FBI Raids 'Machine Gun' Preacher's Home

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CBN News

Sam Childers, the man known as the "Machine Gun Preacher," is the subject of a possible federal investigation as FBI agents recently raided his home and ministry headquarters.

Childers is best known for his charitable work rescuing kidnapped children in Africa.

Last year, he received the Mother Teresa Humanitarian Award for freeing African kids from the clutches of the infamous Lord's Resistance Army, a militant cult in Uganda, Central African Republic, and South Sudan.

But last week, he was on the receiving end of the law while he was busy helping children on another continent. FBI agents raided his home and ministry in Somerset County, Pa.,

"I was told they came in guns drawn and told everyone to put their hands in the air, patted everyone down," Childers told CBN News.

"They made them all leave the building, put my daughter into a closed room and they started their search," he continued. "We suspect that they were searching for things leading, showing that I'm smuggling arms to Africa and selling them, which is totally crazy."

Childers said a shipping container full of clothing for the orphans was ruined.

He believes the federal action came at the urging of his former son-in-law who's accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the ministry.

Childers said he thinks it may be part of a plea agreement in the case. The FBI wouldn't comment.

Still, Childers said he believes the agents overreacted.

"Instead of going crazy and spending thousands and thousands of tax dollars, why didn't they just go and talk to the people who packed the containers?" he said.

They're members of his church, and many are over 50 years old who have been doing this for the past two years.

The Pennsylvania pastor's life story was told in the movie "Machine Gun Preacher" starring actor Gerard Butler.

The movie detailed his leaving a life of crime and drugs for following Christ and starting rescue and orphanage ministry in South Sudan.

He's currently there helping children trapped in South Sudan's civil war. He has taken in at least 18 orphans, including an 11-year-old boy he found roaming the streets of Kampala, Uganda.

"His parents were killed right before his eyes," Childers said. "(He) was sleeping on the streets of Kampala for two weeks eating garbage, so we have rescued him and he's at one of my homes in Kampala."

Childers said he expects to hear more from the FBI once he returns home, but knows his battle really isn't with them.

"It's definitely a spiritual attack. It doesn't matter what they do to me, God is in control and he still has victory," he said.

Click here to see the entire interview with Sam Childers.