On the 4th of July, over 2,000 theaters across America ran the film adaptation of the incredible true story from a small town in Texas that adopted 77 of the most at-risk children from the regional foster system.
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot, recounts how the voice of God led a pastor and his wife to adopt two children, and then to convince the congregation in the town church to follow their lead.
It wasn’t a large community, but nevertheless, the 77 children found families within the 23 households of Possum Trot, Texas.
Oprah, the Today Show, and Good Morning America all jumped on the story, but it was years later when Hollywood director Josh Weigel and his producer wife Rebekah approached Bishop W.C. Martin and his wife Donna Martin, whose faith and determination led to the most mistreated children finding loving homes, did the story make it to the silver screen.
“When the church actually does what we’re called to do, it’s beautiful,” Mrs. Weigel said in a behind-the-scenes promotional video released by Angel Studios. Mrs. Weigel brought the whole production team down to Possum Trot to meet and interview the families and children at the center of the drama before initiating a screenplay rewrite to better share the community’s story.
The foster system in America is, as Mr. Weigel explains, ground zero for most of the childhood trauma in America. It is ground zero for child trafficking and a primary driver of both the prison population and homelessness.
“And think about how many children [are] in the system, I believe if every church were focused on two or three children, they would fix the system just like that,” said Bishop Martin.
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Opening on July 4th, the film scored various positive reviews including a 7/10 rating on Rotton Tomatoes, an A+ grade from CinemaScore, and 94% from PostTrack. It grossed $9.5 million on a budget of $8.1 million over the first two weeks of its release.
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As far as W. C. and Donna are concerned, the film was incredible, with the latter telling the Christian Science Monitor that it seemed like “deja vu,” and “so well presented as our life.”
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“To be honest with you, I’m glad I did,” the Bishop says when asked what it took for him to decide, even with little money and two children already, to adopt two more. “God knows what we don’t know. And sometimes we just have to be obedient.
WATCH the video and trailer below…
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That’s amazing and inspiring!