Known worldwide as the Machine Gun Preacher, the 52-year-old former bikie, drug addict and drug dealer has devoted his transformed life to helping poverty-stricken orphans in Africa and spreading his confronting Christian message.

Far from his devilish past, he now heads Angels of East Africa, which feeds 4000 children a day and operates orphanages and education outlets in South Sudan and Uganda.

Last year he was awarded the Mother Teresa memorial international award for social justice.

His story has been portrayed by actor Gerard Butler in a Hollywood movie, which gave him instant international fame as a no-nonsense action man, but the real Sam Childers has a softer side which he revealed in Warrnambool this week.

“I can’t walk away from these people who are going hungry and starving every day,” he told The Standard.

“We feed about 4000 a day — I want to do 6000 and to have 10 orphanages.

“The average kid in African orphanages leaves at the age of 15, but about 70 per cent end up in prostitution.

“We want to give them a future by teaching them a trade and offer them education through to the age of about 25.”

The aid outlets are funded by his businesses in Uganda and the US where he runs a motorcycle shop and security service. 

Income also comes from donations generated by his speaking tours which have included seven previous visits to Australia.

“We generate between $1.5 million and $2 million a year income, but all the profits go directly to the projects, he explained.

A sore point with him is that he says the movie production company has paid him only $200,000 instead of what he claims was a promised $1.05 million.

However, squabbling over money is nothing new to the man who once ruthlessly chased drug debts.

He was raised in a church-going family in the US, but went off the rails at the age of 11 when his drug and alcohol addiction started.

His life changed dramatically when his wife fell pregnant.

“I had wanted a child so much that I made a deal with God that I would walk away from the bad stuff if we could have a baby,” he recalled.

Three years after the birth of this daughter he followed his wife to a local church where he experienced a spiritual awakening.

“I always knew that God was real, but when I heard that message I knew it was for me and I experienced a taste of Christ,” he said.

“Serving Christ is like a buffet — we have to partake of it every day or we get hungry or go away.”

His Warrnambool message delivered at Gateway Church to about 200 south-west residents on Tuesday night carried a challenge he has delivered around the world, that churches have become too religious rather than carrying out practical aspects of the gospel. 

“I had people come up to me and say they felt the message was specifically for them,” he said.

“We need to rekindle our fire every day, by sharing our testimony, by helping others.

“I don’t believe our problems today are any worse than they were 2000 years ago — it’s just there are more of us.”