WHOA That's Good Podcast - Love Can Change Anyone’s Story | Sadie Robertson Huff | W.C. & Donna Martin

Episode Date: June 19, 2024

Sadie meets Bishop W.C. and First Lady Donna Martin, on whose lives the upcoming movie “Sound Of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot” is based, and hears their amazing story of overflowing love, generosity, and trust in the Lord. Donna opens up about her struggles with the loss of her mother, giving birth to a child with special needs, and opening her home to children who needed love and a family. Bishop passionately details what it was like to lead an entire church who came to participate in the power of adoption and how the entire town leaned on each other to make a difference in the lives of many children. Get showtimes to watch the new movie near you! https://www.angel.com/movies/sound-of-hope-the-story-of-possum-trot This Episode of WHOA That's Good is Sponsored by: https://helixsleep.com/sadie — Get up to 30% off all mattress orders AND 2 free pillows! https://www.covenanteyes.com/sadie — Try Covenant Eyes FREE for 30 days with promo code WHOA. https://give.cru.org/good or text GOOD to 71326 — Get a free copy of Sadie and Christian's new book "How to Put Love First" with your monthly gift! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's about to get so much better because I have two of the most, I think truly the most important guests I've ever had on this podcast because of the impact that they are making around the world in their new movie. The Sound of Hope, The Story of Possum Trot, which is actually coming out July 4th, but special screenings on Juneteenth. And we need everyone to flood the theaters and see this movie, because it's so important. But I actually had the people that this movie is all about

on the podcast today. And y'all, I had to bring tissues today to set, because I saw this movie last night and cried for a solid two hours. Hopefully I'll be a better interviewer today, because I got my tears out. But we have Bishop WC and his beautiful first lady, Ms. Donna Martin on the podcast. So thank you all for being a part of this.

God bless you. We're blessed to be here. Yes. So it's really cool because I met you all at an adoption event about a month ago and I said, I have to get them on the podcast. And I was lucky enough to not only have you on the podcast, but get to see the movie last night. And woo, y'all, it was absolutely incredible.

And I told you this before we started recording, but I just wanna say this again. I hope that this interview serves as a space for after people see the movie. One, I hope people go see it because of this. But two, I hope that after the movie, they wanna come back and listen again to hear your heart more,

because this is so much more than a movie. It's y'all's story and it's a movement. And so let's get to know the two of you a little more. First, let's just start, how did you guys meet? Well, before we go into that, Sadie, let us thank you for having us. And we like to celebrate you and thank God for the impact that you have made all over the world.

We really appreciate what you do. Thank you. So God bless you. You're kicking it, girl, for the Lord. Thank you. We say back home, your kingdom's sexy. Hey, girl, I like that. I ain't never been told that before. I'll receive it.

That's so funny, L.R.E. Yeah, well, I used to sing with my brothers. We had a group that was known as the Martin Brothers. It was me and like seven more of my brothers. We was all blood brothers, and we started forming a group in Houston, Texas, where we was living at, and we ended up, another group brought us to Possible Trot. And when I saw my wife walking through the door, in my mind. She was keen of sexy.

Yeah, yeah. She was. Yeah, I said to myself that, I said, I'm gonna marry her. And sure enough, that was just in my mind. I didn't think about it no more. But then again, God brought it together. The word, I guess things start with a thought

before it become reality. And God placed that thought in my spirit. I said, I'm gonna get it. It happened just like that. Would you say that kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven? So that's what I tease him about. I said, I'm your heavenly mate. For eternity. You guys are so cute. The perfect couple. But okay. So you came to Possum Trot.

So tell us a little bit about what Possum Trot is, because it doesn't even sound like a real name to a place. Oh my goodness. Possum Trot is a very, very, very rural and small community based upon family. Just everybody's kin to everybody. Everybody knows everybody. It's a very welcoming place.

You come there, you're gonna do two things. You're gonna go to church and you're gonna eat. That's good. I need to come to Possum Trot. Yes, we love to have you. That's good. Okay, so you're from Possum Trot. And I've seen the movie, so I don't know how much of it is,

I mean, I know it's accurate to the heart of what y'all did, but also there was a movie made about my family's life, and there are parts of it that are exactly true for timeline sake. But from what I gather from the movie, you guys were married, y'all had two kids, right? And one of your kids has a disability. And so, you guys were kind of, you know, parents to you, you're pastoring, all the things. And

through a really tragic scenario with your mom passing, that led to your heart being open for something else. And so, talk a little bit about just your mom's passing and like how hard of a time that was, but what God began to speak to you during those days. That was a very dark time in my life, just, you know, an unexpected time, a time where, you know, absolutely, actually I'm 36 years old, 35, 36. And I used to remember, I must go back to when I was at home and a child and I would go off to school and the only thing would always stay in the back of my mind, you know, as a child, I said,

Lord, don't ever let me come home and hear that my mother's not here anymore, not alive. I think I went through grade school with that in my heart. And, you know. But when my mother passed away in 97, maybe a month or so, a couple of months, reality actually set in. I'm one of actually 21 children and was raised with 16, 15 of us. And my mother was the most nurturing person. To me, she was like my God.

She taught us about Jesus and His unfailing love and His unconditional love. But to me on earth, I honored everything she said about the Lord and she could just tell you things about it. It was like you could just see it. You could just formalize it in your mind. But after her death, a couple of months, as I said, when she, it set in, reality set in that she wasn't here anymore, couldn't go to a... You know, I just always felt the comfort of that mother. You could always go to mama. You know, you just felt a sense of protection and guidance and, you know, just whatever you need.

She was just that. And I just started complaining to the Lord. You know, my husband was selling insurance, a pastor, and we had our two children, Princeton should have been about 12 at that time, and LaDonna 7. And I would get them off to school. And when I would get them off to school, it was like, I began to just be sad and empty and hurting and pain. It was like I had a heart. My heart had a hole right in the center of it. And it would just burn. And throughout those months, I would tell the Lord, God, you know, no child should lose a mother. I'm 35 years old. When I'm saying to him, what, no child should lose a mother. I'm 35 years old when I'm saying

to him, what, no child should lose a mother. A couple of two or three months, got my kids off the school, he's off to work. Because at my mother's funeral, our church was a very old church. Our church caved in. The wall gave away from the floor. Wow. And so he was in the process of working, pastoring, and trying to find funds to rebuild a church. Wow. And we only had $500 in the building fund. Wow. and we only had $500 in the building fund. That graceful number, 500.

And he went out, you know, knocking on doors, doing, I think he put something in the Houston Chronicle and, you know, just telling the town and the community what we was dealing with. And it was so much pressure, you know, trying to make ends meet with the family, with the church, and then my loss. So I just said, after they were off to,

he was off to work, the kids off to school, I was doing the dishes and I said, okay, God, this is today. Today you either heal me or let me die. And literally I felt death. You know, within my mind I thought he would just come home and find me dead. But immediately after I said that,

it's like I was moved with compassion. The Holy Spirit just moved me from the kitchen to the outside. And I stepped on the porch and the Lord just very gently and softly said, I hear you. I've heard you, but your mother's with me. And He said, think about those children who's out there that did not have what you have and a mother. He said, foster, adopt, give back.

Just an overwhelming spirit just came over me, like a sense of healing. I didn't even, I wasn't even myself, didn't even know what I was doing. I just kind of, it was just, everything just kind of moved me to the place. The scripture said that I step so ordered by God. I mean, he just totally ordered that. Wow. I went back into the house, into the kitchen, picked up the yellow page and opened the book to adoption, 1-800-ADOPTION, and I called the number and said, my name is Donna Martin.

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Visit covenanteyes.com slash Sadie. You can actually try it for free for 30 days. Again, that's covenanteyes.com slash Sadie and give it a try for free for 30 days. Wow. Yeah. Oh my word. Okay, so that is absolutely incredible. And I love the grittiness of it. Like, you're praying real prayers to God. Like, God, it's's either like you're healing me or I'm done. And then God begins to speak.

But God hadn't yet spoken that to you necessarily. So you're calling the number, adopt, I'm Donna Martin, but Bishop WC, were you feeling the same thing? What were you thinking around that time? Well, no, I wasn't because I wasn't focused on anything like that because of the fact that my son has been my pet peeve and because of, you know, he's not mongrel or but he did have severe brain damage

because she stayed at labor for 18 and a half hours. And it was really, it was a crucial time, you know, during that time. So I just didn't see it and couldn't sense it at all. Because my everything was, a father most likely, if you have a son, a boy, you definitely want to see him come here healthy.

You know, and I had to deal with that within myself with the help of God. But, you know, accepting time will come. God will give you the ability to accept the things you can't change. So, during that time, I was able to accept it, but and I didn't go to, in Texas they have when they start those pride classes and things, I wasn't able to go to that many of them, but I did have to go to song and to teach you how to deal with your multiple problems. Well, I felt like that because of my son, Preston,

God taught us what patient is all about. Through him, we learned the value of patient because if you're going to adopt children who have been through multiple challenges and problems in their life and abuse and you're gonna have to learn and understand what patient is all about and and that's one of the things that that God taught us what patient because my son you can't carry fast you got to carry on very very slow you may have to repeat the same

thing and one day 10 or 20 times before he can get it but once he got it he got it so this is what we had to do with the children. We had to, we was tarpatial. So God fixed it. He fixed it all. And eventually I knew that some kind of way God gonna work this thing out. Yeah, that's good. So, you know, this podcast, a lot of this podcast is based off of advice, like what advice people gave you during hard times. And I think one piece of advice that I want to ask is just like in a marriage when one person feels something so strongly, but the other one doesn't, how do you like rest in that tension of like, I feel like God's calling me to something, my husband doesn't yet, or he feels like God's calling him.

I don't know if I feel that yet. How do you start to pray into getting on the same page? With both of us, Sadie, I could say that, and I look back over our life and even now, it's like, if you will, you can call us a hound dog. You know? We got some dog in us, as Joe Kinetic said. We got some dog in us, like, you know, one or the other. We just always, when God speaks to one or the other, it's like, we know. You know, if the other one don't know, then the one that He's spoken to, we know. And it's like, we just jump on it. You know, we dive into it.

And I have was just moved with compassion. They was like, it's not an option. You know, so it's like move, you know, you move to action. So I just, as a movie show that I just started in the direction of, okay, he may not be there yet, but he's coming on. I'm gonna call the number. Where else is he gonna go?

You know, this is it, this is the last stop. We got each other, we in it, this to win it. And so, and I know within him, so many things. And I can say that I'm so proud of my husband. You know, we're 14 years apart in age. And Sadie, he's just saved my life. Speaking of patient, I didn't know how to be a wife. But I came from a good home, I came from family.

But this man was patient with me and taught me and brought me from the little country town of Possum Trot and moved me to the big city. You know, I went there with a chip on my shoulder saying, okay, I'm from the country, but ain't nobody gonna mess with me. You know, I got this, you know, right? But He loved me, you know, being a man of God. We prayed together and I can't say we made this journey by ourselves. Our church home, New Pleasant Grove, Pastor Wiley uptown, the members, they're in our life.

Came over to our house and we have prayer meeting. And I remember one of the prayer sisters early in our marriage, that was before, that was right after our son was born and I was dealing with him. And I guess if you will, you could say I'm a person that dealt with private depression, if you will. I kept things to myself and the hurt through our son, I have what you call disproportionate pavits.

It's like they don't move, they won't open up. So I went through the whole 10 centimeters and every time that the baby would get there and I would have a contraction, well, he's in the birth canal and so it would cut off oxygen to his brain. And actually at that time, back in 81, the doctor, my physician that was gonna deliver the baby

had went off on a bear hunt. And so we had the associate physician and he failed to do a pelvic exam on me. And I don't know if, you know, there's black women's pelvis or be different. You guys' pelvis are kind of tilted, right? And I was just like, and so when he did do that exam on me, I think he's, you know, he made the choice that,

no, this could not be wrong. He was early in his medical field. And so I didn't know anything about, you know, I had said before, I said, whenever I get pregnant, you know, I'm gonna be the best patient they could ever have. And I wasn't gonna scream and howling. I could barely feel those contractions, you know, but they had me on the fetal monitor and all this,

but no one came in and I, you know, it was just a very, very, and so after 18 and a half hours when they decided that I was in, the child was in distress, I was in distress, he came in and said, we gotta do emergency surgery on you, Miss Martin. And to be honest with you, when I went into the emergency room

and they start to cut me, I could feel it. I started screaming then and then, I didn't remember anything to the next day. Wow. I stayed in the hospital like 10 days because I lost so much blood. They had to give me blood. I had caught a really bad infection and then when the child was born, they put him in an A1 nursery where healthy babies and I believe that the night nurse came on

and found him in semi-glucose coma. And so they began to feed him up with this glucose water. And so for years, five, six, seven, eight years of my life, I lived through blaming myself, saying, you know, we had some fertility problems and we went to the best of doctors. You know, my husband working 26 years on his job, he was a hardworking man,

and we went to the specialist and all that kind of stuff. And I was, if you will, angry with God. And, you know, the press thought I wasn't, you know, just blame myself. Said, what did I do wrong? And so many times I would have, you know, prayer warriors would come pray for me. And I remember once that one of the prayer sisters came

and she washed my feet. And she said, God is telling me that you're gonna travel the world. You're going to be, you know, spokesman for God. You're going to do something amazing. And, you know, back then I'm going, yeah, right. I mean, I can't even get past, you know, where I am and being embarrassed. I was embarrassed.

I was ashamed. You know, the enemy has a way. John 10 and 10 say the thief come not, but the rob steal and kill. And he tried to kill me of my joy and my faith. And I struggle with it. You know, when I went to God, that was the first time that really, you know, I got in His face, you know,

after just carrying it where I couldn't carry it anymore. And I said, God, you're going to have to move this, you know, and help me to understand what's going on here. I remember my first year of when I had our class reunion, you know, after five years you have it. Yeah. In my mind, I would not go because they had activities for their children. And I was ashamed. Satan tells me, you can't go. You got this son. You got a five-year-old that you still have him in

Pampers. And you got to pack him. He can't talk, you know, and he makes all these crazy sounds. I mean, I was a mess. But the Lord, and I can say today, He's 44 years old. Wow. He's amazing. Full of God. Come on. Wow. We'll pray for you.

Everybody loves Princeton. He plays the lead bass guitar, plays the drums. He'll go and pick on the piano, loves the Lord, spend his time. Look, let me tell you, you go in his room right now, I guarantee you it's on Jimmy Swagger. He's got Jimmy Swagger playing. That's incredible. Wow. Y'all, summertime here in Louisiana means long hot days where we try to beat the heat

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leading chiropractors and doctors of sleep medicine as a go-to solution for improving sleep quality. Helix is offering up to 30% off all mattress orders and two free pillows for our listeners. So go to helixsleep.com slash Sadie. This is their best offer yet and it won't last long. With Helix, better sleep starts now. Go to helixsleep.com slash Sadie. It's crazy like hearing you say all of this is so incredible coming from you because in the movie and those of you who go see it, you have to go see it,

but there's this, a lot of it's narrated from a voiceover of your character. And the revelation that your character was speaking was stress, I mean, hitting me to my core. I was taking notes in the movie based off of some of the things that it was saying, but it kind of starts out the movie with this idea of like you declaring, I know deep down in my core that God is good. But when your whole world is falling apart and like everything,

what does it say? The anchor that you have is ripped out, you know, from underneath you, then it's really hard to find that and to believe that you find yourself questioning that. And so what I love about your story is like, you are not afraid to say, I was mad at God. Like I was mad. I was embarrassed. I was frustrated. I feel like things could have been different. But at the same time, like in so much of the movie talks about through the valley, you know, through the valley. That's where you meet God. That's where you either come out on the other side being more like him, or like the movie said, or realizing you never knew him at all. And seeing your story, like through so much heartache, how God used, really and truly

took what the enemy meant for evil and really turned it for good. Because if you would have stopped there, man, there's so much more to come. So many kids that you would be a mother to because, again, of the patience that y'all even learned through Princeton and through being parents to him and y'all were able to implement those strengths that you gained with the other kids that ended up living in your home, and you ended up raising is just amazing. So it's kind of funny that you said,

you got some dog and you some hound dog, because I was thinking about that. I mean, truly y'all do, y'all got like some grit. Y'all are aggressive with the things you believe in in the best way. But you went from not being totally on board with adoption yet to pastoring a church to adopt. Which is amazing because it wasn't just like y'all were like,

okay, we're gonna do this. But like as a pastor, you led an entire congregation to also say yes to something like this. When it moved on your heart, what was God beginning to show you that made you go like, okay, not only are we going to adopt, but if I'm pastoring a church, I'm leading others to adopt as well? What was kind of that hound dog in you? What was speaking to you at that time to not only do it yourself,

but to lead others in it? Well, first of all, we all need to understand that the only way that any of us was able to get back to God was through adoption. If it had not been for adoption, and I think it's infusion one, that you will find out where it was God's good pleasure through His Son Jesus to adopt us back into the fold. So when we got the first two, uh, Mercedes and Tyler, and brought them to the church, then some people saying, you know, I thought about doing this, but you know, I, I never did. I thought about doing it so many. So what I've done,

began to look at what those said to the Lord concerning adoption and began to let our peoples know that this is the right thing to do because we all have been adopted, so why don't we just carry on the legacy that Jesus left for us to do this likewise. And then churches began, our members began to say, I want to do it. So what I've done, I went to the, they said, but we can't drive, cause we had to drive like 120 mile round trip just to take pride classes. And when we went to the, I went to the state and they said, well, if you can, and see, they knew that that wasn't possible. That if you can just give me eight families

that'll be willing to adopt, we'll come and teach the classes at your church. I think the first go-round we had about 15 families. And it just kind of blowed their mind as to what, how could you do this? What happened here? But see, the thing that I'm looking at, and I see now that I didn't know then

that God was in this plan all at the same time, because to be honest with you, God doesn't have to move in big places, huge places to care about His will. He doesn't move right into those small places to do what He wanna do. And He showed the world any small places to do what he want to do. And he showed the world in the small tiny places that he's God. Because in small, like in possum trot, the only thing we have in possum trot is each other. We don't have the big fine

buildings and we don't have this and don't have that. We don't have no street lights, don't have no McDonald's and we don't have nothing like that. But we got one of the things that God gave us, His love, His power, His anointing. So this is where we kind of hit hard ground. And I'm telling you about it. Nothing's doing it not on an easy job. It's not something simple, it's not an easy solution, not an easy or quick fix.

But it's a rewarding fix but it's a rewarding fix. It's a greater fix. That's something that God is doing. Whenever you step out to do something, to carry out the will of God, He also gonna be involved in it. And because of the fact that we wasn't afraid, just to make a step, God was with us all together.

And we had more problems, more problem, problem, because number one, we just didn't know what to do. We were just, this was a new era for us, a new thing. And we had no idea that God was doing something greater in our life. See, we don't always know what the end gonna be. But one thing we do know, what God is doing right now, we knew that part of it,

but we never see what God is taking us. Yeah. Ministry is such a powerful thing. Taking these children out of the system is such a powerful movement. And when we began to move according to God's will, this is God's will. This is something that we just wasn't doing just for a handshake or a pat on the back or just doing something to be done. But this is the will of God, because it's God's will that no child be left. The state does not have the power to fix this problem,

but the church does. Nobody can do this like the church, because why? God anointed the church to carry out his will. So we ask the church must stand up now and be accounted for and say enough is enough. If the church doesn't do that, who else gonna do it? If we can do it in possum tribe with nothing,

with all of the resources that's gone, that you have right now, we got resources on top of resources. When we did, we had zero, now you got all kinds of stuff. People wanna support this and support this. Our organization was a fortunate one, but we didn't have nothing. People want to support that and support that. Organization was a fortunate support, but we didn't have nothing. But what God did, we had him.

And God was the one to open up the door. Lord, have mercy, Jesus. He didn't do that. He wanted to open up the door. He the one that made a way. And right now, we still are receiving, being on this show today, we are still receiving the blessing of the Lord.

Because our voice is still being heard in this. Del Caneta made a statement one day and he said, he said, the devil wanted to keep in the woods what God wanted the world to know. This is why you got this movie coming out right now to let everybody know that it can help them. Being a chaplain and possibly ought to be in every state, every city, every town, on every street corner.

Because it doesn't make sense, we got all of these churches and God done told us, look, pure and leading is under fire, that God accept that we take care of the widows and the orphans. Incidentally, you'll find it in James 1.27. If we go head on and care out the will of God, and I'm not saying it's gonna be an easy thing, but it's gonna be so rewarding.

It's easy for us to talk about how bad those children are. But what about the ones that we bring in this world? They got problems too. So it ain't no sense in we trying to look at nobody, look at your own. But what God is saying, when God anointed the church to carry out his mission, the church was did just that. That 120 that was in that upper room,

when that day a pen of cards was over, they went out and the Bible said thousands of souls was added to the church daily. Because why? They were full of the Holy Ghost. They were full of the power. And they went out and declared, enough is enough. So I think it's time now for the church to stand up and say, enough is enough.

We're not going to take this no more. Those are our children. I don't care what state it is. They are still our children. Why? Because we are all connected to Jesus. And those children are under the option of Jesus. So I think it's time now and pastors all over this country, you need to wake up and let you know that you got work to do.

And if you want to know how to do a carbition, I'll tell you how to do it. Roll your sleeves up and let's go to work. Let's go to work. Gosh, I love it. I love, because I saw you preach in a church and the anointing on your life had everyone in that church standing on their feet. But not only that, people come into the altar crying, saying yes to actually stepping into

adoption. And today I'm in a podcast room with lights and cameras and people aren't here, but the anointing on your life and the power that God speaks to you is the same. It's the presence is the same because you believe what you're preaching, because you've lived what you're preaching, because this is what God says for us to do and you're taking it personally.

And I think we have a major problem in the church right now with just comfortable Christianity. People wanna come in the church right now with just comfortable Christianity. People want to come in the church and they want to be encouraged and they want to know that they're doing an okay job and that they're a good person, but they don't want to... This is what I've been thinking about lately. I'm about to preach this message and it's just been something on my heart so much because in Matthew, whenever it's like the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth.

If the salt loses its saltiness, what is it worth? I mean, it's useless. And then it says, you are the light of the world. City on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people lie in the land, put it under sand, you put it on top of the sand. And Jesus is telling us who we are to be as a church. We're supposed to be the salt,

we're supposed to be the light. He challenges us to do that. Well, it's so interesting because the other day, I Google something. I Google how many times in the Bible does God say specifically, you are blank. Because it's so cool to me that Jesus literally said, you are salt of the earth.

You are light of the world. With so many people struggling with their identity, I'm like, well, here it is. Jesus says, you are. And I thought about it. Those two verses are, they're not always true about who we are, because you're only that if you actually are living it. And so many people wanna be affirmed in who Christ is,

but not actually challenged to live like Christ. And I think why adoption, like this makes people uncomfortable, is cause it's a challenge to live like Christ. It's a challenge to actually take care of the orphans. It's not like, oh yeah, here's some affirmation and to love, yep, no, it's hard, you know? And I love how you've said it before. I heard you say it in person and in the movie it talks about it. You're like, I've searched the pages. It never says it's going to be easy. It says like, when you face trials of

many kinds, like take heart, for I've overcome the world, like you're gonna face trials, things are gonna be hard. And I just feel like so many people in the church, they want the good feelings that the church brings, but they don't wanna actually take up their cross and live like Christ. And so I think it's really beautiful that you guys are preaching this, but I think it's even more beautiful

that you guys are living this. And I think for us, like Christian and I, that's why I cried all night long, because it's hard to be challenged, you know? And I think many people listening to this, you might be uncomfortable listening to this because it's hard to be challenged. It's hard to feel your heart pricked.

It's hard to feel like, it's hard to do hard things, right? But at the same time, like God promises to meet you in those spaces. And so I feel like I can't say, I can't preach it the way you guys can preach it because you all have lived it. But I know what the word says and I'm challenged by it and I have to be responsible for that in my own life and I have to be obedient to that. It's so fun to already start teaching Honey Bible verses. It's so cool to even hear her repeat Bible verses.

Even though she doesn't know what it means yet, she does know that there is power on it. The Bible is so close to my heart and I pray that that will be true for my daughters as well. Reading God's Word is such a big deal, but unfortunately there are lots of Christians around the world who don't even have their own copy of the Bible in their own language. So my partners at Crew and their missionaries

all over the world have set out to change that and we can help. For just $24 a month, you can provide three people with Bibles of their own each month. That's 36 people every year who will have an opportunity to dig into the Word and see it change their lives thanks to your gift. So when you sign up to provide three Bibles with a monthly gift of $24 as a thank you,

Korea will provide meals to 12 hungry individuals through their humanitarian aid ministry. Plus, you'll also receive a free copy of Christian and I's latest book, How to Put Love First. If you haven't heard of it, it's a 90-day devotional challenge challenging you to put God first in your life. So, simply text GOOD to 71326 to help today. Just imagine how much this monthly gift could truly change someone's life by texting GOOD to 71326, that's GOOD, G-O-O-D, to 71326 to help now or visit give.cru, C.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org.org. There is no can't when it come to Jesus, but there is can. So the thing that can't has to come. See, we don't know really understand the power of adoption.

I don't think we do. I really don't think we understand. Adoption is simply when you lose all rights with one family and you gain all rights with another family. Wow. Just that simple. And the thing of it is, and God proved that to us, because when he accepted us as sons and daughters, we lost rights to this world. In other words, we are not product of this world, but we are heavenly product. God hand print is on our life. God got his name written over our forehead.

So what we are today, we're in a place now that we are the king kids. We are those peculiar folks that the Bible talks about. We got strange ways. We got familiar waves. Our waves does not fit. And that's why Jesus said, darkness and light can't come together.

Why? Because we once was in dark, but we lost them right now we're in the light. So by being in the lights now, we are different people. We're not the same no more. And the world look at us as we peculiar. Well, I thank God for that.

Because if the world look at you as the same, that means something is wrong in your life. But when the world look at us and we're gonna kill you. Well, I thank God for that. Because if the world look at you as the same, that means something is wrong in your life. But when the world look at you and say you are different, that means that God got his hands on your life. Because you don't look like the world, you don't act like the world, you don't talk like the world. Because you got a new identity and you got a new name.

You got your name is written in the Lamb book of life. You got a new blood. You don't have a the Lamb Book of Life, you got a new blood. You don't have a blood transfusion. The blood of Jesus is running in your veins now. So you aren't going to look the same. You're not going to be the same. You can't act the same. So I really thank God today that His children are going to look like His children.

That's why He don't mind us calling His name, because we favor Him. If anybody want to know like Jesus, look at me, because I'm His child. He's going to be... Lord, I'm going to say Jesus. That's so good. I love it so much. So speaking of looking different, being different, acting different, there is a character in the movie, and I'm sure this represented more than just one person,

who kind of represented the chatter, right? The chatter of, you know, this is gonna be hard. That person who's like, you're stepping into something that God's telling you to do, and then people start going, are you sure about that? Are you crazy? You know, y'all have two kids already. This happened. You lost your mom. The church only has five or no. Like, you're hearing all of the reality of what you're facing. How do you overcome the chatter and the noise to stay obedient to what God put on your heart? First of all, you know, the scripture comes to me that, you know, it says that, you know, to follow Christ,

you got to first deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow after Him. Yeah. So, speaking again of looking like Jesus, becoming what He has called us to be, it's totally you have to deny yourself. You know, you can't do this, who is it, John said, no man can do this work except Christ be with us. You just have to know that you've been ordained or you've been called for purpose. And someone could say, well, I got two and I'm through. I've got four, no more.

I got six and that's it. But if God is calling you and then when He speaks to you, how can you deny it? I mean, really, literally, truly, a Christian, a child, how can a mother, you're a mother and there's mothers and fathers listening, that loves their children and one is crying. You can't put a stopper in your ear and not hear that sound. That cry is a call to action to go and see. So we had to focus and we went through, if you will, hell and high water. Much persecution. Much, much, much,

much, much, much. All all we had was each other. All we had was the church members. All we had was those precious people's impulsive trot. Wow. But we had each other. Yeah. And that was enough. We would go to church and we'd dance and we'd shot. I loved it.

We'd get through every battle, or every disappointment and setback, the man of God would always give us a word, or somebody would come through, you know, like spirit, Christians, right? Not those that just say, I am. But those who know, because the Bible says you should know them

by the fruit they bear. So we know each other, right Sadie? We know each other. Right, gosh. That's what I love about the movie so much is the community that you guys had. And there's a quote in the movie and it says something along the lines of, the burden should be light, but it's only light if we carry it together, if you're sharing it. And you guys truly shared your burdens.

Y'all were going through it at the same time. Speak to that a little bit. You know, you mentioned something a while ago, and I think it was something to the effect that sometimes, you know, is that discomfort, casual comfort, go to church and just get, you know, feeling comfort, you know, but you have to be, your spirit have to be disturbed. You say something to that fact. On our door at the

church, you have enter to worship, depart to serve. So if you enter the church to be refired up or rekindled, you enter out the church to get ready to serve. You know, to serve God, and that's the place. And burdens, see, that's what we done. See, God strengthened one to be a strength to the other. He told Peter, he said, Peter, Satan desire to sift you as wheat, but I prayed for thee that thy faith may be strengthened. When you are converted, go strengthen your brother.

This is what we are to do. And this is what we've done. We shared one another burden. When there was a problem in the community, I mean, look, I mean, I stayed on the road all the time. Going to them, going to that school, going to that school, they got a problem here, I got to go there. But you know what?

Out of all the running that I did and everything, because both of us couldn't be in action like that all at the same time. She knew her role, I knew my role. I know what I had to do. And I know goodness well I had to go out there and put some fires out. When there was a fire burning, I had to go put it out. And that's what I done. And it got so tough one time until I just had to get away for a while I had to get out and just go and take me as a battle go and get my head straight

Because there was so much that we had to deal with People was talking why they bringing all these are bad children in this community I mean it was just it was just an influx of stuff, you know throughout that area down there, but not one time Did we back up, or not one time did we say we can't handle this. If God be for us, who can be against us? And this is the thing, I guess, that kept the motivation going, to knowing,

I just said that the word can't is not in the Bible, but can, I can do all things. That's A-L-L-O, all things through Christ, these are strength to me. So the thing that we have to understand, we got to take God at his word. Lord, him, and Jesus. See, we can't, it's no sense in me sitting up here

fooling myself. I can't do this in my own strength. I can't make it in my own strength. But with God, I can do this in my own strength. I can make it in my own strength. But with God, I can do all things. But with God, I'm able to speak to my mouth and my mouth can got to move. In God, I can put the devil under my feet. And there's no way in the world he can overcome me

because greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. So how can we allow the enemy to overpower us when God done gave us all of this? We got more than we ever need. Oh, God won't somebody do nothing, just stand up. It ought to be some shat racks or some meat shacks and some bed-nogos and they'll say, look, sinner, I can't sit down.

I got to stand up because I got to stand for my God. When God, Lord Jesus, when God is on your side, you have a bad case or they can't help it. I just can't help myself. You telling me to shut up, I can't shut up. Because there's something on the inside telling me that, go ahead, I'm behind you, you can do that. You're an overcomer, you do that, you're over coming,

you're this, you're that, why can we sit down on that? We just can't do it. Come on. Come on. For all the parents out there, you can probably relate, there has definitely been a time or two you've walked into a room and had poop on you. Y'all, it just gets messy.

Life with kids is definitely messy and diapers will always be in the mix. So let's talk about Every Life. This can hopefully help you not have poop on yourself. It's the fastest growing diaper company in America. Every Life also happens to believe that every baby is a gift from God and is worthy of love and protection no matter what.

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which are donated to pregnancy resource centers that urgently need them. So you can help serve women at clinics who have chosen life for their baby. So it is a win-win, and I highly recommend this. If you are a mom, maybe you're out of that stage, you're not a mom and you want to give to that, that would be amazing because everyone always needs diapers and why not do it with a mission. I think for me, you know, I'm gonna have to buy diapers anyways and so

why not buy diapers that are actually giving to such an amazing cause that believe in moms and believe in the babies that are coming into this world. So visit everylife.com that's everylife.com and use our promo code WOAH to get 10% off your first order today. everylife.com and use the promo code WOAH at checkout to save 10% off your first order. Gosh, every time you talk it makes me cry because the passion and the belief that you have in the Word God gave us, the belief you have in the God that we serve. So many times, I feel like with just, I hate to say this about the church as a whole, but just, and I do this too, it's like you have this book of truth, like a message from God with words in it

that are life altering, completely life changing, and we just sit it on the shelf, or we just open it to go to church, and we just have our little moment, and you pray your prayers. But to see two people so firmly believe and take heart, everything that God has given us through the word that He's given us, and hold onto it, and speak it through the hard times, and pray for it, and believe it, and then live the lives that

you've led. Y'all are just two of the most authentic people I've ever met in my life, and the most incredible example of what it actually means like to be a Christian and to be a child of God and live it fully. And I am like, that's why I said at the beginning of this podcast, I believe y'all are the two most important people I've ever had on this podcast because I don't know that everyone has ever seen an example of two people believe God at His word, like the two of you have done that. And you guys are in a community of people who do that. I wish more people were in Possum Trout or a community like that to understand what that looks like.

Because you said, we don't understand what adoption is. I think we don't understand what a lot of things are. I don't know that we understand what prayer is, like you guys understand it. I don't know if we understand what scripture is, like you guys understand it to be true. And so the way that you speak about what you believe is life-changing just sitting here listening and being a part of it. And I love the Word. I love God. I love prayer, but I'm completely moved by the way that you guys live your life. Because Sadie, honey, it's like this is our life., to not have this 100% investment

Literally, to not have this 100% investment in what He had called us to do, you have to understand that was a transformation, because I was like that. And when I said yes, then life began. You know, life is living through trials, right? Jesus sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it.

You know, so the work that God called us to do for those who made care to condemn. No, God said no. I didn't share it in my blood. I didn't ask for, as my husband said, we didn't know all the ins and outs. We didn't ask God, how are we gonna do this? How this gonna work?

We were just moved. We just knew it was Him and took it on. So really, it puts me in the mind of Paul when he was on that road of domestic. You know, God had to knock him off of that horse and really be with them and change his way of thinking. So to sit here today and being called out of control or crazy or what do they think they're doing. Our life was changed. We were on a road of destruction within our own self, right? But God came in and He spoke life.

He gave me a second wind. And this is an anointing. It's bigger than my husband and I. It's bigger than possum trot. You know, this is world renowned. Because this issue is just not only in possum trot or it's not just only here in your state. It's all over the world.

And God sent His son, His son gave His life that He could have other sons and daughters, that not a child, nowhere in the universe would be left without a loving home. And today, every time I watch the movie, it messes me up. Because one thing, when you're doing what he said to do, you just focus.

You're not, you can't hear the noise around you. You can't listen to the naysayers. You gotta stay focused. And when I see that on the film, those actors done amazing. Amazing. Mika. Amazing. Amazing. Nika.

Amazing. Amazing. The movie, the quality. I mean, every, the writers, producers, hey, that's God's hand. And it's so big, and what God does is big. And He is crying. He using the sound of hope that just like I heard that voice, that same anointing is resting today

that others will hear that voice and receive it. And let's annihilate this family crisis. The enemy does not care about us going to church. He don't mind us dressing up, putting on our heels or whatever, however we come. He don't mind us dressing up, putting on our heels, or whatever, however we come. He don't mind that. He don't mind us clapping our hands and saying amen and saying, Pastor, you preached a good sermon today.

But what he's afraid of is obedience. Come on. And obedience is breathing grounds for miracle. Whew. That is truth. Oh my gosh, that is so good and that is so true. Gosh, I feel like I've said this before on this podcast where there are moments I wish I wasn't the interviewer because I step into the seat of the listener as I'm listening

to people like you guys and I'm so deeply impacted. There are moments I don't know how to lead this when I'm learning and that's kind of what I hinted at earlier. It's easier to lead it when you lived it. So I will let you guys lead it and I'll learn from it and I will continue to learn from it. And the movie was so much more than a movie. I don't cry in

movies, believe it or not. I've always been the girl who all my friends are crying and I'm like, that's kind of embarrassing. I feel like I should be crying right now, but I'm not. But that movie wrecked me. I cannot stop crying. But what it did for me was last night, had the best conversations with my husband and wake up and pray and lean in to what God is doing. And I hope if anything, this podcast, some of you, you might not know what to do with this. What do I do with hearing stories like this? What do I do with hearing people so passionate about God?

What do I do with that? Lean into it, ask God, pray about it, have conversations with people closest to you in your life, and let God speak, open your ears to listen to Him and whatever He's doing in your heart, open your heart to whatever that might be. That's what I'm doing, I'm learning and I'm leaning in. I want to ask you this, and if we're not allowed to say this, we can cut this part out, but for those who haven't seen the movie and don't know, they will go see it. So I don't want to give this away.

If it's a part of the movie, you don't want to give away. But the significance of what you all did in possum trot is incredible, particularly whenever you called, you know, Susan and said, we're ready to take more children. And what did she tell you all? said we're ready to take more children and what did she tell y'all? She said, I'm sorry to tell you that there is no more children. Wouldn't it be amazing in every state that the leaders in those communities pick up the phone and say, look, do you have any more?

Wouldn't that be something? That half a million children that's in the system. And if everybody look at the amount of churches that we have. And if you do the math, if every church just reach in and get one, we will end this crisis. Just one. Just one. And the amazing thing about it is that

I wouldn't be afraid to step. See, faith is the substance of things, the hope for. Evidence of things not seen. We always try to figure out the end results. You don't worry about that. You just do the work and let God do the end results. We don't do that though because we don't have faith. The first thing we start thinking, well, it ain't gonna work.

It ain't gonna do like this. It ain't gonna be like, how do you know? Only God holds the key for the next moment, the next second, the next hour, the next day, the next week. Only God hold those keys. We don't know. But if God wants somebody, you mentioned something just then, and I really want to say something about this, and I can't help it, I got to.

Say it. How do you know that this is, you believe in the Word and what the Word says? One of the things that I do know, God stand watch over His Word, and His Word will accomplish everything it is sent out to do. So it may not happen right at the moment,

but if you just hang on in there, sooner or later, God is gonna show up. That's right, that's good. That's the thing, that's my joy part right there to know that, you know, if, and you mentioned a while ago going going through the valley of the shepherd. You know what I love about the script, you, that we just going through it.

That's right. That you ain't there to stay. That's right. You going, it said, yay, do I walk through. Come on. That means that you not there to stay. You just there for a moment. And sometimes the Lord will allow us to go in the valley

in order to teach us a lesson. But notice what David said, he said, I will feel no evil because he knew that he wasn't in that valley by himself. He knew he had some help, he said, because thou art with me. When you know that the Lord is with you, you don't care what the devil do, you just stand your ground and do what the Lord said. It ain't nothing for you to worry about. I don't know how we gonna come out of this. Look, the same God that brought you out of that last situation that you're in,

he's still able, he ain't lost his power. He ain't lost his strength. He's still able to take you through it. So, only thing we need to do is just to be those people that say, I am not gonna give up. I'm gonna press my way through. And pressing is not always easy. But if you just keep on, just keep on, just keep on,

sooner or later, you coming out of that valley. Come on, let's go. We are going to church in the Whoa Let's Go podcast. Y'all, this has been one of, if not the most, my favorite podcasts ever, the fact that we just went to church. And I just want to say to those listening, you have to go see the movie. Supporting movies like this by buying a ticket shows people in Hollywood that these are the

kind of movies that we want to see, that we want to be made. But more than just the movie, support the movement of what's happening. As he mentioned, if every church just took in one kid, then literally we wouldn't even have this problem. There would be no more kids to adopt because they would all have homes, just like what happened in Possum Trot. It says at the end of the movie, there's about 400,000 kids in the foster care system, about 100,000, I think, waiting to be placed in a home for adoption. And when you think about that, that's honestly not that many when you think about how big the church is. Even thinking about the people who follow me,

the people who listen to this podcast, it's not uncommon for this podcast to be listened to by 400,000 people. And I know not everyone is in a place to adopt. Some of you aren't even married yet. Some of you are in college. But for those of you who have space for that, just like Christian and I are doing, open your heart to ask God what that looks like for you. Pray into that. Maybe ask your pastor what ways you can help out your local community. Maybe there's other people in your church adopting, and you can help them with some

of the funds that they need for diapers or formula, or maybe they're adopting older kids and you can just help them be a friend or a prayer partner in their life. There is a way you can help one way or another. So try to dive in and get involved with what that looks like. But first, go see the movie, The Sound of Hope, Possum Trout, the story of Possum Trout,

in theaters July 4th and Juneteenth in about a thousand theaters. Go check it out and definitely share it on social media so that this movement continues to spread. ["I'm On My Way To You"]