How the Real-Life Couple Behind SOUND OF HOPE Followed God’s Call
By Movieguide® Contributor
Bishop W.C. Martin and Donna Martin, the real-life couple whose story inspired SOUND OF HOPE: THE STORY OF POSSUM TROT, faithfully followed God’s call, leading to the impactful adoption of many foster care children.
“SOUND OF HOPE, from Angel Studios and directed by Joshua Weigel, tells the story of how, in the 1990s, the Rev. Wilbert Martin (Demetrius Grosse) and his wife, first lady Donna Martin (Nika King), who led Bennett Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, adopted children through foster care, inspiring 22 families in their church to follow in their footsteps,” The Christian Post reported.
“You don’t have a testimony until you go through stuff,” Rev. Martin told the Christian Post. “You have to go through the test to have a testimony, and many times, we fail the test, but I’m one of those people who believe if God called us to do it, we can do it.”
The Martins were faithful to God, through and through. They adopted four children and paved the way for others in their community to foster and adopt. Their obedience untimely led to the adoption of 77 foster children.
“Because God was with us, we could succeed,” he declared. “You can see the evidence; we have children who are in college and getting degrees. That’s the evidence from all of those struggles.”
“It wasn’t easy…but life is full of ups and downs and setbacks and problems and everything,” Rev. Martin added. “But we’ve got to have that force in us, we’ve got to have that anointing where we say, ‘I won’t give up. I’m going to continue because the Lord is with us.’”
Rev. Martin believes that when God calls someone down a path, that means they are equipped to do it. The church should not be discouraged from following the will of the Lord.
“I will simply tell the Church today that you can do this with everything that God gives you,” he said.
“God would not allow the devil to make Him out to be a liar. When God calls you to do something, you are able to do it, although you may not see all the ins and outs of how God wants to lead you and guide you. But if you just stay with the process, you’re going to go forward,” he said.
Rev. Martin encourages everyone to follow God’s will because he will give you strength to do what he asks.
“I encourage you not to back up and not to let anything discourage you from carrying out the will of God,” he said. “If we’re going to be the hands and feet of Jesus, then we know that even Jesus Himself went through some problems. He had some things He had to deal with; He had the weight of the world on His shoulders.”
“But yet, He said, ‘Not my will, but Thy will be done.’ We have to just speak the Word of God…the Word of God will carry you…” he said.
The movie depicts the many challenges of foster care children and their foster parents. Many of the children have traumatic pasts that influence their behavior, and the Martins and other parents were emotionally exhausted and pressed financially.
“Raising children, I did not focus on what we were going through,” Donna said. “I didn’t focus on the challenge, I focused on meeting the need. And so, to see that on the big screen takes me back into every moment, and I say, ‘Oh, my God, did I really make it through this?’”
Though it’s hard, Donna said fostering just “made sense.” It came naturally to nurture children who need it.
“It made all the sense in the world to bring in children,” she said. “After the Holy Spirit spoke, immediately, I caught hold of that. I didn’t question Him at all…it increased my faith; it became a daily faith walk because it was totally different from the way I was raised.”
“I was not raised in trauma; I was not raised in neglect,” she continued. “I was not raised in abuse; I was raised with gentleness and kindness. So it definitely took the Holy Spirit to help me to thread through all those emotions.”
Despite the emotional difficulty, the Martins kept their focus on what God wanted them to do.
“You teach your children to do what’s right, and then they’re calling you crazy, ‘This is wrong, I don’t want to accept this and you’re treating me bad, and you don’t love me,’ and all this kind of stuff,” she added. “It took faith in God, knowing that when He calls you, He will qualify you.”
“The challenge I want to give to this whole world is that ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life,’” Donna said. “My challenge is that Christ Jesus gave us life; let’s give somebody else a purpose-driven life.”
Part of Movieguide®’s review of SOUND OF HOPE reads:
SOUND OF HOPE: THE STORY OF POSSUM TROT is a beautiful story about an entire town taking in foster children. As such, it has a strong Christian, morally uplifting worldview. However, the movie does deal with some of the realities and hardships foster families and foster children undergo. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for children and families. However, SOUND OF HOPE: THE STORY OF POSSUM TROT shows that God’s love is real and that, no matter what your past is, God will always be with you.
Nika King, who plays Donna in the movie, was refreshed by the opportunity to talk about God in a movie.
“This has never happened,” she said. “I’ve been in Hollywood for 20 years. It’s taboo to bring up Christ’s name. It’s taboo to talk about your faith.”
She continued, “And here I am in a movie, a real story about real people, talking about the love of God, and having Christ in you, and doing the things that you don’t want to do and being obedient and trusting God and sacrificing…this is the happiest I’ve ever been in my life, in my career, because now I know why I have this gift that God gave me, and it’s to glorify Him.”
King believes that viewers will be touched by the movie’s “sense of faith.”
“For me, you know, I can only, I can speak from being an actor as well as being a believer. You know, faith is everything for me. It’s my currency. It’s my cash app. It’s my Zelle, my Venmo. It’s the things I see and the things I don’t see, the things I touch and the things I can’t touch. So I have to really lean on that,” she told Urban Faith.
Demetrius Grosse, who played Rev. Martin, grew in his faith as he performed the role.
“I’ve gained a different understanding of the power of faith and the importance of legacy,” he told the Christian Post.
“Faith, belief, unfettered, unconditional love, is at the bedrock of this story. And it really takes all of us, regardless of our denomination, regardless of our creed, even. This is a film that we feel so proud to bring to the world,” Grosse told the National Catholic Register last week.