altre notizie in proposito(occhio alla moto...)
http://www.ourtownonline.biz/articles/2009...cal/news237.txtSamuel Childers is a minister, a soldier and loves to ride his Harley-Davidson — an unusual combination to say the least.Now a movie is being made about his life.
Childers lives in Stonycreek Township where his ministry has built a sanctuary, the Shekinah Fellowship Church. But his work doesn’t end in Somerset County. He has written a book called “Another Man’s War: The True Story of One Man’s Battle to Save Children in the Sudan,” published by Thomas Nelson.
Since the book was published, a screenplay has been written about his life. And it will soon be made into a major motion picture. Details are scarce; however,
actor Gerard Butler recently visited Childers at his church in Central City. Butler may play the “Machine Gun Preacher” in the movie. Screenwriter Jason Keller wrote the screenplay about Childers, who got his unique moniker from his aggressive style of
saving African children from warlords.“Keller is one of the best screenwriters in the world,” Childers said. “God didn’t give me just one of the best, but all of the people involved with the movie are in the top 10.”
Talent includes Marc Forster, the director who made the latest 007 movie, “Quantum of Solace.” Forster was also recently in Somerset County to learn more about Childers’ life.And there is a lot to learn.
Childers said that his life started out in a typical manner. He had an ordinary childhood with a “good Christian upbringing,” even though his father, an iron worker, had to move the family from state to state whenever he was laid off.
“My father never believed in unemployment,” Childers said. “He felt it was welfare. So our family moved a lot.”
He attended school at Shanksville, moved to Minnesota and ended up in Florida, where he became involved with drinking and drugs.
“I knew at a young age right from wrong, but that didn’t stop me,” he said. “I did not gradate from any high school. I’m a miracle from God. I don’t have a high school diploma, yet I taught in colleges. I recently returned from Australia where I spoke in 27 high schools.”
It was in Florida, the same state where he became a drug addict, that he found God.
“One day I just woke up and knew the drugs were going to kill me,” Childers said.
In 1986 Childers and his wife, Lynn, moved back to Pennsylvania where he started a construction business. They returned to Florida during the down months.
“I worked doing roofing and building and my business took off,” he said. “It was in 1992 I turned my life completely over to God.”
He became a preacher, starting his first church in Clear Spring, Md., in 1995.
“After leaving the church, God called me to be an evangelist, which I did, at first speaking to 20 to 30 people at a time. Now I speak on average to 3,000 to 6,000 people at a time,” he said.
Childers said it was on his first mission trip in 1998 to Sudan, Africa, that he received his true calling: to save children from the Lord’s Resistance Army.
“I saw what happened to a small child who had stepped on a land mine and I knew I had to do something,” he said.
That’s when he began his mission work in Africa, taking money, food and clothing to the refuges. Childers started an orphanage for displaced children along with one of the larger churches in the area.
“I also do personal security there, so that is where I met many stars from Hollywood and worked with programs such as ‘Dateline’ and ‘National Geographic,’” he said.
His ministry work grew and he knew it was time to write a book about his life.
Childers said filmmakers hope to shoot the movie in Somerset County, but that will depend on if money is available from the state.
“They give tax breaks in the state to film here, but they only have so much tax dollars per year. If they don’t shoot here, the actors will be coming back and forth for the next six months to spend time with me to catch the character in order to play the part,” he said.
“They should start filming in May.”The movie is tentatively called “The Machine Gun Preacher.”“This is really going fast. People who live in small towns think things like this do not happen,” Childers said. “I wrote the book in March and one year later look what is happening.”
Childers’ work has not stopped because of the movie deal. He said he has written a second book, which will be published after the movie. He plans to return to his work in Africa the day after Christmas.
