After her mother passed away, Donna Martin, the wife of a pastor in a small town, struggled with depression. During that period, she received a message from the Lord telling her to adopt. Following the words of James 1:27, which reads, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans . . . in their affliction," she and her husband Bishop W.C. Martin, who were already blessed with two biological children, looked into the numbers of children in foster care who were troubled and/or abused. The Martins adopted four children over the course of five years, including two that had special needs.The 200 members of their rural church of Bennett Chapel in Possum Trot, Texas, were inspired, leading 22 families to take in 77 of the hardest to place children in the Texas child welfare system.
"We felt called to give to those totally neglected, told they would never amount to anything," Donna said. "And those are the kids we have taken in."
Bishop W.C. Martin wrote a book about what happened, titled Small Town, Big Miracle – How Love Came to the Least of Them, which was published in October 2007.
Angel Studios, which has produced hit inspirational films including Sound of Freedom and Cabrini, made the Martins' story into a movie, titled Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot. Written and produced by Joshua Weigel and Rebekah Weigel and directed by Joshua Weigel, Rebekah explained, “We did have to take some artistic liberty with some of it, such as making some composite characters out of multiple people. But it's accurate to what happened."
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot opens in theaters July 4, 2024. Click here to find showtimes. ~Alexandra Heilbron
Looking forward to viewing this movie
I had to see this movie just because I have a few people in Africa who I help and when I clicked on the link, I saw the main character's name was also Donna Martin - I thought "LORD I need to see this movie and invest in it as well" The movie is so well made - so real and true to life in it's challenges and rewards to adoption.
I want to see this movie soon. I was an orphan, abused by and in the foster system. I went through a lot of this. Somehow, I escaped sexual abuse, thank God. I just want to say it is not just Black children who go through this hell. I am White, and there are Native American kids who do too. God bless the families in this movie. Always the outsider, never part of a family, taken in for the money and what work you could do: I know what it is like. It is a broken system run by people who only care about their jobs. No child should ever grow up without a family. I last saw my brother when I was nine. I finally found him but he died before I could see him again. But this system works to "reunite families," doesn't it?