Machine Gun Preacher: Ex-Biker-Gang Member Turns Savior

SOUTHFIELD (WWJ) - After watching Machine Gun Preacher, you may just walk away motivated, inspired and, possibly, even searching for a higher calling.

Machine Gun Preacher is truly an inspirational story. It's based on the life of Sam Childers, an ex-biker-gang member-drug-dealing criminal, who undergoes an amazing transformation and becomes the savior of hundreds of kidnapped and orphaned children in war-torn Sudan.

Childers was going nowhere fast when he returned home after being released from prison. And while his devoted wife had moved on from her previous life as a stripper – and was encouraging him to reform and turn his life over to God - Childers refused and returned to a life of crime.

Things changed for Childers, however, when he ultimately decided to attend church services with his family. But his life changed completely in 1998 when he traveled to East Africa to help repair homes destroyed by civil war.

"When I went into Sudan on my first trip, I saw the body of a very small child who had been blown up by a landmine," says Childers. "And I said right there, I'll do whatever it takes to help these children. I didn't realize it was going to change my entire life. I didn't realize I was going to have to walk away from everything I knew, but that's what happened."

And little did Childers know at the time that his efforts would pit him up against the brutal and notorious Lord's Rebel Army (LRA), a guerilla group led by the charismatic mystic Joseph Kony, who was kidnapping small children and forcing them to commit unthinkable atrocities. But, Childers' determination led him to pick up his gun and lead heavily armed "rescue missions" to find children and take them to the orphanage he had started, the Angles of East Africa, to house, educate and rehabilitate them.

Machine Gun Preacher is directed by Golden Globe-nominated Marc Forster (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland). Forster says he wondered, at first, if Childers' story was actually true. And with the movie now in theaters, Forster is confident that Machine Gun Preacher will get people talking and asking themselves what they would do if they found themselves in a position similar to Childers'. If the reactions of the audience members who watched it with me are any indication, Forster is right on the money.

Machine Gun Preacher stars Gerard Butler as Childers, along with Michelle Monaghan, Kathy Baker, Madeline Carroll, Academy Award ® nominee Michael Shannon and Souleymane Sy Savane. Rated R. In theaters now.

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