Sam Childers

Sam Childers (born 1963) is a former Outlaws member 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, South Sudan, where they currently have more than 300 children in their care.

In 2013 he received the Mother Teresa Awards for Social Justice.^[1][2]

Early life

Sam Childers was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the son of Paul Childers, an ironworker and former Marine.^[3] Childers 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 the family from place to place, following construction projects.

In the spring of 1974, shortly before Childers turned 12, his family moved to Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He was going into seventh grade that fall, and the two years before he started high school were some of the most influential times of his life. It was in these formative years that he discovered cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol and heroin, which led to many years of drug addiction, drug dealing, and alcoholism. Childers also developed a love for motorcycles and the lifestyle that often follows an outlaw biker.^[4]

Sam eventually married a woman named Lynn, who was a club stripper before converting to Christianity, and had a daughter (Paige) and a son who later died of a heroin overdose.

Africa

In the summer of 1992, Childers converted to Christianity shortly after, and with the help of his wife at a revival meeting at an Assembly of God church. That same evening Childers' 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)^[5] which he described as atrocious. 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.^[6] The Children’s Village currently houses and educates over 300 orphans,^[7] with over a thousand children rescued since its conception.^[8] 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.^[9]

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.^[10]

In popular culture

In 2011, Relativity Media released a biopic about Childers entitled Machine Gun Preacher, which was based on Childers' book Another Man's War. The film was written by Jason Keller and directed by Marc Forster. The cast featured Gerard Butler in the title role, Michelle Monaghan as Childers' wife Lynn, and Michael Shannon as his best friend Donnie.

In 2014, a documentary with the same title was produced by Angels of East Africa. It was released in North America by Vision Films (USA).

References

External links

• Official Movie Site for "Machine Gun Preacher"
• Angels of East Africa
• Interview with Sam Childers about Machine Gun Preacher