Sunshine Coast Hinterland Times

Reverand Sam Childers is a former drug dealing, outlaw biker who now risks his life to rescue children in Southern Sudan from one of the world’s most wanted and vicious terrorists. He operates the biggest orphanage in an area so dangerous that few international aid groups dare enter.

Reverand Sam Childers with a Sudanese boy whose father, mother and brother were killed by rebels. The boy was also shot three times and left for dead. Photo: Kevin Evans

For the last 12 years Rev. Childers has been battling to rescue children from horrific violence in one of the world’s most lawless areas in Sudan. A brutal terrorist, named Joseph Kony, and his rebel army known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have been relentlessly terrorising thousands of innocent people. Under Kony’s direction the LRA ambushes unsuspecting villages, burns all the houses, then tortures, maims and kills the people.

Over 100,000 children have been captured and enslaved into Kony’s rebel army. These children are often forced to kill their parents or be killed themselves. Neither the government nor any of the international humanitarian organisations can protect these villagers because it’s too dangerous.

Rev. Childers, who’s been called the “Machine Gun Preacher”, is on a mission to rescue as many children as he can and put an end to Kony’s reign of terror. He fights on the front line of the war zone, at times sleeping in the bush with an AK-47 on one side and a bible on the other.

Rev Childers will make a one-off visit to the Hinterland this month, with a public presentation in Maleny on November 25.

To date he’s rescued over 1000 children and reunited 700 of them with their families. The other 300 children live in an orphanage that Rev. Childers built, where they are protected and rehabilitated to reclaim a semblance of their childhood.

“Another Man’s War: The True Story of One Man’s Battle to Save Children in the Sudan” please

Rev. Childers’ story is told in a captivating and highly inspirational memoir “Another Man’s War: The True Story of One Man’s Battle to Save Children in the Sudan”.

The story tells of Childers’ remarkable transformation from a violent, drug dealing thug and outlaw biker to a man of faith with a passion for saving the lives of children in Africa.

For more information contact Brock Cattanach – Ph: 0406- 931-264 or email bcattanach@seven.com.au For details of Rev. Childers and his work in Sudan log onto www.machinegunpreacher.org

Date: Wednesday November 25

Time: 6.pm for 6.30pm start

Venue: The Maleny Baptist Function Centre, Cnr Maleny- Landsborough Road and McCarthy Road.

Admission: $10 Supper: tea, Montville Coffee and snacks available in support of Zambian children through ‘Friends of Ebenezer.’ Bookings essential – Phone Arcadia – 5429 6572 or email info@themadproject.com