The real life heroes of “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot” join Morning Wire to share their incredible and inspiring journey. Bishop and First Lady Martin and their community adopted 77 difficult-to-place children from the foster care system, proving the transformational power of love and faith. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.
Black Rifle Coffee: Drink America's coffee at https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/
(upbeat music) Inspired by a powerful true story, the new film Sound of Hope, the story of possum trot follows Donna and Reverend Martin, who along with 22 families from their church in a small Texas town, adopt 77 of the most difficult to place kids in the foster system. The Daily Wire has partnered with Angel Studios to bring the film to theaters on July 4th and ahead of that, Donna and Reverend Martin join me in our Nashville studio to discuss their real life experience with taking in and raising these children. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief, John Bickley. It's Wednesday, July 3rd, and this is a special edition of Morning Wire. (upbeat music) College is expensive, but being a man shouldn't be. Score 60% off Jeremy's Razor's one-year bundle and dominate campus life. While others conform, you'll stand out. Clean shaven and unapologetic. Major in masculinity@jeremysraisers.com today. Before we get started here, a behind the scenes disclosure, we did not start off intending to release the following interview in full. I was just supposed to sit down with the Martins and get a few quotes for a larger episode, but what took place moved us all so much that we just felt that we needed to release the full exchange as a standalone special episode. With that said, we hope you get as much out of this as we did. Joining me in studio is the remarkable couple behind Sound of Hope, the story of possum trot, Donna and Reverend Martin. First, thank you so much for being here with me now to discuss the film and you and your community's experiences with fostering children. - We're glad to be here. We are definitely glad to be here. - Absolutely. - I wanna hear from your perspective, the personal experience of going through this process. Not a lot of people have had this kind of thing happen, which is you start a movement and then you also see this made into a film and probably never thought this would go this direction. So what were the initial seeds of this, this push to take action and foster these at-risk children? Where did that come from? What drove that initially? Why did this become a priority for you? - I don't know if it became a priority other than we were just because of the vision that the Lord showed my wife through the death of her mother. We just started doing something, that he spoke the word and we obeyed the word. And I don't know if there was so much about something that we was looking for in a big thing to come out of. We were just doing what we thought people do. We didn't even know all this was going on in this area at all. But then once we got involved and we found out that it was a worldwide problem, a worldwide situation 'cause we in possum drop, who can imagine in possum drop? He we all embarked upon a worldwide. Who would have thought of that? I mean, I didn't, I mean, I can't speak for nobody, but I never would have dreamed that we would be in this position today. But what we did, I guess out of obedience to God's will, he opened up doors and God is faithful to do what he says. And that's the thing that I keep looking at. I keep keep focusing on my eyes on God and knowing that if you do his will, if you trust him and believe in him, he's gonna do the rest. - Are there some particular scriptures that came back to you or really helped center you during this whole process? You felt like this is the heartbeat of what we're trying to do. - Two of my favorite pastor's scriptures in the Bible is Roman, eight and 28. And we know that all things work together for the good, working according to his purpose for those who love the Lord. And then I love this one. Yeah, do I walk through the valley of the shadow of death? I will feel no evil for the Lord is with me. If you were in this valley of problems and situations and setbacks and heartaches and pain, it's working for our good because God has a greater purpose. This was something that I feel that God and it was prophesied in our church that we was in a little small building one night, one Friday night. This woman came in and prophesied to everything that went on and it had to happen just like that. We had members and they said, yeah, right, back in these woods, you tell me your TV's gonna come back in these woods? It ain't no way. But now they see something tangible that they know that if it had not been for the Lord, we wouldn't be right here. Now my wife may have a different scriptures on her mind that she loved, but these are my two. And I keep those in my spirit at all times because I know in this world, you're gonna go through some stuff. Whether it's one day it can be one thing or not, but you're gonna have some problem. - I wanna ask you about that in particular. One of the standout elements of this film is that it does not shy away from how hard this is, the kinds of struggles that are going to come if you make this kind of commitment and steer your life in this direction. You open your arms to people that are initially strangers. That's no small matter. How has it been for you in the community? Has this been a hard process? Do you feel like you went in with eyes wide open or have you been surprised by it? - When in blind, not knowing the ins and out and the pros and the cause, because the children themselves, they have a new demeanor on life. And I often say this. Why does a child know what love is all about when no one never taught them love? Do a child understand the beauty of a mother and a father that nobody never spent the time to teach them? How do they know how to love God when no one? So these are struggles. They have all kind of baggage, lines, dealing, just whatever you name. They come in with that mindset. I thank God for my wife. I thank God for being a child for church and the community as a whole, because in the midst of all those struggles, in the midst of all them setbacks and all the crying and all the tears and all the heartaches, all, like I said, but God. But God was right there. And he helped us through the whole process. - And have you seen a transformation with these children? First lady, you wanna answer that? - I'm amazed. It just goes back to the scripture says, now unto him, who's able to do exceedingly abundant. Above all, that you can actually think, carting through the power that works on the inside of us. I'm amazed with these kids. I'm amazed with their struggle, have turned into triumph. I am just grateful for the opportunity that the Lord allowed us that they came past our life. And I'm amazed with the pain that I suffered through the loss of my mother. At the age of 35, 36 years old, I'm sinned to the Lord three or four months after she passed transition, rather, that no child should lose a mother. Through my pain, I was just crying out to the Lord, saying, God, no child should lose a mother. And when he spoke to me, say, I've heard you, but she's with me, think about. All I was thinking about those months was myself. All I was thinking about, when I was alone, that I couldn't go with any further. I just, so I looked up to the Lord one day and I said, okay, God, today is the day. Either you heal me or let me die. Literally, I thought I was gonna die. I thought my husband would come home and find me in the kitchen floor. But God moved up on my heart and I stepped out the back door. And he said, I've heard you. Think about those children that's out there. It did not, and will not have what you had in a mother, false than a dog, give back. And he didn't say, get just kids that their parents, you know, left them and they got some away in the system, but get those hard-to-place kids that wouldn't fit into a home. And we wanted those children. Our community wanted those kids because we understand struggle, possibly try to understand struggle. We understand not having the luxury of life, but the most important thing is the love of Christ and loving one another, accepting one another. We understand that. So I'm amazed. I look at them now and no matter what, you know, challenge that they're yet dealing with 'cause they're always gonna be, how can you get healed from that that rejected you? That never leaves you. But when you take Jesus Christ, and you give them hope, sound of hope, so he's preparing on people. He's preparing a nation to take these kids 'cause that's my husband's say. They didn't know what to give. They could only give out what was given to them. Some of them are grown and got children and they're still hurting, but we know and we've done what the Lord acts for us to do. And it was hell and high water, if you will. It was things that no, we didn't know because I came up in a time, I'm a 61 baby, and I came up in the time when the mama said it, you did it. Brother, you like it or not, you didn't question it. If mother said you show some love, mother said you give that shirt, you turn the other cheek, you did it, you know? So I'm just amazed. And I believe that really it's not about us. It's not about Bishop W.C. and Donna. It's not about being a chapel. It's about that God so loved the world, that it gave its only begot its son. That son gave his life, that he may have other sons and daughters. So we gave our life. We gave up our agenda through our hurry, our pain and our brokenness. And we suffered and talked through. And I'm sitting on this side right now and saying, God, nobody but you couldn't nobody do this but you. I am excited that this message is being known, anyone that see it and hear it, they hear the sound, they hear the cry. They know, we know even us, those that haven't even thought about adoption, if you don't hear this sound of those children that's out there, that haven't had a chance in life in what you give your very own, then it's gonna contaminate the good. That's why God said, forget about yourself. Let's reach out of ourselves. And I'm so grateful. If I ever been grateful for anything in my life, this is it. I am grateful that the Lord allowed a people to go through the struggle and the pain and give a voice to this nasty enemy that comes to rob, steal, and kill, John, Jesus said, I came. I prayed for you. I'm amazed. I'm amazed. - And you know, one of the things that I wanna share also, adoption is nothing new. I mean, God Himself allowed and showed us and even in the Old Testament that adoption were how the only way we was able to get back to God but through adoption, anybody that's believing in God, whether they like it or not, they've been adopted. It's kinda like God called our people to utilize and to demonstrate what I've done for you. You can do it for another. The doors that I opened up for you because I brought you out of the muck and marry. I brought you out of pain and hurt and sorrow. You can do it for another. And this is the thing that we are missing. The only thing we see is a whole lot of the bad, hard-headed children. You expect that. You look for that because why? If no one teach them and showed them and loved them through their hurting pain like God, He did the same thing for us. He loved us through our hurts, our pain because we all been just messed up. But had not been for the Lord on our side, we'll still be jacked up and messed up and tore up from the floor. But God so fit to give us another chance. Why can't we as a people give a child that never had a chance? Why can't we give them a chance? - I can barely speak. We have to wrap up, that was amazing. Thank you guys so much for sharing this. God bless you guys. You're doing amazing stuff. - I hope millions of people watch this movie. It's already impacted all of ours. - We believe it. We believe it. - Thank you so much. (upbeat music) - That was Donna and Reverend Martin speaking about their real life experiences that inspired the new film, Sound of Hope, and this has been a special edition of Morning Wire. (upbeat music) (clicking)
The real life heroes of “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot” join Morning Wire to share their incredible and inspiring journey. Bishop and First Lady Martin and their community adopted 77 difficult-to-place children from the foster care system, proving the transformational power of love and faith. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.
Black Rifle Coffee: Drink America's coffee at https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/
