[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 119 (Tuesday, July 23, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING REVEREND W.C. AND DONNA MARTIN

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                          HON. NATHANIEL MORAN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 23, 2024

  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Reverend Wilbert C. 
Martin, pastor of Bennett Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Shelby 
County, Texas, and his wife Donna Martin. Through their efforts to live 
out their faith and serve others, they brought about the foster or 
adoption of seventy-seven of the most at-risk children in the Texas 
foster care system.
  Nearly three decades ago, Rev. W.C. Martin and his wife Donna, who 
already had two biological children, adopted another four, starting a 
movement of twenty-two families within the unincorporated Possum Trot 
community in East Texas to adopt seventy-seven children.
  Mrs Martin was inspired to adopt after the death of her beloved 
mother, Murtha, who had raised eighteen children. She stated, ``And the 
Holy Spirit said, `Think about those other children out there that do 
not have what you had with your mother.' I was overcome with such 
warmness. I walked back into the house, picked up the Yellow Pages and 
called an adoption agency.''
  The story of the Martins and the Bennett Chapel Baptist Missionary 
Association Church community has been retold in the recent film Sound 
of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot, which dramatizes their unbreakable 
faith and generosity for these children. Their story is an inspiration 
for all of us to give and love more, especially for the most 
vulnerable.

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