Samuel Boutwell is a seven-year-old preacher
Samuel Boutwell is a seven-year-old preacher. He takes his vocation to save sinners from burning in eternal hell extremely seriously. Most Saturdays he stands in front of his local abortion clinic in Brookhaven, Mississippi and, Bible in hand, bellows: "Don't kill your child! Repent! God loves the little children!" He is one of three extraordinary children who feature in this week's Cutting Edge, Baby Bible Bashers , which follows the enlightening stories of three of the Lord's "chosen children", and their relationships with God, their families and their congregations. The Christian evangelist movement is growing three times faster than the world's population. And born again parents are increasingly putting their children on the front line of the crusade to convert sinners.
Samuel gave his first sermon at the tender age of three. He lives in Mississippi with his dogs, his little brother and his parents Vicky and Kendall. In this part of the States over 80% of the community are born again evangelists. Samuel descends from a long line of preachers and his parents are unrivalled in their commitment. Samuel sees it as his own personal mission to save sinners from burning in eternal hell. He preaches against abortion outside his local health clinic. "God loves the little children, please don't murder your child" shouts Samuel with confidence as women walk in and around the outside of the building.It wasn't so long ago that Kendall was a sinner himself, led astray by alcohol and other vices." I was a rebel, I was just wicked you know; I think alcohol is a gateway drug. It leads you into all of these other things that are low - pre-marital sex, adultery - it leads you into all kinds of sins." And as a result he is more determined than ever that his son should learn from a young age of the "evils" of life. But Samuel is now about to leave the sanctuary of Mississippi behind and embark on the biggest challenge of his young life - a two thousand mile mission to convert sinners in the country's biggest metropolis, New York City. Together with his parents and his brother, he will travel in a large motor home, being schooled along the way and stopping off at neighbouring towns to spread his love and the gospel to those that will listen. Not necessarily the life that many seven-year-olds would opt for, but as his mother states, "When you are doing mission trips it's all about service, it's all about putting your faith into acts and into work and I want him to grow up, not thinking life is all about what can you do for fun but what can you do to glorify God." As Samuel faces the daunting task of freeing New Yorkers of their sins, a few hundred miles away, nine-year-old preacher Terry Durham is already being hailed as the new messiah. He lives with his grandmother and twin brother Todd in Florida. Their parents were too young to look after the twins, so their grandmother has raised them since they were born. She claims that Terry's first word was "Hallelujah". As a pastor in her own right, she ordained Terry as 'the world's youngest minister' when he was just six, and he quickly became a hit with local congregations. Most of the time Terry is a painfully shy child. But, according to his grandma, "when he is in his clergy, he's not shy at all. It's like the spirit of the Lord just takes over him." Terry is so popular that his father has since come on board as his manager. "You can never find a child of that calibre or that statue that's Terry Durham, he's phenomenal, he's inspiration, he's Terry Durham, you know it's amazing, he's just extraordinary and he's my child." He even has a master plan for his son's continuing rise to stardom. "The next few years I am seeing Terry doing pasturing in the 30,000-membered church. I am seeing Terry moving into a mega, probably $1.5 million church building, you know built from the ground up". He continues, "You got to understand, Terry is being groomed to become a man of God, you know, so the newest things to the market are the t-shirts, we also have hats, probably have bags. But the t-shirts and the autographed signature pictures, all of these things are sort of new to our good regime."For all Terry's hype, it's nothing compared to the adulation surrounding one young Brazilian girl who regularly preaches to thousands. Ana Carolina Dias is a celebrity in her native Brazil. She started preaching when she was just three and by the time she was eight, she was addressing crowds of thousands. Now aged 12, Ana Carolina regularly preaches in the shantytowns of Rio, one of the world's most crime ridden cities. Here drug gangs rule and the murder rate rivals those of a war zone. Ana Carolina lives with her parents. When she is not at school she answers calls from devout followers - they believe her prayers can cure illness and even stop prison sentences. Instrumental in her success is her father, Ezequiel. "My father is everything. My friend, my pastor, my poet. I don't have the word to describe him." Her father is equally as taken with his daughter - "She is an obedient daughter, both to God and to me...This means we can be very close to each other. We sleep together, we wake up together, and we live together. We can't bear to be apart." Ana Carolina and her father regularly preach at Rio's infamous BEPE prison. Here the city's corrupt policemen are held on charges that include murder, rape and extortion. Ana's father, Ezekiel, is a retired police officer - he won't speak of his charges but it was in prison that he found God and repented his sins. Like Kendall and Samuel, it is through his child that Ezekiel now offers the chance of salvation to others. What the future holds for these three young children is not certain. What is, however, is that they share an overwhelming awareness that they must fear the devil and obey their parents if they wish to escape an eternity in hell... but at what cost?