is listed

The Frontline Missions site lists the series with endorsements from John Piper and Gloria Furman, and its store sells ten episodes on DVD at $5 each or $50 for the set, plus a companion book. No streaming option is listed on the site at check time.

Before you press play

Documentary footage from mission fields in hard places. No dramatisation. Scenes of poverty and references to persecution and death; a few images of injury. Suitable for teens and adults, and for older children with a parent.

Suited to Adults. Age judgements are ours, not a rating board’s — you know your own family.

How to start

  1. Open frontlinemissions.info (opens an external site) and read what Frontline Missions International says about itself before you read anything else.
  2. Read the note above first. It is there so an evening does not go wrong twenty minutes in.
  3. Watch it yourself before you watch it with children, if there are children.
  4. Read the passage it dramatises alongside it. The point is to send you back to the text, not to replace it.
  5. Afterwards, ask what the story added and what it left out. That conversation is worth more than the film.

Close to this

  • Film & seriesProvisional

    The Insanity of God

    Nik Ripken Ministries

    A documentary following missionaries Nik and Ruth Ripken, who after the death of their son in Africa travelled through the persecuted church asking whether Jesus is worth it. It draws on hundreds of interviews with believers in Russia, China and the Muslim world.

    Cost
    Low cost
    Time
    One-off
    Where
    Online
    Who for
    Adults · Documentary

    Last verified October 24, 2026

  • Film & seriesProvisional

    Chariots of Fire

    Enigma Productions

    Two runners go to the 1924 Paris Olympics: Harold Abrahams, running against the antisemitism of Cambridge, and Eric Liddell, a Scottish missionary's son who will not run on a Sunday. It won Best Picture and is quieter and slower than its reputation suggests.

    Cost
    Paid
    Time
    A few hours
    Where
    Online
    Who for
    All ages · Film

    Last verified September 8, 2026

  • Film & seriesProvisional

    End of the Spear

    Every Tribe Entertainment

    A 2006 feature film telling the story of the five missionaries killed by the Waodani in Ecuador in 1956, and of what happened afterward when the families of the dead went to live among the tribe. It is told largely from the point of view of Mincayani, one of the men who did the killing.

    Cost
    Paid
    Time
    One-off
    Where
    Online
    Who for
    Adults · Film

    Last verified October 24, 2026

Put it into practice

Places doing this work that you could join. From New Grain; the picks change each day.

  • MissionsVerified

    Go cross-cultural with TMS Global

    TMS Global

    A Wesleyan sending agency, founded in 1984 out of United Methodist renewal, with more than 200 workers in about 30 countries. It trains and sends people into cross-cultural ministry and connects churches with named workers on named fields for prayer and partnership.

    Time
    Ongoing
    Where
    Online
    Area
    Missions

    Last verified September 8, 2026

  • Bible translation & distributionVerified

    Join a Wycliffe translation team

    Wycliffe Bible Translators USA

    Wycliffe recruits translators and linguists along with the finance, IT, and aviation staff that keep field teams working on translation in languages that still have no Scripture. Many roles are support work that needs no linguistics training.

    Time
    Years
    Where
    Global
    Area
    Bible translation & distribution

    Last verified September 8, 2026

  • Persecuted churchVerified

    Write to a Christian in prison

    The Voice of the Martyrs

    Founded in 1967 by Richard Wurmbrand after fourteen years in Romanian prisons, VOM provides Bibles, works alongside front-line workers, and cares for the families of imprisoned believers in around 70 countries. Its Prisoner Alert project lets a reader write directly to named Christians in prison and to the officials holding them.

    Time
    A few hours
    Where
    Online
    Area
    Persecuted church

    Last verified September 8, 2026