Jaron Ministries outreach, Code 3 International, challenged law enforcement in Fresno, California, through the film. Jaron's Rob Carter says they developed a program called "Give a Cop a Ticket," which had a profound impact. "For the six weeks of the movie's running in theaters, we ended up being number 1 in all of North America for box office sales just promoting it to law enforcement. We saw God set up 20 follow-up Bible studies."

While that itself was an incredible answer to prayer, "Courageous" is now having a profound impact around the world. Carter just returned from the Philippines and says, "We showed the film to about 4,000 officers and saw nearly 1,000 come forward to receive Christ as Lord and Savior in response to the film."

Local churches are now providing follow-up care to these new believers. Carter says it's not stopping there. "They are now working with local churches in Manila to continue the work: to take the movie to every law enforcement headquarters and show it to their department."

Carter isn't sure if Provident Films envisioned that the film would go worldwide, but that's been Code 3's vision. "We are moving forward with our efforts to go into other countries. We have a number of invitations around the world. We would welcome those who want to make an eternal investment into reaching law enforcement for Christ around the world."

Code 3 International is also looking for Christian police officers. "The American badge can go places around the world that pastors and missionaries cannot. The brotherhood of law enforcement is global. So, for Christian law enforcement officers out there, we would love to have you contact us and be a part of one of our teams."

If you'd like to support their work financially, click here.

"Courageous" is a story about families, fatherhood, and faith, seen mainly through the eyes of a few police officers.

The film, which premiered on September 30, has been shown all across the United States, but Jaron Ministries International arm Code 3 Ministries International had hopes specifically for California. Code 3 distributed thousands of movie tickets to law enforcers across the Central Valley of California.

The idea was to reach a nearly unreached community by creating a curriculum to go alongside the film. Jim Bontranger created a series of studies specifically for police officers to use after they watched "Courageous," to get conversation flowing in one of the toughest professions around.

"Law enforcement, by its very nature of dealing with mad, sad, and bad people, take it on the chin if they don't know the Lord," explains Bontrager. "Unfortunately two to three times as many police officers commit suicide each year as die in the line of duty. We have an extremely high divorce rate–one of the highest of all professions. Officers have a tendency to take the struggles home, and it destroys their relationships."

"Our hope is that we could introduce the Lord Jesus Christ and the ability He has to empower them to be the kind of fathers and husbands they need to be," Bontrager adds.

The response has been unprecedented.

"We were hoping to get at least one theatre full of law enforcement officers and their spouses hearing the good reports of the quality of the movie," says Jaron Ministries' Rob Carter. And God blessed that dream. "Right now, Fresno, California is #1 in all of North America still (since the premier) in box office sales."

God has indeed used this movie in theatres and in 11 exclusive showings in the area. 20 groups led by retired officers were formed to discuss the film and its principles using Bontrager's curriculum.

Since discussions began, says Carter, "We've gotten phone calls from officers whose marriages were on the rocks, and they're reaching out for help. A number have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, so we're moving into a discipleship mode with them."

Bontrager says the curriculum is designed to speak to police officers where they are. "We talk about the need for backup in a spiritual and emotional sense. Officers understand the physical need for backup when they come across a threatening situation. But when it comes to spiritual or emotional backup, it's often seen as a sign of weakness, when in reality the Lord needs us to cover each other; we can't stand alone."

As a result of these discussions, some are already coming to Christ, some are slowly opening up to the possibility of the Gospel, and some are just exploring how to improve relationships for the first time.

The studies have been so effective that Code 3 now hopes to take them much farther than California.

"We've discovered and learned that the American badge can go many places in the world that pastors and missionaries cannot," says Carter. "So it's exciting to watch badge-to-badge, regardless of race or ethnicity. The bond of brotherhood is global. And through tactical training and leadership training, we can bring the Gospel with us."

The full scope of this film and curriculum is yet to be seen. Pray for the numerous opportunities that have already arisen and will continue to arise. Pray also for the hearts of law enforcement as they engage in this program, that they will be transformed for the Kingdom of God.

To learn more about Code 3 or to help offset the costs of purchasing "Courageous" movie tickets, click here.

Jaron's Rob Carter says they are reaching out to "law enforcement because the theme of 'Courageous' is about law enforcement. The message is about fatherhood. So far, we've raised funds to purchase and distribute 3,400 tickets to law enforcement and their spouses, up and down the Central Valley here in California."

Carter says the law enforcement community is largely ignored. "This is an unreached people group in many ways, and we need to reach out to law enforcement because of the high divorce rate, suicide rate, abuse rate, domestic violence rate –all  higher than the national average. It's just a very stressful job."

Carter says Jaron's Code 3 outreach has a mission. "We have a vision for reaching cops on a missional level both in our Jerusalem, Samaria — uttermost parts of the earth — and our Judea, which would be our country. Our goal through this is to set up local groups of local law enforcement personnel to get together and study God's Word."

Their Samaria project is to encourage law enforcement to reach out to their community to do service project in the areas where they serve. This puts Christian police officers on a higher level of respect, which provides opportunities to talk about their faith.

Jaron will also be sending a team to help with the National Police Week in Washington, D.C. "There's roughly about 30,000 law enforcement that come to the memorial services on the Mall. So we'll be helping families who have lost loved ones."

Carter hopes the movie "Courageous" is what kicks their ministry into high gear. "We're trusting God that this is the beginning of a movement."

If you'd like to see the movie trailer made especially for Code 3, watch it here.