Ohio Family Uses Plush Toys to Bring Comfort Amidst Tragedy

Brady Martin’s rare, aggressive form of leukemia required him to return to the children’s hospital four to six days per week for infusions. Side effects added to the 9-year-old’s misery. En route for another outpatient treatment, Brady declared, “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

His mom, Kristin S. Martin, shot a prayer heavenward. How to answer her precious third-grader? She explained to Brady that the painful treatments were keeping him alive.

An idea came. She shared it with Brady: “What if we change our perspective and be a light—be there not for treatment but on a mission to help somebody else?”

Brady immediately perked up and asked, “What do you have in mind?”

They’d been praying for his oncology nurse Mary, whose baby needed heart surgery. The two visited the hospital gift shop where Brady chose a fluffy pink unicorn for Mary, who received it with joy.

As the mother and son walked out of the hospital, Brady warmly described his day begun in dread as “the best day ever.” At his next treatment, Brady gave three stuffed animals to fellow patients.

And with that, the Martin family, in 2021, launched Way to Battle, a ministry that provides plush “Battle Pups" to anyone in need.

“God just put it on my heart this was a mission my family could do,” Martin says.

They chose to give plush dogs because they are "loyal, happy to see you no matter what your day was like. People can always keep stuffed animals with them.”

While Martin initially envisioned Battle Pups for those contending against cancer, the Lord had a grander plan. As she posted on Facebook about Brady’s treatment and their new ministry, others asked how to help fund the fledgling ministry and how their suffering loved ones could likewise get a Battle Pup.

“Everyone all the time is battling hard things,” says Martin, 42, who with her husband Chris, Brady and his twin Blake, now 13, and siblings Aubrey, 11, and Cooper, 4, attend C3 Church in Canal Winchester, Ohio, a Columbus suburb.

Since its founding, the ministry has distributed more than 70,000 Battle Pups to children and adults suffering crisis. Each pup wears a collar with Psalm 18:39a: “You armed me with strength for battle,”.

Those battle include the myriad troubles of life, such as gun violence and trauma survivors, teenagers who have lost siblings, parents in memory care units, and adults and children alike who are enduring similar trials.

“All these things are hard,” Martin says.

Families suffering from mass tragedies also reach out to request Battle Pups — tragedies such as wildfires, hurricanes, and even school shootings. Soon the ministry began supporting entire families and schools.

Today the ministry offers 29 different breeds. “When we send Battle Pups to classrooms, we want everyone to have a different one, or different dog for each person in the family,” she says.

As the ministry has grown by word of mouth, so has its funding.

“It’s all grassroots—people who believe in what we do and our mission and want to help us,” Martin says. “They continue to drive it forward and allow us to keep going.” Way to Battle’s website has an online giving page for donations. Ministry volunteers write notes for Battle Pup recipients, put Scripture collars on each dog, and ship them nationwide and beyond.

While Way to Battle’s mission isn’t primarily proselytizing, they also do not hide their faith or the belief that Christ is the ultimate source of help. “We’re not going in to schools and preaching the gospel. We’re going in and planting seeds.”

Martin has written about her family’s journey in her book Through the Battle: One Family’s Journey of Fighting for Joy.

Danielle Dickerson directs the women’s and girls’ ministries of the Ohio Ministry Network. Her son Zachariah, 8, took his Battle Pup named Brutus into surgery for a finger injury.

When Zachariah awoke in recovery, he discovered that the staff had put a bright red cast on Brutus’s front leg—one identical to the cast on the child’s arm. The verse on the collar opened the door for the boy to share Jesus with his doctors and nurses.

Dickerson nominated her neighbor Joe’s family to receive Battle Pups after Joe dropped dead of a heart attack while jogging. After Joe’s death, his family members received Battle Pups, as did Dickerson, likewise grieving.

“This is not just for kids,” Dickerson says. “You wouldn’t believe the comfort they bring to adults.”

This year’s Ohio AG Girls service project is fundraising for Way to Battle to purchase more Battle Pups.

“I’m super-excited to help her in a small way,” says Dickerson. “God is going to do amazing things through this ministry that came about because of a difficult time.”

Battle Pups are examples of the amazing things that God births from the ashes of tragedy and suffering, Dickerson notes. “He births amazing dreams, visions, our next big yes through our brokenness.”