The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 397: Bishop W.C. Martin—Hope in Possum Trot

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

Bishop Martin and his wife Donna were the inspiration for the film Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot, which details their miraculous journey navigating the foster care system in a small Texas town and how they inspired the parishioners of Bennet Chapel Church to adopt 77 children. Bishop Martin speaks to how this unlikely story became a book and a movie and how it all was accurately prophesized in advance. 

It's the way I heard it. And I'm Mike Roe. And there's hope in possum trot, if you haven't heard. In fact, this episode is called hope in possum trot. Because, I mean, I think it works no matter how you say it, Chuck. There's a lot to be hopeful about if you go to possum trot. And if you don't go to possum trot, you should put your hope in possum trot based on recent events. Well, I would say, yeah, you want to hope that what happened at Bennett Chapel Church in possum trot

spreads throughout the country and other churches get involved and sort of help solve the foster care problem in this country. Shouldn't take but a minute. There are only 400,000 kids stuck in this giant, I don't even know what to call it, a my asthma. Bureaucracy, maybe. Yeah, yeah. This really came to my, got on my radar during returning the favor four or five years ago, did a story on the Isaiah House. And I just, was just blown away by everything, like the bureaucracy, the scope of the problem. Why is this so insanely bad? Why are so many people willing to adopt, but unable to adopt, through the foster care system? You know, part of the answer probably is because people are in charge

of the well-being of these kids who, in many cases, have already been abused, and the last thing you want to see them do is wind up in the wrong household or further abused or so forth and so on. But because of that, that tension, so many just go neglected. And it's just, I mean, look, if it sounds heavy, it's because it is. And the reason we're doing an episode on this is because there's a movie that I just watched called The Sound of Hope, which you've watched, and which happily a lot of people have watched. And it just tells this incredible story of what happened when a real-life bishop, a reverend named W.C. Martin. got fired up and decided to challenge his congregation to follow his example. He and his wife Donna adopted a kid and then another one.

And long story short, this congregation answered the call. And how many were adopted? 77 in the community. And they basically, like the social worker, you know, Susan. Susan, right, who was helping them to adopt all these people. They ran out of kids. Yeah, they just ran out of kids. So, I mean, they kind of solved the foster care problem in a little tiny town you've never been to called Possum Trot in East Texas, a very, very poor community full of bighearted people who just decided they were going to do something about it.

So Angel Studios and the Daily Wire partnered and they made this movie and now it's a thing. It's worth your time. The acting's extraordinary. The story is great. I mean, it's just. And true. Yeah. So we thought.

But it would be fun. I mean, full disclosure, the acting is so good, we reached out to some of the actors to see if they want to, you know, come on and talk about what it was like to be a part of this thing. It looked a little deeper and it was like, wait a minute, I think the actual guy is available upon whom the entire thing is based. You're about to meet a real-life bishop named W.C. Martin. And he's about as original a guest as we've ever had, I think. and as authentic. And full disclosure, trigger warning. You're going to hear some preaching. You're going to hear a man unfiltered talking with what's fair to say a great enthusiasm about a cause he feels compelled and led to pursue. Yeah, and he just sees himself as a conduit getting God's word out. And he lays it on us.

And the authentic word that you used before is one. that really, really fits WC because, and let me just say that I could listen to him all day. I could listen to him all day. Everything that he said, I was just drinking up. I just thought he's full of wisdom or he's channeling God. Either way, there's hope and possum trot. They've set the marker pretty high for a pretty serious issue. And my only regret about the conversation you're about to hear is that we couldn't include

his wife, Donna, who's here with us in the studio. but we just didn't have the hardware to bring her in, but the story's as much hers as his. It originated with her, yeah. Doesn't happen without her. So it's really a story of a very happy marriage, a couple of devoted mates who are deep, deep into their church and into their community and have done something that right now stands as a challenge, I think, to every other church and every other organized religion in this country. And like you say, he's fun to talk to.

Yeah. Because no matter how you slice it, there is hope in possum trot right after this. Do do do do do do do do do. Is it weird to love people but despise human resources? If so, well, color me weird. It's not to say I don't respect the millions of people who work in HR departments and companies all over the country. I do. It's just that I don't envy him.

That's why MicroWorks doesn't have an HR department for better or worse. And it's also why I use ZipRecruiter whenever we need to expand. ZipRecruiter has proven themselves a million times over by helping countless employers get through the hiring process faster and more effectively than ever before. And now they have a new feature that instantly shows you the most interested, the most passionate, and the most qualified candidates first. This is a huge time saver. Hours and hours of save time. And it helps people like me find the people who can function in a non-traditional work environment like microworks. In other words, ZipRecruiter works for me, and they'll probably work for you too.

Post a job for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash row. And watch what happens. Odds are you'll find a human resource that just happens to be a great fit for your company in 24 hours or less. ZipRecruiter.com slash row. ZipRecruiter.com slash row. The smartest way to hire. Bishop, is it fair to say if the first lady's happy, we can begin? We can begin.

Excellent. Thank you so much for coming all the way from Possum Trot, East Texas, right? East Texas, yeah. What a time you're having. I don't know how to answer that question, but it's one of them, Way out trying in the blue yonder time, you know. It's one of them times that you come against so many things you don't expect. And then when you get there, you find out, well, I don't know if I want to do it.

And now, then once you get that, say, you know, this is all right here. It's just an up and down situation with a touch and go. So I learned except one day at a time. When you start a sermon, do you know how it's going to end? Like, do you know what's going to come out of your mouth on a Sunday morning from the minute you open it? or do you kind of take the temperature of the room and maybe call an audible along the way? How's your brain work when you're up there preaching? My brain has a direct connection in heaven.

And those angels who is feeding my thoughts and mind with the word to say, because a lot of times, you know, although I have one thing on paper, a lot of time the Spirit of the Lord take me clean away from that paper and just show me on it. because I think the Spirit of Lord fit the congregation and the mindset of the people. So it's going to come in and direct my mind. And I thought, where the message would go direct to be a blessing to them to help them. There may be somebody out there who is going through a lot.

Then the Lord is going to show things in the word as we stand up there that. We need to classify that and show them their way out of that or how they can be helped. So I never know what the end is going to be. It's just like starting church. We know what time we're going to stop. We don't know what time we're going to end. Well, you know what? It's a lot like a podcast.

That's right. What's the difference between a bishop, a preacher, a reverend? Is there one? In the New Testament church, that's five-fold ministry to be operated in. Because the bishop is not in the five-fold, I don't think, but the preacher and they teach you. Each function have its own platform. In other words, there are spiritual elevation in the spirit, just like you. You work hard here, and then you get a promotion on your job.

In the church, it's the same way. God promotes us because of our work and our faithfulness. So he elevates us to different realms of his anointing. There's a realm that we have to go higher and higher higher. If you're doing a work for God, he always got a plan that you don't know anything about, that he want to carry your truth. It's kind of like some went and some were sent. When you are went, you pick up your own tab, but when you are sent,

God pick up the tab. So it's so amazing how this thing works out. God always have a remnant that he's going to carry his people to an area because he said, I know the plan that I have for your life. So he already know the plan. We don't know the plan, but God knows the plan. So that's the difference in him. There's different stages in the arena and at God's arena and on his agenda that we go to.

What he did in Possumtrod, it's difficult to believe, right? Like if you just read it on the page, you say to yourself, wow, that's an amazing thing. And the first time I heard the story, I did think, boy, what a terrific movie this would make. But Hollywood's not going to make this movie. And then my buddy Chuck here said, well, you got to see this, Mike, this sound of hope thing. And I watched it about a week ago. And it's difficult to know where to begin with this. But like the Bible says, in the beginning, it's a pretty interesting place to start. And the fact that, this miracle happened in a place like possum trot. I think maybe we ought to start there. Tell our listeners what possum trot is, why it's named possum trot, where all the possum's got to, and if anybody's still trotting. Well, we trot every week. I don't know if it's possum that's trotten out there's human, but puffs trotter is a little old place way back off in the woods of East Texas and the Clayhills of Wood, Texas. Nothing but woods down there.

And, you know, you had families and stuff here and them. And somebody would say, wonder why would God start a movement in Possum Trot? Well, there's a biblical answer for that. And what I have learned that God have always go to the low places. He never went to the big, you're rich and the famous. He always come to low places. For an example, look at Mary for an example. She was just a little country girl, young girl,

half-foot girl in the country because Jerusalem was just a little old country town. That's all it was. So he always come and start something so miraculous. Look at Moses on the back wood. He's back there in the woods back there. There's a sheep herd of doing different things. And even David for an example, you know, just a little shepherd boy. So God never reaches for the big. And I think one of the reason is because we don't want to be like a rich young ruler. F.T. went out there and and gathered all his stuff and said, Lord, look what I done done. I'm going to tell these little buns down and I'm going to build me some bigger bun. I'm going to eat drink and be merry. I think God want to go to the people that he feels that he can trust,

that he knows going to be able to handle whatever he labeled from. Possible Trial was a place that God came to because he feels that somewhere and somehow we was going to do benevolent. We're not going to back up. We were going to go in head on, ready to go to work to do what God wants to do. You know, it's so amazing, too. Anything God orchestrate that's always, going to be a fight. The enemy is going to always fight against you. He's always going to find a way to make you feel like, why am I doing? This is so crazy. I ain't got nobody to doing it. Let somebody will do it. And this is what in the mindset of a lot of people are now. I'm not going to adopt them to them. Because they're too bad, they're too dishing. But in the most part, you know, if you look

at it real, all of us been adopted. And you can't get away from that. So I think that possible to try, God, he just amazes me the way he do things. So a lot of times I say, Lord, why do you come down here? I mean, we were satisfied because we don't have nothing here. We have absolutely nothing. We ain't got no family life centers. We don't have this. We don't have no playground.

And still don't have it. But I don't look at what we don't have. I look at what we got. We got a church and we got the love of God. And that's what makes the difference. In the movie, the point's made pretty early on that you don't know you're poor until somebody tells you. And even then, it's just a work. It doesn't mean much of anything.

And I think it was your wife who articulated that. I mean, for me, I was very lucky. I grew up middle class. At least I thought I did. Wasn't until later that I realized that we really didn't have very much at all, but I felt very rich as a child. I saw that movie, and I saw the portrayal, and I thought, oh, my goodness, those poor people.

But then I thought, what am I saying? They don't know. They don't think of themselves. any way other than I did. That was the first thing in the movie that I really, really loved. And then I loved how hard it was. I loved how hard it was for your wife to deal with her mom's death. And I loved how hard it was for you to get your head around the idea that maybe you should

just adopt a child at that point. Nothing was easy. And that's why I wasn't so sure about the movie. first because I thought if they sugarcoat this, if they just make it seem like, oh, look at these nice people in this little town you never heard of, they're going to adopt 77 kids and they all live happily ever after. Bologna. It was a tough road, man.

And I admire it. It was very difficult. And I feel like this. If everything was easy, you better examine yourself. And you better examine is God in it. Because if it's easy. that letting you know that the enemy is satisfied with it. If you got to go against the grain,

if you got to fight your way through, like the Bible said, be a good soldier in the armies and a soldier's trained to fight. This is what we do. We train our people to fight in the spirit, not in the natural. Because these things like this, you can't do it in the natural. You've got to have the power of God. You've got to trust God and you've got to believe God.

Soldiers are also told followers. Right. Right. Chain of command. Yeah, chain of command. You know, follow me as I follow Christ. They were what Paul tells us to do. So it was nothing simple.

It was nothing sweet. I ain't going to tell nobody a lot. Don't tell you know him gave me hell. And I tell anybody they did, you know. And because they didn't know no better. They only act the way what they know. They didn't understand and did not know. You bring a child in your home five years old, six years old, seven years or eight years.

year, their little mind has already been spreaded out so thin until they don't know right from wrong. They don't know what love is or mother and a father else. So you have to begin to transform their life. You got to reach in their little brains and pull stuff out. But every time you pull something bad out or negative out, you put something good back. And if you don't do that, that child going to grow up, get on the street, kill somebody, hurt somebody, going to kill himself.

So Possum Trott was where the nice things were and people struggled. All those families, they struggled really bad. But we succeeded because we wouldn't give up. And the key to the whole thing is staying with the process. You know, it's easy for us to talk this. And I'm glad they did the movie like this

to let people know, hey, look, it wasn't easy in the Possible Trial, but ever successful. Because why? They stayed with the process. The process, we want the end results of it, but we don't want to deal with the process of it. And this is going to be a process, I don't care what you do. Man, I was laying in bed this morning, it felt so good,

and it was nice and cool in the room, and I didn't want to get up. And I said, Lord, I need to get up, I don't want it. But then I laid off a few more, I don't want to get up. But to see what the process for me to get up, because I had work to do. And this is what we don't want to face the process. We want the joy, but we don't want to go through the process. but we don't want to go through the process. I want to ask you about the process of picking out that outfit.

Did Donna play a role in this? Did she say, today, W.C., I want to see you in the bib overalls, but we're going to meet Mike Rose, so maybe you put on a blazer anyway. Or did you just say, no, I'm going to rock the blazer today, and please explain. I got her and put on what I wanted to put on. And that was it. I mean, it wasn't no discussion. I felt like when I left Texas, I packed over.

I said, this is what I'm going to wear. My clothes and I'm going to wear a jacket. That's all I'm going to wear. That's it. You know, because I feel more comfortable with these overall. Now, don't ask me what the idea come from because my daddy was a farm, but he never wore overawls, you know. And I just picked up these overall, you know, some months ago, and I've started wearing them, and I've been wearing them ever since.

What kind of farms you grow up on? We raised corn and peas and ochreys, tomatoes and chickens and hogs and stuff like that because in my house, we were so poor, living back off in the woods. We didn't even know. I put it to you like that. I was 12 years old for I knew that a chicken had more than a foot and a neck. I don't even know what that means, but that's funny.

Because he never saw a breast or a thigh. It was all just necks and feet. That's all I saw. I mean, I was happy to get them necks. I mean, because it was good. You know what I'm saying? You didn't have a choice because I had nine other brothers and one sister in the house.

They picked the litter. had to get what was left because I'm next to the baby. Wait, wait, wait. You had nine brothers, one sister. That's 11 of you all together. Uh-huh. 10. Nine and one. Okay, I'm one of the nine.

Oh, you're one of the nine. I see. Ten. That's a good number. Well, it's no wonder you adopted a thousand kids. So how important was work ethic? Was that a lesson that your folks tried to instill, or was it just kind of baked in to the boy you were and the man you became?

It was baked in because then my dad was not going to be in that field and you laying up with a fan in your hand fan because we didn't have nothing else. You know, you didn't have no lecture stuff like that. So we had to get out there in that field and work. And what it was doing also in my home, you just didn't eat. You had to do something to earn your keeps. And all of us, little boys, if we didn't, we weren't out there in the field. We was out there in some bushes somewhere, picking berries. and plums and selling them for whatever, you know, wrecking somebody yard.

I mean, to me, I wanted money. I love money, and I don't know the way I was going to get it. I had to work for it. You know, what we used to do, Mike, you give me a dollar, and I go in and get me a hundred pennies, you know, and I'd be walking around shaking it in my pocket. I hate money, you know, and I was rich, you know, and that's what I thought. But the thing of it is, it was teaching me all the time.

If a man don't work, he don't eat. So it taught me. then, and I've been working all of my life. I can truly say I've been working all my life. But I never stole. I'm not a drug addict. I'm not an alcoholic, none of that stuff. I can't stand that stuff.

I used to try to smoke a little rabbit tobacco, but that didn't agree with me either. Rabbit tobacco? Yeah. What's that? Well, there's a little bush you got out there in the woods out there and you light it up, but that stuff tastes it so horrible. It's unreal. I tried that, but that didn't work out too good either.

So I kind of reserved myself to be what I am now. I think God had a shield and a protection because in my family we have four preachers, four brothers started preaching. We had a group called the Martin brothers and we sung all over the country and out of that seven brothers with four preachers. Wait a minute. Four preachers out of the same family. Yeah. And was it your other three brothers that sang with you? Yep.

They were the preachers. They were the preachers too. Four singing preachers? Yeah. What was the group called? The Martin brothers. What kind of song? I'm guessing

Gospel. What's the greatest gospel song ever written? In my opinion, I love the old hymns. Jesus keep me near the cross. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

That saved a wretch like me. Now, that one, you can sing that one any time because that becomes personal. Because it was grace, God grace, that brought me out of darkness

into the marvelous light. And if it had not been for grace, I wouldn't be here today. And you wouldn't be here today. And what makes it so beautiful, it's so amazing. God grace is so amazing because it looked beyond our faults and it sees our needs. That's what makes it so amazing. Well, people are still raving, raving, I tell you, about my mother's performance in the latest Pure Talk commercial.

And if you haven't seen it, I encourage you to give it a look on my Facebook page and read the comments. They're hysterical. In this commercial, you'll not only see Peggy Roe gently criticizing her oldest son for his longstanding and well-established commitment issues, you'll learn about the latest offer from Pure Talk, which includes unlimited talk, text, and data for just $34.99 a month, with no contracts and no commitments of any kind. You can see why I love these guys. If, on the other hand, you have better things to do with your time, then watch my mom and me be impossibly charming together, then allow me to remind you, here, without all the cleverness and charm, that unlimited talk, text, and data on a blazing, fast network for just 3499 a month, really is an unmitigated bargain from an American wireless company that keeps all their customer service in this country, supports our veterans in a meaningful way, as well as the MicroWorks Foundation, and allows me to exploit my own mother in a national advertising campaign. Do what my mom did. Get yourself unlimited high-speed data for just 3499 a month at puretalk.com slash row.

You can switch in as little as 10 minutes at puretalk.com slash row. Pure Talk. My nana, my grandmother, we had this conversation once about Amazing Grace. And she said the thing about it that amazed her was that you could take the words to Amazing Grace. and you could put them against the song. You'll remember this song. It was the theme song of Coca-Cola, right? I'd like to teach the world to sing.

Well, yeah, you can take Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost and now I'm found. But you can also go the other way. You can take the theme song of Coca-Cola, and you can put that onto Amazing Grace. So it's, I'd like to teach the world. world to sing in perfect harmony.

So, like, a great song can be moved into a different melody. But Amazing Grace stands all by itself. It has the grabbing of what singing is all about. Because, see, when I grew up, we didn't know what music was. So we used to walk around in the house and just sing an amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, because that was a song that if anybody were looking to it, that song had so much meaning behind it. See, the word grace is an unmerited favor of God. In other words, when you start thinking about grave, when Paul told God, he said, Father,

he said, I got a thorn in my flesh. And God said, I'm not going to move it. He told Jesus, I'm not going to move it. He said, but my grace is a fisher. Now, what he was saying to Paul was, look, although you got that thorn in your flesh, I don't have to move that thorn out of your flesh in order for you to do my will. When you get her to do my will, you've got my favor on your life to carry out my will. And all of us got some thorns. It may not be the same thing, but we all got some thorn, but we don't look at the thorn. We look at the one that's giving us the grace to carry out his will, and that's all we're here for. Now, this is the Paul on the roads of Damascus that we're talking about? That's the Paul. That's like the pebble in the shoe, right? You

put a thorn in the side, a pebble in the shoe, a little something to remind yourself. Mind you. That's what it was. See, that's what Paul said. You know, this was to remind Paul, and some said that Paul was blind and only the master's role. And when God, when Jesus spoke to him, they said that nobody else heard Paul. But something so amazing about that, because Paul answered, he said, who are thou Lord? He said, I'm the one in whom thou persecute. If you look at that, I really believe that Paul had an inkling of who Jesus was in the beginning. Because why would he address him as Lord? Think about it.

What kind of songs did you sing? I know it was gospel songs, but was it like four-part harmony? Yeah, three-part. We had guitars, drums. Occasionally we had keyboard because my daughter went and played for some time. So at what point do you meet your wife in this whole thing? Someone had invited us to a church in a place called East Hamilton. That's on the other side of Potsam Trot.

And we went down there that Sunday, and we did a program down there. Then they invited us to be in a chapel. And then we came up there with one Sunday evening. And when she walked in the door and I saw her, in my own mind, I said, I'm a mayor of her. In my own mind, I can't tell nobody that. I had an inkling. And it taken already three years. But God brought it to pass.

I feel like that God did this and brought this to pass for such a time as this. Because, see, we have short-range plan, but God got long-range plan because he knows the plan that he has for our life. So this was all part of his will and his plan for us to get married. And you know I near will forget it. We had set the date to get married. I worked in a steel meal. and about 80 pounds fell on my foot. That should have been cut off.

But God kept it on and it healed. And we were set to date and I couldn't walk. I couldn't walk with no shoe on. Her daddy said that he don't need to wear no shoe. I'll come and pick him up and bring him in here. But he was a little fella, you know, and I was a big guy, you know, I don't think he was going to be able to do that. You're not getting out of it.

That ain't going to work there. That ain't going to get work there. So we reset the date. And one of my brothers who was singing in the group, He was preaching at time and pastor. He came to possum trot, and we got married in possum tribe. What's the difference between preaching and pastor? A whole lot.

Yeah? You can preach and go. A pastor got to stay there and deal with all the headaches in the past. Preach and go? Sounds like a fast food restaurant. Come on by the preach and go. Yeah, a preacher can come in there. It's like an evangelist.

He'll come in and preach, and once he gets through preaching, he's gone. But a pastor is there to watch over the flock. Jeremiah said, I would give you pastors after my own heart that would feed you with knowledge and understand them. In the New Testament, they had shepherds. Some shepherds sit there all night long, watch over the sheep, protect him from danger. So the pastor is the one who ought to sound the alarm. In other words, he's the watchman on the wall. He's watching over the souls in the church and making sure that the enemy don't slip in through a crack or come in their back door. And you know, it's one thing I'm telling you, it's amazing.

Pastorial leadership, we got too many preachers in the pulpit opposed to pastors. I was just about to say it sounds like a pastor is a preacher with an actual job. Yeah, he got a job, you know. See, nowadays in this new generation, this millennium generation, preacher, well, I'm going to get me a church and I'm going to help me a great big old church. That could not be your calling. It could be your calling to be an evangelist. But you're going to step out of your calling and try to pastor,

And then it's going to be hell because you're going to be doing some stuff and anybody going to be involved in a lot of stuff. And that's not the way God wanted to be. Everybody needs to stay in their own lane. There's a scene in the movie where you, as portrayed by Demetrius, right? And by the way, man, what did you think of his performance? That's the question. What did it feel like sitting there the first time you saw you in him?

Well, I think that Dimitri did an exceptionally good job. God bunied us together because we spent about two hours together. First time we met, we prayed, we talked. I kind of gave him me and who I wore. But then again, my daughter was there because the quiet that they had, that was my daughter sitting on the keyboard. I wasn't there. So when he'd do something, they'll come to her and say,

well, this is what your day to do? She'll tell him, yes, you know or not. So he did an exceptionally good job. And it was amazing for me to sit there and look at this guy portray me. I mean, he had this serious look. And he had this serious attack and diplomacy about himself. And to me, it was more difficult for him to play a preacher. And not only just a preacher, a pastor, not only that, but a charismatic type preacher.

That too much soup in that one bowl. that you got to mix up together and accept. And this guy mixed it up well and done a good job. Too much soup in the bowl. That is actually, it's acting advice. Too much soup in the bowl is a common mistake that I think a lot of people make outside of the church. You could be a teacher.

You could be a steel worker. If you got too much stuff going on in your mind at the same time, At any one time, you start thinking not about what you're doing, but how you're doing. And that goes back to my first question. When you're preaching, when you're delivering a sermon, I'm just always interested in that balance between the sentence you're in the middle of right now and trying to figure out the next one you're going to say. And whether or not you even think about that. Don't even think about it. Because the Bible said that he will let the spirit live.

lead you and guide you through all things. So naturally, because God called you in that particular place, naturally he's going to feed you what he wants you to say to the people. There's a lot of times that I have prepared for one thing and getting the pool pit, and God change it, because he want to fit the personality of the people's there. He wants to give them words of encouragement. to let them know the way to go.

So it's all about him and less about you. Before I started preaching, one of the things I'm going to say, Lord, let me decrease that you might increase because I want the people to get God message and not my message. I mean, I don't even know if I can do what I do in that pulpit if God is not with me. Because man, I'm all over that place. I promise you that. I am not stable. I'm not confined to the pulpit.

I may jump, I may holler, I may run, I may do something anything because I want them to get the word. And I'm not doing this faking. I'm doing it because I feel the spirit myself. So I got to do something, you know, to help me to kind of get myself in a place where I can, it's crazy. It is. You know, and some people say, man, I'm 77 years old. And to see me move around and that pool, people think I've lost my mind and when you get all the energy you get. Well, it's not me.

That's not me. I mean, I got aches and bones, you know, and that's like anybody else. but it's not me. The spirit of the Lord is feeding my mind to feed the people. So you're singing in a group. You see her. You know you're going to marry her. You don't know when.

Which makes you wait three years. 80 pounds falls on your feet. You've got to push the date. How long have you been married as of now? I think it's what, 49. You better think real hard on this, WC. We're recording this. This is going to go down.

Donna, can you? Confirm the 49 years? August 19th. August 19th, 49. 49 years ago. When you decided to adopt, and I don't want to give too much of the movie away, it's your life, it's your story,

but you lost your mom, Donham. And that opened up, it felt like a hole, a chasm in your life. So she comes to you and she explains all of this and you love her madly, and you already have a daughter. And you have a son who was, disabled. You got challenges. Now you got a sad wife, got a beautiful daughter, you got a boy that

takes a lot of your time. When did you decide that you would adopt? Forgive me, I just got to ask this. Did you do it to keep your marriage what you needed it to be? Did you do it for her? Or did you do it because you looked at the foster care system and it broke your heart? Did you do it because God told you you'd better do it? What was the inciting incident that made it clear to you that that was the path forward? My biggest quorum in the beginning was my son, Princeton. Every man that had a boy child, especially your first child, you do not expect for him to come out with brain damage. And It was so bad that I really had a hard time with that, you know, because I wonder why would God give me a child like that? But I didn't know that God was teaching me something, a little word called patient.

And that little word called patient, because you have to be very, very patient. You can't take him fast because you try to take him face. He's going to get frustrated, get mad, and you're going to be able to teach him nothing. So you had to take him real slow, you know, and he'll get it after a while, but you're going to take you something. some time in doing that. So when she told me about that, that was the first thing hit my mind. What about Prince?

Because we got all of this stuff going on. We got, I'm working hard, you got bills due. And then adoption was kind of like I added to. Well, one thing I didn't know was all connected to adoption. I had no clue because, in fact, I didn't even know adoption was existed. Because people in the black communities have always taken.

taking care of their children. Because if something happened to mama, they were raised by their grandmama or raised by the auntie. That's the way the cycle was. But then again, when I found out, after we got involved in, then I found out, man, this thing is crazy. I think it had to be a God movement for me to get in. I wasn't able to go to the class like she wore because I was working all the time.

And I really think it was a God movement. I feel in my heart and it feels strong today 100%. that when God brought it together, it was all about God moving, just like what I brought in a marriage together. It was a God movement because he had his purpose and reason. And see, God ain't going to never just drop you out in the middle of nowhere. He always going to show you, give you some little nuggets along the way to show you that some thing. I need to tell you this, because this is crucial. We was in a little small church.

Her mother died. It was so many people in that church that one side of the church. that one side of the whole church caved in. One side of that that's separated from the wall. The floor separated from the wall. Whilst I was up preaching. Talk about a sign. That God said, hey, just wrapped us up, Bishop.

So it was so amazing to me how this thing wore. And then we had to build a church. So, you know, in the little small church, there was a woman. We did a revival, and that was a woman to come in one night. And that Friday night, she stood up to preach. And she told us, she said, this church is going to be known all over the world. She said, there's going to be newspaper article, that's going to be television, that's going to be radio, magazine.

She said, Bishop, you're going to write a book. And you're going to be on TV. You're going to write a book. It's going to be a movie. It's going to be that. She prophesied every single thing. And just like that woman said it, it came out. But did you believe her when she said.

Well, I was kind of, you know, twisted in between. I'm putting it like that. And we didn't know what was going to hide. How did she expect? And somebody members said, are she kidding? Back in these woods? Who won't come back here with a camera? But see, that's what we don't know.

So out of obedience, God brought this to pass. So it wasn't something that I was so enthused about. But the Lord had to let me know that this is his doing and it's marvelous in our lives. eye that we just had to do what he wanted us to do and because of the fact I'd obey him and this was years later years later after we did this when the woman came down when the woman preached in that church that night this was years later we didn't know anything what God was going to do to bring this to the past but he did and just like she said wait a minute she was preaching in the church before you

adopted all this came before we didn't know anything no you understand what he's I mean that's it's prophetic is what it is Yeah. Well, it's crazy. It's crazy. I mean, with respect, it's one thing I would think to look around and see, okay, the bishop and his wife have adopted a kid. And now members of the congregation have followed their example. And now we're starting to see something kind of miraculous. So now somebody comes in and says, hey, you keep doing this and mark my words, a film crew is going to come.

That kind of tracks. You're saying she was there before all this happened. In the middle of nowhere. It happened. And she stood there with a straight face and told these people, your congregation, that books would be written and films would be made and the needle would move and lives would be saved. That's what you said.

Well, are you sick of it yet? Are you sick of AIDS? AI hogging up all the headlines and sucking up all the bandwidth. You find yourself wishing we lived in a simpler time. Do you miss the rotary phone? Well, get over it. The genie is out of the bottle. The poop is out of the goose, I'm afraid.

AI is here to stay. And every business in the country is asking themselves the same question. How do we make it work for us? Well, the answer to that question varies. But you'll find it in a free guide that you can get right now at netseweet.com slash Mike. It's called demystifying AI. It's totally free. It's essential reading for anybody trying to make sense of a future that appears to have arrived yesterday. NetSuite, of course, is the number one AI enterprise resource planning software out there, trusted by over 43,000 businesses. With NetSuite,

you can use the AI of your choice, GROC or Claude or Chat, GPT, whatever else is out there to connect to your actual business data, all of it, and automate all of those tiresome, time-sucking, soul-deadening manual processes. This is AI built into the system that's currently running your business. Learn more at netseweat.com slash mic. And while you're there, pick up their free business guy,

demystifying AI. It's filled with super useful information. And again, it's free at netsuite.com slash mike. That's netsuite. What's she doing now? She's still preaching. Any other prophecies that she saw? Well, she said that, in fact, she called me here a week ago and said a lot of things

that happened that I told you. But she said, now there's going to be something even greater, even after she saw the movie. She said, God can to do something even greater with this. And what my sense is this, that God is going to use. use this as a catalyst to bring hundreds and thousands of children out of the system. That's what I believe when she said God can do something different because it was all done for the glory and honor of God for these children. It shouldn't be this like this. It shouldn't be 400,000 children in the system. Churches on every corner. If one church would adopt one child,

we can end this kid. We'll end this thing. So my. My voice is to ring out this, the tone the bell, it's time for the church to turn this thing around. Because God did not ordain nothing else but the church. And that was done on the day of Pentecost, this first and second chapter of act. This is what we should be doing right now. And those children need a home. They need this. So this woman came in and she told us all this.

So here a few weeks ago when we did the red carpet and son. She said, now God fin to do something greater. So I'm looking for the greater now, and the greater is that hundreds and thousands of children fined find a home. What's her name, this woman? Juanetta Tave. Chuck, we got to call Juanetta. I got some questions about the next couple of years. I want to get to the bottom of this.

I know it don't sound, how you may say it, naturally corrected. But God always got some. somebody, that's what a prophet does. And in the five-fold ministry, the prophet is listed in there. What's that mean? A prophet, the five-fold ministry means that God need to have all of these particulars for the New Testament church to operate properly. And in the five-four, this is the New Testament church. He's talking about the five-fold men in the New Testament church. Because he want the church to operate properly. He got a standard for the church to operate in. And if you operate out of that standard and a lot of people don't believe in it but it's the word that you

operate in the five-fold minutes you know the preachers and teachers and pastors and the evangelists and the prophet those prophets are to come in and what a prophet do him he prophetically tell you what he is to come that's what all them guys in there like Abraham like uh Isaiah and Jeremiah and and and an Ezekiel you read in the Old Testament they wasn't doing that but just prophetically telling you what's going to come to pass. When you look at that through the lens of history, it's one thing. When you look at it on the big screen in 2024, well, it's something else altogether because now it is of our time.

And that, I think, is what's so arresting about this. You know, I'm listening to you talk, and I'm reminded, there's a phrase I like to use a lot. It's a title of a book that was written by a Christian, a guy called, Josh McDowell. And the book is called The Evidence Demands a Verdict. And you're the evidence. It's not a thing that might have happened a long time ago. There's 77 children that were adopted, who very likely otherwise would not have been

in the most unlikely of towns. So my only point is we're living in a time where and you do this in the movie. When the movie ends, you see those real kids. You see the real people. So we're up to our neck in evidence. But we're also up to our neck in this prophecy. And it's really odd, I think, for both of those things to happen at the same time.

Where we need is still alive. She can say, yeah, yeah, I said it. And now I can prove it. Everything I said was going to happen, happened. So that is the sound of hope. And I think even though you just kind of, of mentioned it, we ought to spend a couple of minutes. It's kind of grim, but I want people to understand the totality of the problem, why the Foster system, as well intended as it is,

has run into such problems and why so many kids in the system can't get placed and why so many who do get caught in this turmoil and wind up on a road that doesn't lead anywhere good. You broke that cycle, why is it so hard to break and why is the problem so bad today? The foster system is broken and it needs fixing. And instead of getting a guy to write the guideline that just because he got a PhD degree does not qualify him to be able to take to handle the problem of the children. To me, if you're going to be able to take to handle the problem of the children, to me if you're going to find out

what is it like and how do those children feel call somebody who've been there, done there, got a T-shirt and a cap to prove it. You can't just sit up here and look at a situation to be able to examine the inside of it.

You've got to be on the inside to know what's happening on the inside. This foster system, the way it's set up, Sometimes I wonder how bad do they want the children adopt it. And I'll say this in front of anybody because nobody else hired me but God, and he's the one that can fire me. I think that right now, if we look at this system, there's too many stipulations and too many things. That's why people are sick of it.

Because some people that have been trained down over frivolous stuff. There's an example that I used. I worked on a task force in Texas, and he was annoyed a task for him. Well, we had this lady who wanted to adopt a child. Her daddy was an invalid, and he was an old man in the bed. And she wanted to adopt a child. But when he was 21, he jumped on a guy and beat the tire that guy, ended with a felony on his record.

She wanted to adopt that child, and the only way she could get that child, she was taking care of her dad. The only way she could get that child, she had to take her dad out. the house. Stuff like that. We were going to try to get back in it. So I asked a woman, I said, what's something to cry to me?

She said, well, one thing you're going to have to know. You're going to have to know how many people coming in your house for the rest of the year in their name. And I said, just a chicken-picking minute here. How in the blue blaze that do you expect me to know who going to be coming and knocking on my door? I said, where did the mailman come there and knock on my door? I don't know his name. You got a goal of Anita. Figure out who's going to come over a year in advance.

See, so stuff like that. People say I've been turned down. You don't make enough money. You don't do this. You don't do that. Look, if you examine the closet, all of us got some skeletons in there. But you're going to make it so difficult. I bet you it's been so many honest families, good family, been turned down, all because

they don't fit this little silly rule right here. They don't fit that rule. It's time not to do away with some of these rules. I'm not saying to put a child in a house or a drug at it or a murder. or murder or rapist or stereo killer. I'm not seeing that. But at least look at this thing from a different eye. That is why it is so difficult.

And also, the church and state, it's been a long history. Church and state can't work together. Church and state, that's a lie. That's a lie from the pits of hell. The state of Texas and Bennett Chapel Church, we work together. Cause, I let them know. You got rules. If you made them, you can break them.

You can revise them. Sure. I got six to six rules I can't break. Six to six books of the back because I'm not the author and finish of it. So I can't break those rules. If I do, then God has got an indictment against me, and you're not going to help me sit up here going to hell over a rule that you said can't be. And God said, do it like this.

I'm going to do it the way he said. So I think that's a lot of things that we need to compromise home. We need to open up our hearts and see this thing out of a different eye. And I start seeing not just having this ego about it. You know, I look at this word ego, edge and God out. And so this ego here that people have is crazy. You can't put a child at home. The lady that we had, her name was Elizabeth, played Susan.

That woman was awesome. Susan was an awesome woman of God. Susan knew she spent time with the family. She knew that church. She came in and visited the church all the time. Susan placed the right child in the right family. And this is why we didn't have all that turnover. She knew what she was doing.

I don't think that case work all or just placed a child in a home just because they said, I did this. I think that there should be some spiritual guidance when they place a child in them. Instead of you just doing something just because you want to get a child, hey, that's not the right problem. You're going to end there with that child back in the system. Then the other problem of it is too, if you keep the children in the system, when they get 18, you're going to turn them on the street. Then they can go out and kill somebody, a robber bank,

or they're going to do this and do the other. Get on drugs and all that kind of something. And they're going to end up back in the system. So why not open up now where the children can have an opportunity to get in a good home and have a good family, and they can teach them somehow. So when they get 18, the Bible said, train them up the way they ought to be. When they get old, they won't depart from it.

So let's do it right. Let's do it right. Let's stop using our ego and start using God principle and let these children go at home. I get preached that. Amen. I think you just did. Here's the thing, though. All of that sounds like a challenge to the state to get their house in order and amend, revise, maybe rethink some of the rules that are creating roadblocks to the very destination we all want to get to.

But what I'm interested in is what kind of trouble have you caused? What kind of challenge have you made to the Christian community, to other churches? Because you, without saying it, and I bet you have already, if we can do this in Possum Trot, what the heck's the problem, Baltimore? What the heck's the problem, Phoenix? What's going on in Idaho Falls? What's the problem here in L.A.? Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Tallahassee, Kalamazoo, Tim Bucktoo, Paducah.

What's your excuse? Church, right? So have you heard back? Because this was the sentence I didn't finish before, that scene in the movie when you go to the bigger church and you say, hey, we're... How about a little help? Little help. Our backs against the wall. We're struggling.

We've taken in these kids. a lot of families are hurting. That's inconvenient for that church. You were a thorn in the side of that church. You were the pebble in the shoe, right? So what have you heard from your own community around the country? Have you inspired them or have you made them uncomfortable? I think in that sense, many, many, many, have been inspired.

Many have been uncomfortable. Many have figured that. Comfort the afflicted? Yeah. Afflict the comfort. Uh-huh. That's right. That's kind of your job.

It's kind of like what. Jesus didn't make us comfortable. He made us uncomfortable. He said, look, you got to love your enemy at yourself. That is annoying, man. That is annoying. How are you going to sit up here? Love somebody, and you know this guy doesn't have done you some damage.

You know, he doesn't slap you and hit you upside. out of the head when your back were turning. How are you going to love him? And this is why we can't do this in our cell. We got to do this through the divine power of God and we can do it. Because the scripture said, I can do all things through Christ Jesus, that strengthened me. So now, as far as making people's uncomfortable, I think that that's when they do their best work. Because there was times in our life during the process of this, we didn't see how we was going to make it. Yes, I got rejected by many, many people. They told me they was going to do this.

When I walk away from them, they probably threw my name in the garbage can. And they even think about it no more. Many of them told me they're going to do that. Didn't do anything. But you know what? I feel that those people who miss the opportunity to be a blessing to the child, somewhere down the line, they're going to have to deal with God about that. Because number one, you always want to be in the process of what God is doing.

You want to be a piece of that. If God is doing something, I want a part of it. Let me get in the process. Let me get in the mix of it. A cog in the machine. Yeah, yeah. You know, do something. I mean, I can do a whole lot, but I can do something.

And right now, since the movie came out, I think a lot of people began to take some issues on that. And they see that, because I'm going to let them know, we still don't have anything down there. We've got a lot of stuff that we need down there. There's still a lot of needs. And they began to send a little money here, a little money there. This will help you do such a such thing.

This will help you do that. I think they began to take initiative. on saying we saw the movie. The movie inspired us to do that. And this is the thing. If they didn't send anything, just said, I saw the movie. And some saying, it inspired me to go and do something. I'm calling the people's help.

I'm going to the state. We're going to do something here. We're going to do something here. We're going to do something else. I asked that same question. Why is the church in all of these different states? Look, you've got everything you need. You got the big life, sart.

You got 20,000 members. You got 15 and 10,000 members. You got a big family life center. You got this and you got that. Where's the church? And this is the problem. This is what God is asking today. Why is my church that ordained?

And if anybody don't like to come on down and we'll talk about it, you know. But the thing coming here, because you ain't got the answer to me. You got any answer to God because he wants to know where the church is. I told you to do this. James 127, peer religion is underfile. that God accept that we take care of the widows and the orphanage. And then the only way we was able to get back to God it through adoption. So where is the church?

If you're going to keep pushing this off and talking about how bad they are pushing on. Well, some kind of way. That's why God got the indictment to get the church because they're not doing what he told them to do. It's no way in the world. All these churches on all these corners preaching Jesus every Sunday and still got all these children locked in their system. And this is what Jesus said. He said, I don't annoy you to go out.

and take care of this. So why you can't do it? And by pushing this on, it's only vexing God to the point where something is going to break soon. I guarantee you, I may not be in California. I might be in plastic, God, I might be six feet on. I don't know, but God is going to break something because this is flat wrong. It don't make sense. I told some people that, look, some of us in here, they've got to empty bedrooms.

And we're mad and all grumpy. Maybe we all put some children in that house and make some. noise in there. You won't be so mad and grumpy all the time. You'll come out of your acting. You see you got some preppers then. So all them empty bedrooms that's nice. You got a made of a bed made up pretty and all these little ornaments, all of them. Put a child in that room. Let that child feel the comfort of home. Let that child feel the comfort of love and having a mother and a father. I went to visit a little boy that one day and he told me, said, Bishop, for Christmas, he said, don't buy me no toys. Don't buy me no little pawnies, no clothes.

All I want, five years old, all I want is a mother and a father, somebody that love me. That is too much for a five-year-old to ask. And then we talk about, ooh, they're bad. They're bad. Well, come on now. Let's do the math. I got something that was bad. I bought them in the world myself that's bad.

I was bad. You was bad. So why are you going to stereotype them into how bad they are when we don't have done something of everything? And some of us been really, really good. And some of us, God does save us in the midst of our sins. Some of us are out there right now saying, I was on drug and the Lord saved me. I was drunk and the Lord saved me.

I was about to die in the Lord's saying. So we all got a testimony to see, let's stop this stuff. Let's stop looking at the problem and look at the problem solve. Let's see what we can do to solve this problem. Now, I guarantee you, when you get in this thing, God is going to bless you more than you ever can imagine. Lomeless Plot. Long before she was Peggy Rowe, my mom was Peggy Noble,

daughter of Carl and Thelma Noble. It was her father, Carl, who inspired me to pitch a show called Dirty Jobs to the Discovery Channel, and later start a foundation that honored the kind of work Carl Noble did for a living, trade work, skilled labor. That foundation is called MicroWorks, and today I'm proud to tell you that we've helped thousands of people get the training they need to begin a career in the skilled trades. In fact, we'd love to help you. You can apply for a work ethic scholarship right now at microwworks.org. We've set aside $10 million for this year's applicants. Thanks to a number are very effective fundraisers, including the one with my grandfather's name on the label.

I refer, of course, to Noble Tennessee Whiskey, K-N-O-B-E-L, which is now available in a variety of delicious mash bills, all of which you can peruse at noblespirates.com. In fact, if you spend 100 bucks and use code Carl, C-A-R-L, you'll get one tube of orange bitter-infused sugar cubes for free. That's Code Carl with a C to get nine sugar cubes, ingeniously engineered to make nine perfect old fashions every time. It's my favorite way to support microworks and my favorite whiskey to sip responsibly after a long day of interviewing people on this podcast. Pick up a bottle at noblespirates.com. K-N-O-B-E-L-Spirates.com. Soon may the nobleman come to bring a bottle for everyone.

One day when the waiting is done, we'll take a drink and go. One of my favorite parts in the movie is when you come around. She wears you down, right? You listen to the Holy Spirit. Whatever happens, you got the memo. And you say, okay, let's do this. And then you do the thing. Then you want to do it again.

But all of a sudden, you go to this place where I didn't think you would go. where you say, we want the ones nobody else wants. It's not enough just to take one of the 400,000 looking for her home. No, you, WC, you got to go. What's WC stand for, by the way? WC. Come on.

No William Charles? WC. It's just WC. It's got a stand for, come on. Wendell Christian. Wendell Cartwright. Wendell Cartwright. Wilbert.

Wilbert. Christopher. Christopher. Christopher Have you guys met 49 years? You're not sure what his name is? He's not sure what his name is. WC.

goes in and I guess my question is how did you get from All right, I'm in to I'm all in all the way down to Terry. You took the problem child of problem childs.

How'd you get there? Terry was living in a home or a professor from Stephen F. Austin University. And they wanted to go on a cruise. During that time, foster parents was bringing children to a home that's already was fostering. They called it respite. And they brought Terry to us. When Terry got there, she went to me in like a cat. So I'm trying to figure out what's going to look at this girl on them over my glass. What's wrong with this girl? And she said, I'm a cat like that.

And what I believe, the reason why she would like that, the foster home that she was in, they bought Terry this huge tomcat. And this cat, she spent so much time with that cat that she started taking on the personality of that cat. And because she felt like that, she was just so in love of the cat. This is what really crazy. Terry got there. She was kind of wild. She was.

Because that's all she knew. I told her, Terry, she said, we got ready to eat. I'm ready to eat. I said, what are you doing here? I'm going to eat. I said, not here. You remember what you said? What are you?

I'm a cat. So I'm going to sit you a little bowl right there. And that's why I want you to eat at. And what was in the bowl? Junk food, all kind of stuff, gizzards and livers and stuff. No, everything. You know, neck and feet. Yeah, necks and feet and all this stuff.

And she said, she looked and she said, I can't eat that stuff. I'll say, yes, you are. That's what a cat going to eat here. And Tery Mets ran there got hungry. And when that big intestine started killing that lillin and her stomach started growling, she made a decision that she didn't want to be a cat no more. And I told her, I said, Look, if this the attitude that you want,

that's where you're gonna eat it every day. So she said, well, I don't wanna be a cat no more. Well, the tom cat disappeared. We don't know why he went. I've never seen that tom cat no more. That was her cat days, it was over. It wasn't something that I had to go to the Guinness Book Weir record to look for an answer.

The answer was already there. A cat gonna eat cat food, that was the answer. And if you feel like you're gonna, cat, that's what you're going to eat. So the only way you're going to eat decent food. So while we sitting up in there eating greens and hot water corn bread and smother chicken and rice and gravy, you're going to be out there eating out of that little bowl. And she decided, I'd rather take this hot water cornbread and the greens and rice, opposed to eat that stuff in that bowl. And you didn't read this in a parenting manual. No. You didn't subscribe to

adoption for dummies or something, right? You just... It just popped up in my eyes. Because see, In the old days, the old folk used to use this word mother wit. Mother wit was a, we're just plain common sense. And sometimes you got to use common sense. You know, I pitied a person that don't have no common knowledge. You got to have some common knowledge about things. And something is just, I mean, it's automatically. Because when you're in the will of God, he said, I'll teach you,

and I'll lead you and guide you through all things. So that was something he showed me. And what was doing? I know somebody still sounds weird and crazy and all that kinds of. it actually happened. The evidence demands a verdict. Yes. That's why you're here.

Because it came to pass in front of our wondering eyes. Yes. It actually happened in our time. And now it sits as an example that can either inspire, intimidate, affirm, magnify, or frighten. And you're right. You don't get to choose. how the other churches are going to process this movie. You're like a pitcher who threw the ball.

It's out of your hands now. What's it been like or is it still too soon for your congregation, for the other people in Possum Trot? What's the reaction at this point among them? They are so excited. It's unreal. Because they actually can see something that the name Possom Trot being And don't ask me how Possum Trot got there.

That's my next question, by the way. I read your mind. That's what you call prophetic. You and Winnet. I have no earthly idea because I wasn't born there. I'm born in Louisiana, but I was raised in practically in Houston, Texas. So I had no idea how Possum Trot got there. In fact, you got a book.

I don't know where it's at, but there was a book about Possum Trot. But the people in Possum Trot are very, very. happen because now they see their place which was what you may call a little no harm do nothing place in the spotlight that they

see that their town has how you may say a miracle that happened in possible trial and now they see the jaw of it now some of them still you know someone still got an issue with me because that's okay I mean I can deal with that

but the thing of it is The name Possum Trot is put joy in a smile on their face because that's their home. A lot of people came from Possom Trot. They don't migrate all across the country, but there's a lot of folks came from Possom Trot. We had a guy that works in a place in Houston called Gallery Funiture, and they had a guy named this guy named Matrix Mac. We met with him other day. He's amazing.

Tell me about it. That guy after the hurricanes, right? talking about the same guy, just got all those mattresses and all those people's homes. He's incredible. Yeah, he's the guy. So we had dinner with him the other day. And he had adopted a child. I think of his daughter adopted or something.

But anyway, he said that he was telling this guy that was from pot. He didn't have any idea. This guy was from Palsam Trot. His name was Charlie. He said, Charlie, man, I went to see a movie and it was about Possum Creek or Palsam Alley. He said, you're talking about Palsam Trot. He said, yeah, that's possible. You know, he said, I were born in Possum Trot.

Now, that's just show you how mad things. I mean, he didn't even know it. He said, man, I saw this movie. You need to go see it. He said, I know the people. He said, I know this. He said, oh, you're my real morning, Donald Martin. Yeah.

He said, I know him. He said, I know what I know him? Look, I can call it right now. He called my wife on the phone right then and there. That just how amazing possum trot name. And people said, Possumtrap. What is that? It's a place where the power of God rests, ruled, and abide

because he helped escalated that place to something that will live forever. And we can just go down in history. The very first red carpet that was done in Shelby County was done with possum trout. That's saying a lot. That's history in the makings. That's amazing. all right i know you don't have a crystal ball but if you did you know when you were looking a year or so down the road five years 10 years what's your best realistic hope or guess

maybe hope's a better word since that's the movie it's not the sound of guessing it's the sound of hope what's your hope for i hope and praying that god was take this sound of hope and places in the heart of every individual, that they would be inspired to do something to empty this foster care crisis, however God lead them. I pray and hope that everybody will look at this and see Jesus. For those that don't know him, to see him working, that he can't work out anything. I pray in hope that God will continue to tear down walls and doors, that even officials who making the rules will have a different outlook

and realize that these are not numbers. These are children that God allowed to come here. I pray in hope that God will continue to ponder his blessing throughout this nation, that all of us will see a movement in this particular sound of hope, the Possum Trot story, to see that God is working some things out and just be a part of it some kind of way that it will bring joy and peace and happiness in your life that you feel so good about going through the state and said, look, what can I do to help? What can I do to bring a child out? How would you need me to be

inspired to be a blessing to children? What did Isaiah say about all this? I'm trying to remember. I met a woman years ago. We did a story with her. Had an organization called the Isaiah House. And it was, what was it, Taylor, Isaiah 117 maybe? I think it's either Isaiah 117 or 127, something like that. and orphans and it was such a powerful thing and she was just one woman and she had adopted a few and then she started working with the state. Wasn't Possum Trot, but it was. I'm just bringing it up because I wonder, have you heard from other people who are doing similar things? I mean, never mind inspiring people to do things they're not doing. Have you found, is there a network out there? Yes, it is. There's a lot of them. A lot of people have taken this. In fact, I was just in North Carolina last week. And it really hurt me to my heart that I went upstairs up there and there was children living in that office up there. And that really just hit me in the top of the head. I'm saying to myself, why? Why? So when I hand a meeting with about 20 or 30 judges and lawyers,

I asked them, why? What are you all doing to really help? Are you all stopping it? Are you all supplying them with the needs that they need to fix this? Or are you trying to just flick your muscles and just look at it from your own personal perspective and not knowing what the Lord said? I think it was some conviction went on in there. Because right now, I think that I got a call yesterday that things have already begun to change.

So I think that what it is throughout the nation as I stand and as God give me words to say and to speak to people's, there's going to be a massive change. I believe in this season there's going to be such a massive change in the system and the way things been done. Because I feel like I know there's a God movement. It's got to change because anything God's handprint is on, That's why the enemy fought us. So again it out. He fought us with every possible thing he could. But every time he stood up, God went higher.

Every time he started to stop something, God went another direction. God is not going to allow the devil to make him out of a lie. Because it's not his game. This is God thing here. So I just believe that even those that is not, they're looking at this, they're going back in their office and look, we need to change the way we do things. We need to do this and we need to do it. And they are doing it.

So right now, other entities all over this country, begin to see that it work. It can work. The state see that it work, it can work. If we work together. Because you got a child, the church over here, just utilize what you got and stop looking at what you don't have. And you're going to get something done.

It is Isaiah 117. This is New King James. Learn to do good. justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Plead for the widow. Yep, that's it. So to bring it back to music for a minute, it's a variation on a theme. We're all singing the same song, or we all want to sing the same song, but there are a lot of

different ways to sing it. People are coming at it from a lot of different angles. You're not alone, obviously. But I'll tell you what, man, the movie touched me, in part because you just don't see movies like this. So just from that standpoint alone, it was great. The performances were extraordinary.

Extraordinary performances. I got to tell you, both Demetrius Gross and Nikita King, I thought were amazing. The way Nikita King portrayed the loss of your mom, Donna, was heartbreaking. Heartbreaking.

And I got to just say one thing about Demetrius Gross, and I want to ask if this part of the movie is actually true. where Donna is coming to you and all she wants to talk about is adopting a baby, right? It's all she wants to talk about and you had something else on your mind and in the movie

you tend to romance your wife and you pull out the Bible and open up and read from Psalms, little poetry to get the wife in the mood. And proverb, I believe. Proverbs, my bad. I'm first one way he was reading. So that part of the movie is true.

Thank you. That's all indeed. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Yeah, song is Solomon. We're not going there. Yeah, that's a whole other story. What's your favorite proverb? I love proverb.

What Solomon said, trust in the Lord, and lean not to your own understanding, and he will direct your past. Trust God. where we are and what we're done, I had to trust God when I couldn't chase God. I had to trust God when I didn't feel God. I had to trust God when I didn't know he was there. And by doing so, it kind of remind me what David said in Psalm 23.

Ye, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will feel no evil because thou are with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. You see, the valley was where he was having is more difficult. You know, you're down in the valley. But David said, I'm not going to worry about this. I'm not going to trouble myself for him because I know the Lord. Whenever people as a whole in general have an inkling that the Lord is with them,

don't worry about how you're going to get out of the VAL. Don't worry about how long you're going to be in the valley because you'll be there until God get ready to bring you out But when the Lord bring you out you ain't got to worry about going there no more he's going to do something greater in your life Winston Churchill said it a little different He said when you're going through hell keep going Don't stop that's right get on through it This is my last question for you I know I know how important humility is in your line of work and just in the human condition.

I know how hard it is, too, to be humble, especially when good things start to happen. Yes, yes. So with all of this, with the spotlight on you guys now, all the time, and a lot of people clapping you on the back and saying, out of boy, good job, prophecies are coming true. kids, how do you keep yourself from either celebrating prematurely? How do you stay grounded in a moment like this? Again, I just know where you're going. I know where you're going.

But I just want to say that I'm asking a man wearing overalls and a sport coat at the same time. And a collar. And a collar, right. So I know the answer is going to be a good one, but this is the part where we land the plane. Okay. To take it. First of all, I had to realize that it's not. not me that's doing this. I'm just a vessel that the Lord is using. For me to, in other

word, for a better like a word, letting my head swell up because of people. I take it. Thank you. God bless you, but I know my place. And I know that if you start overlooking the one who started that, you're going to find yourself off by yourself because the Lord is going to take hand of it. God will not allow nobody to take his glory. The glory belongs to him. So as long as what I'm doing is glorifying God, he's going to be with me. Anybody can say what they want to say? Yeah, that's what you say. That's what I know. I stand on the conviction of God's word. And the scripted tale of, if I'm for you, I'm more than a whole world against you. So I don't worry about it. I just go ahead on, do what I do, love people,

And look, everybody in patting me on the back. Some folks looking at me at the cornered their eyes and give me all them different look and, you know, man, look, that do not stop me, I go and still do what I'm going to do because they are not in charge of my life. I'm not going to stand up here and tell you that it's easy. No, it's not easy. Because if I'm going to give love, I expect love.

I don't hate people. Don't dislike them. I do what I need to do and expect for a person to do it. But to see, people would take advantage of it, and I have been taking advantage of it. It's not because I didn't know any better. But sometimes I let people think they're having it their way. But in the end, they got to answer to him. They got to answer to me because I'm the one they're doing wrong.

They're doing the guard. He said, when you do it to the least one of mine, you're doing it to him also. So they're really not doing it to me. They're doing it to him. So instead of answer to me, let them answer to God. Because he's going to take care of it. So I don't let that blow me up. I mean, I'm going to keep on with these overalls on and letting folks see,

hey, look, I'm just a little country boy doing the best I can with what I got. From Possum Trott. Bishop, your grace is amazing. Thank you for coming by for spending time. When we do the sequel, because obviously there's going to be a sequel, Possum Trot, the return. Then, Ms. Donna, you're going to sit up here. Yeah, I'll have a mic for you, that for sure. He'll be right there.

Mind that this matters. Thank you both for coming, for doing what you've done. Is there a place where you're sending people to go who want to help, who want to be involved, who want to somehow support this larger effort? Let me see. That's the thing about overalls. There's so many pockets, man. A lot of pockets.

So many pockets. Yeah, but I. My father's house has many pockets. No, that's not it. There are many overall. in my daddy's condominium. In my father's house, there are many mansions. There are many mansions.

Ah, gosh, I'll get it right. All right. He's just giving me a card. It says possum trot. Let's see. There's a what. You want me to send him to this website? Yeah.

Address, P.O. Box. R. Martin. At bc.c.minster. That's my email. Email. Okay. Are you sure you want that out there? Yeah.

All right. Well, if you like what you heard, folks, drop W.C. Align at R. Martin. at BC ministry.org. I'm not going to give your phone number. That's a pretty good picture. Who took this picture, Donna? Him on the card here.

You did that? Very talented. Folks, the movie is called The Sound of Hope. You'd be a fool not see it. Oh, that reminds me. That's another proverb. He who troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind. Or something like that.

Or something like that. that. It's pretty close. And the fool shall be servant to the wise at heart. You know why I say that? David said, the fool have said there is no God, but he is a fool. And the Bible said, when you're finally my food, leave my fool. I got one more for you. Okay. A beautiful woman without discretion or modesty is like a fine gold ring found in the snout of a pig. That's a good one. That's a good. You can use it. Take it. I'll use that one. I take that one. I'll take that one. I'll take that one. So please, then. Check out the movie, folks. Thank you for listening. See you next week.

When you leave a review, which we hope that you'll do, tell us who you are. And before you go, won't you leave a stop? If you work in University Maintenance, Granger considers you an MVP, because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Granger is your trusted partner. Offering the products you need all in one place, from HVAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more, and all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock,

so your team always gets the win. Call 1-800 Granger, visit granger.com or just stop by, Granger, for the ones who get it done. The ocean delights us. Some marvel at the colorful world below the surface. The ocean feeds us. Others find nourishment in its bounty. The ocean teaches us how our everyday choices impact even the deepest places.

The ocean moves us, whether we're riding a wave or soaking in its breathtaking beauty. The ocean connects us. Find your connection at Monterey Bay Aquarium.org slash connects.