Machine gun preacher Sam Childers’ chilling new vow
Machine gun preacher Sam Childers is on a new mission and it’s one he says he is willing to die for. Warning, disturbing content
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When Sam Childers was a hired gun for drug dealers he feared dying over something stupid.
A heroin addict at 15, he had quit school, moved out of home and ended up selling hard drugs on a large scale before becoming an enforcer.
After almost getting killed in a really bad bar fight in his 20s, he knew had to change his life.
Now 62, the machine gun preacher made famous by the movie of the same name, is fighting a new battle in the Congo to save children from militia groups including ISIS, Islamic State and the ADF of Congo.
This time he’s not afraid of dying, if it means saving more kids.
“God is not done with you until he gives you that last breath and then it’s over,’’ he says in a new documentary called NeverStop.
“I’m still in an active war zone and we’re still rescuing children and if that’s the way God wants me to go out, that’s the way I’ll go out.’’
“As long as I can walk … as long as I can shoot a gun, I’ll be rescuing children.’’
Childers is in Australia sharing the horrors of what is happening in the Congo and the work he is continuing to do in northern Uganda and southern Sudan.
He’s also sharing at schools about the perils of drugs.
While much of the world’s focus is on the war in Gaza and Ukraine, Childers points to far bigger atrocities in 110 conflicts around the globe.
Authorities estimate more than 5.4 million people have been killed in the Congo alone in the past two decades.
“Over half of that amount was children, but we don’t hear (about) it,’’ Childers says during a visit to the Sunshine Coast.
‘CHILDREN BEING BEHEADED’
“Just a few weeks ago, 70 children were beheaded.
“Last year, there were two (school) dormitories burnt to the ground.
“They padlocked the doors, burnt all the children up, the boys dorm and the girls dorm.”
It’s that horror that continues to drive Childers.
As Gerard Butler, who plays Childers in the movie says in one scene: “Helping you kids is about the only good thing I’ve ever done in this life.’’
Over the past 25 years, the former cocaine-dealing bikie from Pennsylvania has rescued thousands of kidnapped and abused children.
His work has earned him the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice in 2013.
In the documentary created by Sunshine Coast filmmaker Kevin Evans, who has been working with Childers for years, the horror of these kids have been through, and Childers’ work in giving them food, education, medicine, new skills and a job is powerfully portrayed.
Unlike the movie, all the proceeds from NeverStop will go towards the work of the Angels of East Africa.
In an interview with this publication, Childers speaks with passion, and emotion, as he describes the new threat facing kids in the Congo, and his vow to continue rescuing children.
He describes those operating in the Congo as similar to the terror-listed Lord’s Resistance Army, an extremist group led by madman Joseph Kony.
CHILDERS ON LRA MADMAN JOSEPH KONY
Kony could still be operating in the Congo, despite an arrest warrant being issued for him by the International Criminal Court back in 2005 for his crimes which have been including the brutal rape of abducted girls, the cutting off of their lips, noses and ears and the enlisting of young boys as child soldiers.
In the documentary, a friend of Childers tells of how the motorcycle enthusiast would not hesitate to take Kony out if given the chance.
“He’s in the Congo, and now God has me in the Congo,’’ Childers says in a trailer.
“So hopefully we will meet up one day.
“Maybe I can lead him to the Lord or send him there, one or the other.’’
Childers realises the scale of the problem means many just think they can’t do anything.
AUSSIES HELPING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
But he says with proper support, groups like his can make a real difference.
“We have five different children projects from orphanages to children’s homes to foster care.
“We also have a lot of businesses from farming, ranching, irrigation to supermarkets, automechanics, tyre shops, hotels.
“We are there to teach skills and trades to young people.
“We’re drilling wells. We do the Bush Kids project, but at the same time we create jobs. We have over 700 employees on the payroll right now.
Childers says the support from Australians, including individuals, businesses and churches has been overwhelming.
“We have had Australians come to Africa, work on the projects, put boots on the ground.
“We have a lot of Australians who fully support Angels of East Africa.
“I always tell people, I’m not looking for support as a missionary. I’m a businessman.
“But what I look for support for is Angels of East Africa, that’s supporting orphanages, feeding programs.
“Our feeding programs (involves) over 10,000 meals a day.
Most of the crops grown on the huge farm are given away.
“We give away tons and tons of food every Christmas.”
THE CHILD THAT STILL DRIVES CHILDERS
The emotion driving Childers is evident as he tells the story of his first encounter with a child who had their legs blown away in a landmine during his first trip to Africa.
“If you watch the movie Machine Gun Preacher, it shows me in the field and I hear a landmine go off. I run there, I find a child.
“It didn’t happen like that.
“I got there about five hours after the child stepped on a landmine.
“From the waist down was gone. I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl.”
“I knew I had to do something.
“And I looked up in the sky that day and I said, “God, I’ll do whatever it takes.” At that moment, I didn’t realise what I was saying.’’
He eventually left successful businesses to become a full-time missionary in a war zone.
Childers, who is now remarried to a younger woman he met in Africa, Justine, says he has been blessed by God to create successful businesses both in Africa and the US to support the work.
The NeverStop movie, which Childers says tells his story more accurately than the movie, is available for download at mgpneverstop.com or the Machine Gun Preacher site.
“Keep in mind, I’ve had Hollywood movies made of my life, documentaries made of my life, people made millions off my life. This documentary is being sold in-house. So all the documentary downloads that you do or your friends do goes directly to saving children. So we need your help.”
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