We get a lot of bad news through the media — news of crime and political mayhem, people fighting one another, families and cultures at odds with one another. Rebekah Weigel believes that the world is longing for films that bring hope.

Weigel is a Hollywood writer and producer of the new film Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot and an earlier award-winning film, Butterfly Circus. With her husband Joshua Weigel, Rebekah set out to bring to the big screen the true story of Reverend WC Martin, the pastor of a small evangelical church in East Texas, and his wife, First Lady Donna Martin. Together, the Martins inspired their congregation to provide loving homes to children trapped in the foster-care system.

Weigels’ Personal Experience with Adoption and Fostering

Rebekah talked recently about how her own experience taking in needy children led her to use her filmmaking talents to encourage others along this path. She and her husband had welcomed foster children into their home, and had adopted two children. Rebekah explained:

When we decided to foster and adopt, we really got to see what kids were going through. … It was our faith that compelled us to foster and adopt; true religion is to care for the orphans and widows. And honestly, there are a lot of churches that are involved, but there needs to be more.

Fighting for children, Rebekah believed, is something that we can all do. She had learned 25 years ago about the true-life story of Bennett Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in the town of Possum Trot. Fueled by the enthusiasm of their pastor and his wife, 22 families in the small rural church adopted or fostered 77 children in need of a loving home, vulnerable children whom nobody else would take.

“The Martins’ story was well known in the foster and adoption community,” she said. “They were on Oprah, on Good Morning America, on The Today Show in the early 2000s.” Rebekah had been planning an event in the Los Angeles area and was looking for a speaker; she reached out to Bishop Martin, and he came to L.A. to speak. His story was so powerful, Rebekah said, that everyone wanted to get personally involved and get their churches involved in helping to foster and adopt.

Films That Have an Impact

Rebekah and Joshua Weigel have always wanted to make films that addressed important issues and they moved to Los Angeles in 1998 with that goal in mind. “We saw the impact of media and film on culture,” Rebekah said, “how important issues can be addressed, and how films can impact a person’s life.”

Following the success of their first film, Butterfly Circus, the Weigels set out to recount the story of how the Martins and Bennett Chapel succeeded in finding homes for all of the vulnerable children in their community. The topic was a challenging one, and the Weigels received numerous offers from Hollywood studios and independent filmmakers who wanted to assist in telling the story. “But we really wanted to shepherd that project ourselves,” Rebekah said, “and to make sure that it’s done well. So from the ground up, we developed the story and wrote the script.”

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot took eight years to complete, and finally opened recently in more than 2,000 theaters nationwide. Once its theatrical run is complete, Sound of Hope will be offered by Angel Studios, the film’s distributor, for streaming on various platforms.