Documentary records 13-year-old cancer victim’s story of hope

MIDLOTHIAN—I Am Second held the premiere showing of its first 45-minute documentary at First Baptist Church in Midlothian. But unlike many of the ministry’s previous projects, the film did not feature a celebrity’s Christian testimony. Rather, it told a “story of hope” involving a 13-year-old boy who died of cancer the month before.

Many are the Wonders: The Second Story of Ethan Hallmark, focuses not only on Ethan Hallmark is prepped for a cancer treatment at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort WorthEthan, but also on his mother, father, friends and the difference one young man’s four-year battle with stage-4 neuroblastoma had on his community.

After being contacted by a minister in Midlothian, I Am Second dispatched a staff member to see if Ethan’s story might be right for one of the five-minute videos shown at iamsecond.com. The videos follow a simple format—a camera trained on a single individual in a white chair telling his or her Christian testimony.

“We were just blown away from the manner in which God has worked through Ethan and the family over these four years. It’s been incredible how from what started out to be just a devastating situation for the family and for him, God had grown the family,” said John Humphrey, director of communications for I Am Second.

Ethan Hallmark greets teams participating in a Midlothian high school football game.“The more we delved into the story, the more layers came about. We said: ‘We have to do something different. This is not just a five-minute white-chair film. We have to tell this differently.’”

The ministry’s budget didn’t include funds for a longer film, but people from Midlothian raised the extra money needed to produce it.

The documentary pictures the Hallmark family in their home and follows Ethan to the hospital. Ethan does sit in the white chair used in other I Am Second videos, but so do his mother and father, Rachel and Matt Hallmark.

The nature of the video and the length of the relationship offered the I Am Second personnel a level of emotional intimacy that doesn’t usually occur, Humphrey said.

“We’ve gotten to know this family well. We have hurt with them, rejoiced with them, cried with them. And we don’t usually get to do that, particularly with a celebrity Second. This is probably the deepest relationship we’ve been able to establish with a family,” he said.

Ethan Hallmark with his parents.That emotional intimacy and the seriousness of the situation caused the producers to confront some hard questions during the process of making the film.

“At each step, we were presented with all sorts of decisions—how to involve the family, how to be sensitive to their needs, how to be sensitive with the opportunity. We would ask ourselves, ‘Are we being too selfish in taking this story and using it in our movement when it is their story?’ At every step of the way as we prayed about it, we felt God urging us to go ahead but also consulted with the Hallmarks. And every step of the way, they said, ‘We just want God to use Ethan’s story,’” Humphrey recalled.

“Ethan loved God with his whole heart. The hope he had stemmed from that,” Matt Hallmark said. “He was a kid who truly lived out his faith.”

That faith was a gift from God, he added.

“It came from God. I know that’s cliché, but it’s true. It’s not because of us. We’re not special parents or anything. We’re just regular parents. But God gave him an amazing spirit,” he said.

“It would not surprise us at any point in the day to walk in and see him sitting there with his Bible, reading it. I don’t care where he’s at—at the hospital, at a soccer game, at home, at school. That’s Ethan.”

The large crowd who attended the premiere of the documentary “means Ethan’s cancer is not wasted. A lot of people get cancer. A lot of people suffer. It’s what you do with it, who’s benefitting from it,” Hallmark said.

The video proves hope is possible even in horrific circumstances, Rachel Hallmark observed.

“A lot of people would say that’s a story of despair. This poor child has only lived to the age of 13. He’s not going to get to grow up; he’s not going to get to go to high school; he’s not going to get married. I guess by worldly standards, that’s a story of despair,” she said.

Ethan Hallmark prepares for a session of chemotherapy.“Ethan never saw it that way, and surely, neither did we. Don’t get me wrong. We’re heartbroken that he is gone. We’re heartbroken that he had to spend a third of his life fighting cancer. But it ultimately is and always has been a story of hope.

“One of his pet peeves was for people to say, ‘It’s OK to be angry at God. This is a horrible disease. It’s OK to be angry every once in a while.’ He would tell me: ‘Mom, why do they say that to me? How could I be angry? I know God loves me. I don’t like this cancer. I’m upset I have to go through surgery, chemo and radiation, but I could never be angry at God.’”

Through the film, Ethan’s Christian testimony of hope will be shared long after his death, and that is important to the Hallmarks.

“It allows us to see the good even in the ashes,” Matt Hallmark said. “It’s being able to see that even though Ethan suffered, even though he died, people are still coming to know the Lord. People are still getting closer, getting intimate with God because Ethan endured.”