Freedom fighter Sam Childers (aka the Machine Gun Preacher), will be a special guest at the East Coast Church in Caringbah on August 31.
Famous for converting from a troublemaker and then businessman, to becoming the salvation for hundreds of South Sudanese orphans, his biography, Another Man's War, was made into a Hollywood feature film called Machine Gun Preacher in 2011.
Mr Childers grew up in the hills of Pennsylvania. He had a troubled youth and by his early teens was sliding deeper into a life of violence and crime.
He became a shotgunner - an armed guard for drug dealers. It was during this time that he met Lynn, a stripper, who would later become his wife.
He gradually distanced himself from his former life, found a job in construction and prospered. His wife returned to the church she had forsaken as a young adult and the pair sought to re-establish their relationship with God and live clean lives.
Lynn gave birth to a healthy girl and Mr Childers started his own construction business, but little did they know that their greatest challenge was just around the corner.
The African nation was in the middle of the second Sudanese War when Mr Childers, urged by his pastor in America, joined a mission group to help repair huts damaged in the conflict.
During this assignment he stumbled across the body of a child torn apart by a landmine. He fell to his knees and made a pledge to do whatever it took to help the people of southern Sudan.
Later he decided to run a mobile clinic and to fulfil his promise he ventured far across the nation, from the western town of Yei to the eastern villages of Boma.
While passing the village of Nimule, on the Ugandan border, he says God sent him a message to build an orphanage.
The local people thought he was mad as at the time, the Lord's Resistance Army, a brutal rebel militia that had kidnapped 30,000 children and murdered hundreds of thousands of villagers, was laying waste to the area.
After selling his business he returned to the village, during the day clearing the brush and built the huts that would house the children and during the evening slept under a mosquito net slung from a tree: Bible in one hand, AK47 in the other.
With the orphanage finished, Childers began to lead armed missions to rescue children from the Lord's Resistance Army - which led to villagers calling him 'The Machine Gun Preacher'.
Fast-forward to today: Childers' team make around 12,000 meals every day (for feeding programs in East Africa) and house 380 orphan children (most of which are victims of some atrocity).
He's also drilled dozens of wells - built many schools and has major projects in South Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia.
He has also since released a second book, Living on the Edge: Sequel to Another Man's War.
Paul Pinn from East Coast Church's Mates Breakfast program said they decided to invite the Machine Gun Preacher to East Coast Church knowing he would be in Australia at the time - and to the church's surprise Mr Childers accepted their invitation.
"This is something huge for our community," Mr Pinn said.
"Sam Childers was a guy with no hope - no future ... so a story like his will be inspiring and encouraging to people
"People can get motivated by listening to him - - that's what we need in our community."
East Coast Church typically has up to 200 men attend its breakfasts and the opportunity to meet other men and to hear a Christian man's exciting and challenging life story.
Previous Mates Breakfasts have had the NSW Governor, the NSW Police Commissioner and Tim Costello from World Vision speak.
Mr Pinn said the event next month is open to all men and that they hoped people who don't regularly go to a church will attend to hear Sam Childers's incredible story.
Tickets are $10 each to cover the hot breakfast and there will be an opportunity to donate to the work Sam does in South Sudan and Northern Uganda after he has spoken.
"We'd like to think we could help him save some more children", Mr Pinn said.
Sam Childers, aka the Machine Gun Preacher, will be at East Coast Church, 3A Endeavour Road, Caringbah on Saturday August 31 from 7.30 till 9.30 am
- For tickets and more details visit eastcoast.org.au or ring East Coast Church on 9531 6554.