Bishop W.C. Martin is an American pastor, author, and adoption advocate, and the inspiration for the upcoming Angel Studios and Daily Wire Plus film, The Sound of Hope. As the pastor of Bennett Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Possum Trot, Texas, Bishop Martin and his wife adopted four children and ultimately persuaded their entire community to do the same. Ultimately, under Bishop Martin s spiritual leadership, one small Texas town adopted 77 children out of the foster care system and into loving families. Today, Martin leads the Church to Child Movement as the founder of the Saving a Generation Ministry, preaching across the nation to move families to consider adoption. He also serves as a national ambassador for the Global Orphan Project, which works to administer care to local children and equip orphans for adulthood. In today s episode, Martin and I discuss the problems within the current foster care and the role of the church in successful adoption stories. He also shares personal anecdotes about raising his adopted children and a few behind-the-scenes moments from the making of the movie. Don t miss this heartening conversation about family and faith with Bishop Martin, the real-life inspiration for The Sound Of Hope, starring Christian Bale in the new film. The S.O.H.W.I.E.S.P. (Sound of Hope) directed by John Singleton and directed by James Gray. This episode is sponsored by Dailywire Plus and produced by Angel Studios, a division of CBS Radio. and Angel Studios. To find out more about the movie, go to Dailywireplus.co/TheSoundofhope and Angel Studio, check out Angel Studios and DailyWire Plus on Anchor. To find a list of our sponsors and more information about our sponsorships and VIP memberships, visit anchor.fm/theSoundofHope. Subscribe to our newsletter and more! Learn more about our Sponsorships and support us on our VIP membership program: Click here. Connect with us on social media: bit.ly/sponsorships@dailywire.co Thank you for listening to the show? Thanks for supporting the show! and supporting our work? Subscribe for the show to become a supporter of Dailywire + Martin & Coaching us on this episode of The Sunday Special by clicking the show on Sunday Specials Subscribe on Insta-Fisher Martineau
00:00:00.000Unfortunately, we've had to edit out some important information because Big Tech won't let us say that sort of thing.
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00:00:09.000And my question is to a lot of people, how do a child know what love is when no one ever taught them love?
00:00:16.000How do a person, a child, know what a mother and a father is when they don't understand because they've never been taught?
00:00:23.000We got to reach and get them, teach them, show them, demonstrate it, and let them be a part of our family because this is what God is calling for the church to do.
00:00:37.000Martin is an American pastor, author, adoption advocate, and the inspiration for the upcoming Angel Studios and Daily Wire Plus film, The Sound of Hope.
00:00:44.000As the pastor of Bennett Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Possum Trot, Texas, Bishop Martin and his wife Donna adopted four children and ultimately persuaded their entire community to do the same.
00:00:53.000Ultimately, under Bishop Martin's spiritual leadership, one small Texas town adopted 77 children.
00:00:59.000Out of the foster care system and into loving families.
00:01:01.000Today, Martin leads the Church to Child movement as the founder of Saving a Generation Ministry, preaching across the nation to move families to consider adoption.
00:01:09.000He also serves as a national ambassador for the Global Orphan Project, which works to administer care to local children and equip orphans for adulthood.
00:01:16.000In today's episode, Bishop Martin and I discuss the problems within the current foster care system and the role of the church in successful adoption stories.
00:01:22.000Bishop Martin also shares personal anecdotes about raising his adopted children and a few behind-the-scenes moments from the making of the movie.
00:01:28.000Don't miss this heartening conversation about family and faith with Bishop W.C.
00:01:32.000Martin, the real-life inspiration for the upcoming Angel Studios and DailyWirePlus film The Sound of Hope.
00:01:36.000Welcome back to another episode of the Sunday Special.
00:01:39.000Fisher Martin, thank you so much for taking the time.
00:02:01.000Well, it was my wife started this, you know, because after the death of her mother and all of that, she wanted to do, she said that the Lord spoke with her and told her to give back.
00:02:16.000Uh, to a child that doesn't have what her mother gave them.
00:02:21.000And it was kind of hard convincing me in the beginning, but after I saw that she wasn't going to give up, I decided that it was been at my best interest, you know, to go ahead on and follow suit with what she wanted to do.
00:02:34.000And once we got in, I mean, my whole life changed because I did not know that all this was going on.
00:02:43.000For me to see life, the beauty of life, and to look at what I have witnessed in the eyes and the mind and how the abuse and the neglect and the turmoil that have happened.
00:03:00.000If anybody have any love of God in their heart at all, This will definitely do something to you, inwardly.
00:03:07.000This will open you up to the point to understand.
00:04:40.000The idea of bringing in a child into the dynamic that I have with my kids, the amount of attention, the amount of love and care Here's the sad part.
00:04:47.000have to lavish on somebody who's already had such damage done to them. The dynamic of the
00:04:52.000family that's so changed. Can you talk about all of that?
00:04:56.000Here's the sad part. My biological son was born with severe brain damage. Now, if you
00:05:04.000think about it, why would you bring in other problems when you already got a boatload right
00:05:10.000there in their own home of what you already got?
00:05:13.000But you know, sometimes I think we have to look beyond ourselves and look beyond where we are and to reach out into this world.
00:05:21.000It's more or less like what Jesus did for us and the suffering that he went through for us that we may have a better life and a greater life.
00:05:29.000The trauma of bringing a child in your home.
00:06:16.000And I think that the answer is, is that God said, I'm coming to the least because I'm bringing the least in.
00:06:24.000And I'm coming to those don't have no ulterior motive, but to show love and compassion and wisdom and knowledge and allow them to have the freedom to have a mother and a father.
00:06:37.000Because if you ever come to Plasma Tribe, which I wish you would come, You will see ain't nothing out there but just woods.
00:06:55.000And I thank God today that he has given us a purpose in life that we can show this world that if I can do it in Possum Tribe, you can do it anywhere in this country.
00:07:07.000So Bishop, maybe you can talk a little bit about the kids that you adopted.
00:07:19.000I had to, you know, almost be a policeman in my own household.
00:07:24.000My first adopted son, he went in the bathroom one day and he gone He was going to burn up the garbage, but he lit the fire right there in the bathroom.
00:07:34.000And I just happened to walk down the hallway and saw my bathroom on fire.
00:07:38.000And lo and behold, it didn't burn the house down because I caught it in time.
00:07:42.000My first adopted daughter, she was still like you wouldn't believe.
00:07:48.000And I think that what it was, they had been hungry, and she had to feed her little brother, so she had to steal food downstairs, and she developed this habit of stealing.
00:07:58.000But the thing of it is, I don't fault her.
00:08:05.000This was like opposed upon her, that she didn't deserve that.
00:08:10.000But it was imposed upon her that this would happen.
00:08:14.000But she learned, and when we first got both of them, My wife showed her to the cabinet and showed her, look at the food we got.
00:08:24.000Open the icebox, look at the food we got.
00:08:27.000We ain't already heard about that she was a very good thief, that she could really steal and make you believe it because she was so cute and she could look in your eyes and make you believe it, that she was not guilty.
00:08:39.000And all the time, that little girl was guilty as I don't know what.
00:09:30.000I look at some of the trauma that they go through, and I'm wondering how would we fit in a category of going through so much hardship and so much trauma, not knowing where you're going to get your next meal in.
00:09:44.000And a child that goes through some stuff like that, man, it's got to be criminal for any child to experience a life like that.
00:09:53.000So, obviously, this story started with you and your wife, but then it expanded dramatically in your community.
00:10:05.000What exactly happened to turn your community into, effectively speaking, the adoption capital of the United States?
00:10:11.000When we got our first two, there was one boy, a little boy that came in before, we were the second one to get.
00:10:17.000The first little boy that came in, my wife's sister got him, and his name was Nino.
00:10:22.000And Nino came in, and then a month or two later, we ended up getting Tyler and Mercedes.
00:10:30.000And when we got Tyler and Mercedes, then we carried them to the church, and everybody was, the members started saying, how did y'all do that?
00:10:37.000So, they said, we would like to do this.
00:10:41.000But we can't, we had to drive 120 miles round trip to take in Texas what they call pride classes.
00:10:50.000And we did that, and we had to take like about 16 weeks of it.
00:10:53.000You go to class every week, and they teach you how to deal with hard, with children.
00:10:59.000So after we did that, we got a little boy and a little girl, and getting them, members start saying, we would like to do that, but we can't drive no 120 miles to take no classes.
00:11:09.000So, I went to the state and asked them, would they be willing to teach classes in our church?
00:11:16.000And the lady told me, she said, well, if you can get me eight families, I'd be willing to teach a class.
00:11:22.000But when I done, I found out that adoption was not a man-made thing.
00:12:15.000So I just started preaching about it and telling them, and I mean, I started preaching like a crazy man up there about adoption and letting people know the beauty of it.
00:12:24.000And how God adopted us and brought us back into a loving family, into His royal family.
00:12:29.000And the church caught it, and they caught on.
00:12:32.000And when I went back to the state, they asked for eight families.
00:12:36.000The first time, I gave them 13 families who was willing to adopt.
00:12:41.000The second time, I gave them the rest, which made up 23 families that adopted, and we ended up with 77 children in a small church.
00:13:25.000But if you stay in the process, if you just stay with it and stay with God.
00:13:30.000He's gonna make it right, and he's gonna bring you through it.
00:13:33.000So today, we don't have anymore in the community that I know of, because some got their own homes now, and some of them in college have gone on and made careers out of what they've done, and realized that they are somebody now.
00:13:49.000They got an identity, and this is what we need to do.
00:13:53.000We address ourselves with God, and He's looking at us as being His children.
00:13:58.000So God want us to do the same thing, to reach out and bring these children out of this system and to teach them and to show them.
00:14:07.000And my question is to a lot of people, how do a child know what love is when no one never taught them love?
00:14:13.000How do a person, a child know what a mother and a father is when they don't understand because they've never been taught?
00:14:21.000We got to reach and get them, teach them, show them, demonstrate it.
00:14:26.000And let them be a part of our family, because this is what God is calling for the church to do.
00:14:33.000We'll get to more with Bishop Martin in just one moment.
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00:15:46.000Well, you must have an extraordinary community.
00:15:48.000Can you talk about the families in your community?
00:15:49.000Because obviously you're talking about the fact that it's not a rich community, it's not a prominent community, but it must be an unbelievably special community to have so many parents who are willing to open their homes like that and to hear what you're talking about in terms of biblical morality and then change their lives so radically.
00:16:07.000Well, the community is a very, very poor community.
00:16:12.000But instead of looking at what we did not have, We looked at what we had, and I believe to my soul, and I saw this work, it looked like every time our back got against the wall, God made a way for us.
00:16:30.000It looked like to me that, and I was one to start this, so whenever there was a problem, even in the schools, They had problems even in the school, and I had to kind of visit all the schools that put fires out all over Shelby County because the kids were disrupted.
00:16:47.000They were doing stuff and their parents couldn't do it, but I had to go in and make a difference in the lives of children.
00:16:54.000The community itself rallied around everybody.
00:16:59.000If we called in the people from Children Protective Services, they were like about 60 miles each way from us.
00:17:06.000So we had to develop our own wraparound support group, our own wraparound.
00:17:11.000We'd done that, and when there was a problem came up, we got together in the church, and we worked it out.
00:17:24.000If there was a parent who was really going through, We, my wife and I, went and picked that child up and brought him in our home and gave the parents a break.
00:17:34.000I don't believe that no one be willing to do anything like that today when you already got problems in your home, that you got your adopted children, then I got my son, my biological son, with the problems he's got.
00:17:45.000I don't believe for one to do anything like that.
00:17:47.000I'm just crazy enough to believe that if we step out in faith, and show the love of God and demonstrate that God will never leave us by ourselves.
00:17:57.000I'm just crazy enough to believe that we will have the victory in the name of Jesus.
00:18:02.000So, Bishop, what was it like finding out that a major studio like Angel was going to be making a movie about you, about your community?
00:18:33.000In fact, to be honest with you, we never did get in this in the beginning for no publicity.
00:18:40.000We were just doing what we thought people would do.
00:18:42.000So to find out where all the struggles and all the things, and then here it is, 10 years since we started in the movie business, that they started working on our stuff.
00:18:51.000Josh and Rebecca started 10 years ago, and here we are.
00:18:56.000In 2024, God done showed up and letting this country know, y'all get ready, because something is gonna hit this country that's gonna just turn this whole place around, because there's so much good stuff inside that movie that's gonna teach people, even getting along with one another, helping us, and even removing racism and all of this different stuff, all of that is involved in the movie, and how we ought to care for the most vulnerable, Just like Jesus cared for us and showing us His greatness every day of our life.
00:19:32.000You are here today because, and everyone else is here, because God's grace and mercy have kept us through all of our heartaches and sins, and we're still heartaches, just like the children.
00:19:45.000Open up your door and say, come on in.
00:19:48.000So, are there any memorable moments during the filming or during this entire, you said, decade-long production process that stand out to you?
00:19:55.000There are a couple of things in this movie.
00:19:58.000We don't call it a movie, we call it a movement of God.
00:20:01.000During the time that the bishop called everybody, they was going through so much, and we've been through that, and he called everybody to come and stand around the cross.
00:20:14.000We sing our songs that it was at the cross, at the cross.
00:20:18.000When I first saw the light, and the burdens of my heart would roll away, it was there by faith I received my sight, and now I'm happy all day.
00:20:27.000We sing this song a lot of times, but I'm gonna tell you something about standing around that cross, where Jesus died, makes a big difference.
00:20:35.000When he called everybody to the cross, and began to pray, and began to seek God for the strength of the peoples who are really going through, because there was at a point, All of us one time had thought about giving up, but when we got together and prayed, and had prayer, and prayed for one another, because prayer still works, and when we did that, that was one beautiful scene to me that turned this whole thing around.
00:21:07.000And then when we looked at the end, Where all of the families, the real families, got together and had a party.
00:21:19.000Because what that did, that demonstrated all of the trouble, all of the pain, all of the heartache, and at the end of the road, there's sunshine.
00:21:29.000Everybody coming together and just enjoying themselves and eating and rejoicing and thanking God for what He's done for us.
00:21:37.000And even the children, they are grown.
00:23:16.000Even some of the parents that are adopted, they're going on home to be with the Lord, but the children still are there.
00:23:24.000And they come back home, and they come and recognize, and still believe, and still say, if it had not been for them, we don't know where we'd be.
00:23:34.000We did a screening in Dallas, Texas, here a few weeks ago, and one of the adopted children was there.
00:24:22.000That's what happened when we reached out.
00:24:25.000To be honest with you, we don't know what's locked in that system.
00:24:29.000We got preachers and teachers and we got psychiatrists and we got, I mean, we got everything locked in the system, but it will never come out until we reach in and bring them out.
00:26:05.000And I really believe that this movement, The Sound of Hope, The Possum Trot Story, is going to cause hundreds and thousands of children to find a lovely home, to know that there was not God's will in the beginning.
00:26:23.000It was just a neglect and oversight on the lives of people.
00:26:27.000So, Bishop, obviously very few people have dealt with the foster system the way that you've dealt with the foster system.
00:26:33.000For those like me who don't know much about the foster system and how it actually operates, what are the biggest problems with the way that the foster system is currently operating?
00:26:41.000I think that the state needs to re-examine what they did.
00:26:49.000And the way things were set up 40 years ago, it's not going to work today.
00:26:55.000We're in a different time, in a different season, in a different era.
00:26:58.000You're going to have to change with time.
00:27:00.000And if you're using the same rules and the same thing that happened with my great-great-grandmama and all that kind of stuff, that is not going to work.
00:27:24.000I think parents should be streamlined.
00:27:26.000I think that they should have a good record.
00:27:29.000I think that they should have the type of mindset that if I bring this child in my home, it is my responsibility to raise that child and love that child and to help that child through life.
00:27:41.000But if you don't, if you make it hard, If the state make it hard, people are going to walk around and say, look, I can't deal with making this hard.
00:27:52.000That's why I thank God for the caseworker that we had.
00:27:57.000She was one of them kind of caseworkers that she called right, right, and wrong, wrong.
00:28:01.000Just because a child walked up and told her, look, I want to be moved.
00:28:16.000And we had one who just bought into all of that.
00:28:19.000You can't do it like that, because these children do lie, and they do a good job of it, and they'll make you believe what they are saying.
00:28:28.000The foster system needs to be revamped and needs to be revived, where people are able, good folks, good families, Christian homes, can be able to get these children out.
00:28:39.000If the state want the children out, then don't make it so difficult that people want to give up before they even get started.
00:29:32.000When we got Mercedes and Tyler, the first thing my wife told him, said, look, I know you've been in nine homes in one year, but I'm gonna let you know right now, this, the last train to Georgia, you will not be leaving out of this house.
00:29:45.000But you know, I look at this thing from a different way.
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00:31:19.000You know, Bishop, one of the things that comes through so clearly, not only when you're talking, but also in the movie, is that, you know, it's very easy for people in society to say things like, well, let's just go do some good.
00:31:28.000But without an orientation toward God, this stuff just doesn't happen.
00:31:33.000Until you have a community that's oriented toward fulfilling God's will, you can tell people to be as nice as you want, tell people to be as giving as you want to tell them to be, but people are very unlikely to take that step unless they believe firmly in a higher power that believes in them and has given them the ability to do something.
00:32:47.000The purpose of God and everything, the Bible said everything that God done was good.
00:32:53.000And in the good, there was purpose developed in that good.
00:32:58.000And when I was raised up, you know, little barefoot boy, you know, and getting into everything and stealing watermelons and all of that kind of stuff out of people's garden, you know, cause I paid the price for it dearly.
00:33:14.000But the thing of it is, I never dreamed That here I am, a 77-year-old man, in a place that I am right now.
00:33:45.000So when you got people, and when you are preaching and demonstrating the power and the love of God in the life of people, and that they begin to catch that vision, They would know then I can do all things through Christ Jesus that strengthens me.
00:34:21.000Let's open up our hearts, our mind, and our home and say, I don't care what's there.
00:34:27.000I'm going to go out here and do the will of God.
00:34:29.000And I guarantee you, when you do it, you're going to see the movement of God in your life like never before.
00:34:37.000It's easy for us to look at the one that we got.
00:34:41.000But don't you know that we ought to be Christ-like?
00:34:44.000He went all out of his way for somebody else, and that's the same thing we ought to be doing today.
00:34:49.000Bishop, one of the extraordinary things about what you've done and the movie and everything else is that we live in a time in America where there's so much focus on, say, race and divisions based on race.
00:34:59.000What you've talked about this entire time is just about doing God's good, doing the virtuous and the right thing because God said to do that.
00:35:31.000So I don't understand why is it that an individual We're just like another individual because his hair is not right or not the same color or nothing.
00:35:44.000All this stuff is man-made, but he is the kicker.
00:35:48.000Jesus died for the sin and for the ungodliness.
00:35:54.000And he died that we may have a right to the tree of life.
00:38:10.000I've seen it, can't wait for it to hit theaters, so millions of people across the country can see it, engage, make the world a better place.
00:38:18.000God bless you, and we're praying that this movie will reach the hearts of many and bring hundreds and thousands of children and give them a right to live the same thing that God wants them to have.