Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon: God, Guns, and Guts: Sam Childers.

Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon

(One drop at a time.) My journal entries about offering copies of the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and other LDS church books, mainly to immigrants in their native language, mainly in Indianapolis, Indiana. With 106 translations, the Book of Mormon (along with the Bible) is a good "Rosetta Stone" for learning English or other languages, in addition to being a missionary tool.

My goals in keeping this blog/journal are: to encourage others to offer people copies of the Book of Mormon and the Bible, to illustrate the incredible number of recent immigrants who are eager for bilingual material, to illustrate the ease of encountering them and offering them material, and to make known the wonderful deeds of the Lord (Ps 105:1, Isa 12:4) in arranging many of these encounters. I realize that the concept of offering foreign language books to strangers is just plain weird to many people, so here are some hints if you are intrigued by this and wish to try it. Respectful comments and constructive criticism are invited.

The goal of the book placement effort is to provide, in a friendly non-threatening way, gospel material to someone who is willing to receive it in their native language and English.

To the recipients of these books who read this: I thank you again for allowing me to be of service to you. I encourage you to read the material, and pray to God that He confirm the truth of it to you. The Bible and the Book of Mormon are both the Word of God. Living according to their teachings brings happiness.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

God, Guns, and Guts: Sam Childers.

I saw this guy on TV earlier this year.

Machine Gun Preacher

Angels of East Africa.

His book at Amazon: Another Man's War: The True Story of One Man's Battle to Save Children in the Sudan [Hardcover] (about $10 including shipping, on used page)

Update: I've now bought the book and have read most of it. WOW. WOW. WOW.

I recommend the book with the caveat that it is not for the squeamish. Sam has worked in hellish conditions in Africa, in the midst of civil and religious wars, rescuing orphans and child soldiers from a guerilla army that kills non-combatant parents just to kidnap their children and turn them into child soldiers.

In his work to rescue children, run an orphanage, and feed starving people, Sam works with the local armed forces. He has built such a trust with the South Sudan government, that he has a small group of armed forces assigned under his command.

Those who think that preachers on a mission from God should not use deadly force against murderers and kidnappers in defense of the innocent, should not read this book. Those who know LDS history and doctrine should understand that God expects responsible people to defend the innocent and the helpless from evil violent predations.

Sam is an evangelical-type preacher. Evangelicals are close to LDS in the area of "walking by the Spirit." As I've read several of Sam's stories, I recognize the truth in many of them, knowing that the "promptings" he describes (though he doesn't use code words, or couch his language, he just flat out says "God told me to drive faster") are in the fashion of how I know the Lord to operate.

There's something about Sam that takes my mind to the frontier days of Mormonism, and the total committment on the part of men like Brigham Young, Orrin Porter Rockwell, David Patten, Parley Pratt. Men who put their lives on the line, fought when necessary, and told it like it was.

Sam Childers is of that ilk.

Update: A movie based on Sam's book is out, Machine Gun Preacher, starring Gerard Butler.

Rotten Tomatoes critics gave the movie only a 29% rating (4.9 out of 10), but audiences rated it 72% positive (3.8 out of 5).

The critics on Yahoo Movies rated it C-.

Labels: book recommendations