MURRELLS INLET, SC (WBTW) – On Sunday morning the popular biker bar, Suck Bang Blow, turned into a place of prayer. Sam Childers, who is now known as the “Machine Gun Preacher,” stood on stage and preached his testimony to the crowd.

Childers travels around the world to share his testimony. He says he started doing drugs and abusing alcohol as a teenager and was on a dismal path. However, things changed when he started going to church as an adult.

He began to turn his life around when he traveled to Africa on mission trips. Childers has now dedicated his life to missionary work on the eastern side of the continent.

“Right now there are seven orphanages we work in East Africa. We work in Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia. We’ve built five schools,” said Childers. “We’re building the number six school right now in Sudan.”

Childers and his organization, Angels of East Africa Mission, have fed over 7,000 meals a day six days a week to children in those orphanages.

His life journey event inspired a movie to be made called “Machine Gun Preacher” in 2011. In it, Childers is played by Gerard Butler.

“When I first heard that Gerard Butler was going to do it, the first thing that came out of my mouth was: ‘Who’s Gerard Butler?'” laughed Childers.

Charlotte McCorquodale was in the audience on Sunday morning as Childers spoke. She said he heard about him coming to town and was moved by his story.

“I was so touched that an ordinary person can turn their life around and make such a difference. It’s a very moving testimony,” said McCorquodale.

She added that while he isn’t your typical preacher, he was real and she liked that quality about Childers.

“He has a very easy way to present himself and to be believable. I liked that he said: ‘We all have dreams when we were young but life got in the way.’ But you can pick up your dream at any time and you can start again,” McCorquodale added.

When asked what Childers’ was most proud of in his life, he said it was receiving the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice.

“That’s pretty big for somebody with no education. But that’s God,” said Childers. He was the first American to receive the award.