Local Ministries

Foster Care Ministry to host movie screening

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot tells tells the story of an unincorporated community in eastern Texas where 22 families of the local Baptist church emptied the area’s foster care system.

by Marc and Julie Anderson
mjanderson@theleaven.org

OVERLAND PARK — Everybody can do something to help.

That’s the message that Kathy White, foster care ministry coordinator for the archdiocese, wants to spread.

Approximately 400,000 children within the United States are in foster care; 7,500 are in Kansas. White believes everyone within the archdiocese can do something to help these children. After all, other communities have done it.

Take for example, Possum Trot, an unincorporated community in eastern Texas. In the mid-1990s, 22 families of the local Baptist church adopted 77 children, emptying the area’s foster care system.

“Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot,” a full-length feature film released in summer of 2024 by Angel Studios, tells the community’s story, sharing the joys and challenges of foster care. It also shows ways the church community worked together through prayer, helping with household chores and the sharing of financial resources to provide the children what they needed most — love.

In what White hopes will be the first of similar events across the archdiocese, the foster care ministry will host a screening of the movie on Feb. 6 at the Glenwood Arts Theater in Overland Park. Complimentary tickets are limited, so people are encouraged to register soon. Due to the sensitive nature of the film, organizers recommend it for only those 14 years of age and older.

The evening begins at 6 p.m. with a reception featuring appetizers and wine during which attendees will have the opportunity to meet foster care parents and hear remarks from Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann. Organizers hope to later invite attendees to an informational session on foster care ministry.

Of the film, the archbishop has said, “Addressing the foster care crisis must be a high priority for the church’s pro-life efforts. ‘Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot’ is an inspirational true story of what one tiny church in Texas was able to do when they responded to God’s call to open their hearts and homes to society’s forgotten children. ‘Sound of Hope’ does not romanticize the challenges of foster care but reveals what is possible when an entire church community chooses to put the Gospel into action.”

White agrees with the sentiment.

“I really believe that everybody can do something to help, and that’s what this film shows,” she said.

For more information and to register for the event, click here.

About the author

Marc & Julie Anderson

Freelancers Marc and Julie Anderson are long-time contributors to the Leaven. Married in 1996, for several years the high school sweethearts edited The Crown, the former newspaper of Christ the King Parish in Topeka which Julie has attended since its founding in 1977. In 2000, the Leaven offered the couple their first assignment. Since then, the Andersons’ work has also been featured in a variety of other Catholic and prolife media outlets. The couple has received numerous journalism awards from the Knights of Columbus, National Right to Life and the Catholic Press Association including three for their work on “Think It’s Not Happening Near You? Think Again,” a piece about human trafficking. A lifelong Catholic, Julie graduated from Most Pure Heart of Mary Grade School and Hayden Catholic High School in Topeka. Marc was received into the Catholic Church in 1993 at St. Paul Parish – Newman Center at Wichita State University. The two hold degrees from Washburn University in Topeka. Their only son, William James, was stillborn in 1997.

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