Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024)

Rated: PG-13

Run Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes

Visual Parables' content ratings:

• Violence: 1/10
• Language: 0/10
• Sex & Nudity: 8/10
• Star Rating: 5 stars

Director and co-writer Joshua Weigel, with his wife Rebekah, tells a story that we’d say is too Pollyannaish, except for the fact that it is based on a true story. It is a heartwarming story of a community of people opening their hearts to dozens of abused children, so broken that no one wanted to take them in. It's one more testimonial to the healing power of love that refuses to give up on a person.

The “too good to be true” story begins in 1996 in the tiny settlement of Possum Trot, a former logging town, located in east Texas. Bishop W.C. and First Lady Donna Martin (Demetrius Grosse and Nika King) minister with the people of the small Bennett Chapel church. The Black congregation consists of blue-collar people who have a saying, “you knew you were rich if your roof didn’t leak.” When death takes her mother, Donna feels the urge to adopt a child, but her husband resists, obviously not wanting such a drastic change in their home life.

“Adoption? You want to adopt kids? Like, human ones?” is his reaction when Donna raises the question. However, she persists and soon has him convinced. Working with child social worker Susan Ramsey (Elizabeth Mitchell) they welcome the abused Terri (Diaana Babnicova) into their home. Following their example, other families also open their hearts and their homes to children, the process greatly egged on by the Bishop’s lobbying Ramsey and her superior to send them more children, those nobody else wants. When the Martins tell the social worker they have 22 local families wanting to take adoption classes and ask if she would be willing to host the classes at the church, Ramsey replies, “Are you kidding? We’ll get baptized for 22 families!”

The scenes of the first children going to church with their foster parents and being welcomed by the worshipers is heartwarming as people hug the kids and call themselves “Aunt” or “Uncle.” Most of these children have been abused, and the film does not sugarcoat the process of the children adapting to a new family. One little boy screams when his foster mother turns on the bathtub spigot, and in a flashback we see how the boy had been abused in a bathtub with scalding hot water. The Martins also have difficulty with Terri, but Donna refuses to give up on her, saying, “We can look away, but the Father of us all, He uses one-way streets, because we are not meant to turn back, no matter what.”

All in all, 22 church families adopted 77 children, with the film ending triumphantly when the Bishop calls the social worker for another child and is told that all the available children have been adopted. This true story has been reported nationally on “Oprah,” “Good Morning America,” “48 Hours,” and others.

I especially enjoyed it because in my first parish, in North Dakota, my wife and I agreed to be “temporary” foster parents for teenagers who had to be immediately removed from their families. Most of our wards were with us for just a few days, but one stayed with us for a year and our care for him enabled him to stay in and graduate from high school. (It became very rewarding when he moved away, married, and the couple took in numerous children themselves! However, unlike with the Martins, our example did not lead other members of our church to follow suit.)

If you are looking for an inspirational film, this is the one for you, with something in it for the whole family – though adults should be prepared to answer their children’s questions and explain how not every parent is capable of loving their child. (Children should be at least middle school age before watching the film.)