| Sam Childers | |
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Sam Childers arriving at a book signing of Another Man’s War in Beverly Hills, CA on May 5, 2009 |
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| Nationality | United States |
| Notable work(s) | Another Man’s War |
Sam Childers (born 1962) is a former gang biker who now dedicates his life and resources to rescue children in the war zone of South Sudan. Childers and his wife Lynn founded and operate Angels of East Africa, the Children's Village Orphanage in Nimule, Sudan, where they currently have more than 300 children in their care.
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Sam Childers was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the son of Paul Childers, a union ironworker. Sam had two older brothers, Paul Jr. and George. He also had a sister, Donna, who died of a heart problem before she was a year old. While he was growing up, his parents moved from place to place following construction projects.
In the spring of 1974, a couple months before Sam turned twelve, his family moved to Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He was going into seventh grade that fall, and the two years between then and when he started high school were some of the most influential times of his life. It was in these formative years that Sam discovered cigarettes, marijuana, and alcohol which led to many years of drug addiction, drug dealing, and alcoholism. Sam also developed a love for motorcycles and the lifestyle that often follows an outlaw biker.[1]
In the summer of 1992, Childers experienced what he described as a revival during a conversion to Christianity at an Assembly of God church. That same evening Childer's pastor prophesied that he would go to Africa. At the end of 1998, Childers made his first trip to Sudan. In that first trip and the many that followed, he was exposed to the acts of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)[2] which he described as atrocious.
Over 30,000 children have been abducted by Joseph Kony and the LRA in the region.[3] Relief organizations report as many as 50,000 children have been abducted and 1.7 million people have been displaced. The abducted children are generally forced to be child soldiers or sex slaves until they escape, are rescued or killed. Thousands of children have become orphans as a result of brutal LRA attacks on remote villages in Southern Sudan and northern Uganda.
Not long after his first trip to Sudan, Childers and his wife Lynn founded the Angels of East Africa, the Children's Village in Southern Sudan.[4] The Children’s Village currently houses and educates over 300 orphans,[5] with over a thousand children rescued since its inception.[6] The staff at the Children's Village are primarily Sudanese orphans and widows themselves. This is currently the largest orphanage in Southern Sudan and is unique in its approach of leading armed rescue missions directly into LRA territory.
Childers details the events of his life and his experiences in Africa in his book Another Man's War.[7]
In November 2009, Childers appeared on Debra Peppers' television show Outreach Connection in Quincy, Illinois. He revealed that he also rescues children abducted in northern Uganda.[8]
The biopic about Childers is titled Machine Gun Preacher was directed by Marc Forster, with Gerard Butler portraying Childers.