DEATH OF A CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY                                              

John Allen Chau, age 26 who lived in Vancouver, Washington State was an adventurer who hiked in North Cascades National Park in the Pacific Northwest, traveled to Israel and went on mission trips to South America. Chau, whose friends described him as a fervent Christian, attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Before that he had lived in southwestern Washington State and went to Vancouver Christian High School.

Chau maintained a lively Instagram feed of his travels in Africa and other remote locales including photos of leech and snake bites and he also led missionary trips for youth from Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, his alma mater and others. He spent at least part of the year living in a remote cabin in Whiskeytown National Recreational Area in California, according to his posts. In his bio, he said he was a follower of the Christian group The Way, as well as being a wilderness emergency medical technician and explorer.

He later  made missionary trips abroad and finally,  he traveled to the Andaman Islands which is Indian territory in the Bay of Bengal He had previously visited Andaman and Nicobar Islands four times since 2015.

According to authorities, Chau was in the area since October 16^th and stayed on a neighboring island to prepare for his encounter with the North Sentinelese tribe. This wasn't the first time the 26-year-old visited this particular region. In 2015 and 2016 Chau visited the Andaman islands. 

In letters obtained by the Daily Mail, Chau had made several attempts to speak with the people on the Andaman Islands  bringing various gifts to build rapport with the tribes. In letters obtained by the Daily Mail, Chau had made several attempts to speak with the tribes—bringing various gifts to build rapport.  Though the islanders were clearly unreceptive, the missionary would yell, “My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you,” his letters explained.

In November 2918, he paid five fishermen to take him to North Sentinel Island, which is a very small island. He then made contact with members of the tiny Sentinelese tribe who live on the island. The tribe, who has remained alone for centuries, reject any contact with the wider world and react with hostility and violence to attempts by outsiders to interact with them. The island is off-limits to visitors under Indian law. One of the reasons why these particular islanders don’t want outsiders in their island is because the islanders are not immune to the diseases outside of their particular island. Some of those diseases including the flu could kill all the islanders on their small island. Earlier explorers elsewhere almost wiped out the indigenous people of South and Central America when they came and brought diseases from Europe for which the natives had no immunities.

Chau’s visit was not the first time that the North Sentinelese had become violent to outsiders. In 2006, two Indian fishermen—Sunder Raj and Pandit Tiwari—washed up on the shoreline after their boat drifted too close to the island while fishing for mud crabs. Both were killed by the Sentinelese tribe. A helicopter attempted to retrieve their bodies but was driven off by arrows.

Indian media reports say officials did not investigate or prosecute anyone in the deaths of the two fishermen.  One week after their deaths, the bodies of the two Indians were hooked on bamboo stakes in the sand facing out to sea as a warning to interlopers that is not unlike the role of scarecrows. These native people are entitled to have their own rules and protect their borders and their way of life, even if their means of protecting themselves are harsh.  

A fellow missionary, Yadv (who didn’t accompany Chau to the island) told Chau’s mother that her son’s plan was "not to tell anyone" what he was up to and avoid putting his friends at risk trying to find him.  

Yadav said that Chau and the fishermen arrived at a nearby island about midnight on November 14^th. The next day, Chau used a kayak to approach the North Sentinel Island and attempted to speak with the islanders, who have been known to fire arrows at interlopers.

When a young boy tried to shoot him with an arrow on his first day on the island, Chau swam back to the fishing boat he had arranged to wait for him offshore. The arrow, he wrote, hit a Bible he was carrying. “Why did a little kid have to shoot me today?” he wrote in his notes, which he left with the fishermen before going back to the island the next morning.  Chau paid the fishermen to take him near North Sentinel and then using a kayak to paddle to shore with gifts, including a football and fish.  The fishermen told police that was when they last saw Chau alive.

What happened then isn’t known, but on the morning of the following day, the fishermen watched from the boat as tribesmen dragged Chau’s body along the beach and buried his remains in the sand.The Islanders probably killed him with arrows as soon as he stepped onto their island.

The Police said that they have mapped the area of the remote Indian island where tribespeople were seen burying the body of the American adventurer and Christian missionary.  But before they can even attempt to recover the body of 26-year- Chau, authorities have to learn from experts “the nuances of the group’s conduct and behavior, particularly in this kind of violent behavior,” said Dependra Pathak, the director-general of police of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where the  North Sentinel Island is located. Indian authorities have been struggling to figure out how to get the remains of Chau, who was killed by the North Sentinel islanders without having problems with the islanders.

Retrieval of Chau’s body will only create a bigger problem and possibly unnecessary aggression between the police and the islanders. Chau knew what he was doing so now his church, family and the rest of the world have to accept the consequences he brought upon himself. With that having been said, what happened to the remains of the two fishermen in 2006? Were they ever retrieved? If not, what makes the retrieval of Chau's body so special? 

During their visit to the island’s surroundings, investigators spotted four or five North Sentinel islanders moving in the area from a distance of about 500 meters (1,600 feet) from their boat and studied their behavior for several hours, said Pathak.

No one knows exactly how many Sentinelese actually live on North Sentinel Island. Attempts by Indian census officials to count them from a distance have put their number at fewer than 100. The Indian government adopted a policy of "isolation with minimal intervention" toward the Sentinelese and several other tribes in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are in the Bay of Bengal

Because the  tribe on North Sentinel Island are pre neolithic since they are that isolated, there is actually no way to know how they really live and what their tribal laws are as it would be mostly conjecture. Further, does anyone know what language they speak? Did they create their own language?

 The story of this unfortunate would-be missionary has cast a new spotlight on efforts to protect one of the world's last "uncontacted" tribes whose language and customs continue to remain a mystery to outsiders.

Trying to determine who apparently shot Chau with arrows and on November 17^th, then buried his body on the beach is an almost impossible task.  Even if they could determine who actually killed Chau, it would be a real task to convict them.  Even officials don’t travel to North Sentinel Island where the inhabitants live as their ancestors did thousands of years ago, and where outsiders are seen with suspicion and attacked. .The aggressive Sentinelese tribe, believed to be only a hundred in number, have aggressively fought off outsiders. Anthropologists were briefly in contact with them in the early 1990s but abandoned their effort out of fears that outside disease could infect the tribe and lead to their extinction.  “They are not immune to any disease. A simple thing like the flu can kill them all.  The actions of the tribe could be determined to be self-defence. The tribe should not be charged with anything.  They were defending their territory (just as our military would not hesitate to kill any foreign military that set foot on our soil without an invitation and with unknown intentions).

I feel very sad for the young man’s family who was killed while the tribe on the island was defending themselves from any harm perceived that might be coming towards them. However appropriate it may be for the family, their act of forgiveness is totally inappropriate and directed at those who are in truth completely innocent of any misdeeds. The only offence for them to forgive was that committed by their son when he trespassed onto their island. If someone, who for whatever reason, deliberately contrives to illegally and knowingly enter a dangerous, restricted area, should the tribe that then kills him be judged guilty of a crime and be “forgiven?” by the relatives. Thankfully, he did not contaminate them with his religious guilt, shame and fear.

Though Chau's death is officially a murder case, anthropologists say it may be impossible to retrieve the American's body and the police have said that no charges will be made against the protected tribe.

I don't know why the police are referring to the death of Chau as a murder case. It is clearly a death by misadventure. He brought about his own demise by going back after he was shot at during his first intrusion. I see no difference in his death than someone who jumps out of a plane without wearing a properly packed parachute. 

The police arrested seven people for assisting Chau to the island—including the five fishermen, Chau's friend and a local tourist guide the men believed to help the American missionary on his fatal trip. I don’t think they disobeyed any particular laws. The restrictions re visiting the island were previously lifted in August 2018. The law  shouldn’t ’have been lifted.  The people who helped the young man get to the island should have known better, and they should have refused. to take Chau to the island. I think charges are in order for the people who took him to the island. Maybe they can be charged with something like reckless endangerment or whatever India has for careless behaviors that leads to someone's accidental death.

The next visit to the island was the second boat expedition of the week by a team of police and officials from the forest department, tribal welfare department and the coast guard, Pathak said. The officials took two of the seven people arrested for helping Chau get close to the island in an effort to determine his route and the circumstances of his death. The fishermen who had taken Chau to the shore saw the tribespeople dragging and burying his body on Officials typically don’t travel to the North Sentinel area. The only contacts, occasional “gift giving” visits in which bananas and coconuts were passed by small teams of officials and scholars who remained in the surf, were years ago.

Indian navy ships regularity monitor the waters around the island, trying to ensure that outsiders do not go near the Sentinelese tribe who have repeatedly made it clear that they want to be left alone. It is illegal to go within five kilometres of the island.

Nevertheless, Chau went to that island to “share his love of Jesus,” said Mary Ho, international executive leader of All Nations. That organization is a Kansas City, Missouri-based organization that  helped train Chau. They discussed the risks he might face with him and sent him on the mission, to support him in his “life’s calling.  She added. “He wanted to have a long-term relationship, and if possible, to be accepted by the islanders of North Sentinel Island and live amongst them.”

Police say that Chau knew that the Sentinelese resisted all contact by outsiders by firing arrows and spears at passing helicopters. Chau’s notes, which were reported in Indian newspapers and confirmed by police, made it clear that he knew he might be killed if he stepped onto the island.

The Sentinelese will attack anyone who goes to their island. That is why India has a very hands-off approach to the island’s people.

India recently changed some of its rules on visiting isolated regions in the Andamans. While special permits are required, scholars say visits are now theoretically allowed in some parts of the Andamans where they used to be entirely forbidden. Chau had no such permit, police said. Even if he had a permit to visit the Adamans, he wouldn’t have been given a permit to visit the island he was killed in.

Chau had wanted ever since high school to go to North Sentinel to share Christianity with the indigenous people, said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Covenant Journey, a program that takes college students on tours of Israel to affirm their Christian faith. Chau completed that program in 2015.

Staver said Chau’s last notes to his family on November 16^th told them that they might think he was crazy but that he felt it was worth it and asked that they not be angry if he was killed.  He wasn’t crazy. This dedicated fool was simply stupid or he wanted to be a martyr. We will never know.

This young man knew the danger he was going to be in and what could be the inevitable result. He had no business being there, but he made his own informed choice to go on the island nevertheless.  Irrespective of what we might think about the killing of this foolish American, he invaded the islander’s land. What did he expect them to do?  Lay down and grovel before the religion he was attempting to peddle to them?

Using binoculars, officers  in a police boat about 400 metres from the shore saw the men armed with bows and arrows—the weapons reportedly used previously by the isolated tribe to kill Chau as he shouted Christian phrases at them.

“I DON’T WANT TO DIE,” wrote Chau, who appeared to want to bring Christianity to the islanders. He wrote, “Would it be wiser to leave and let someone else to continue? No I don’t think so.”

All Nations contacted the U.S. Department of State, Ho said. She doesn’t know yet whether it will be possible to recover Chau’s body.

The tribe does not want contact with the outside world and it is well known. No matter how well meaning the desire is to reach out to them, the people on that island should have been and should still be left alone. Past contact with the islanders had been sporadic. British colonialists attempted to study and communicate with the Sentinelese in a series of 19^th-century landings but were unsuccessful. Other Andaman tribes who did establish relations with the British were devastated by war, disease and addiction to tobacco and alcohol

Christians are not charged with saving everyone.  Not everyone believes in the teachings of Christianity and it is not up to would-be missionaries to try to force them to listen to them either. This island and its people should be considered a place where the Christian missionaries’ feet should avoid stepping onto.  Alas, Chau didn’t heed that advice.

This tribe survived the big tsunami after the Japanese earthquake. When India flew helicopters over the island to see if the people needed help, the natives shot arrows and threw spears. at them. They definitely do not need any outside help.

Scholars know almost nothing about the island, from how many people live there to what language they speak. The Andamans once had other similar groups, long-ago migrants from Africa and Southeast Asia who settled in the island chain, but their numbers have dwindled dramatically over the past century as a result of disease, intermarriage and migration.

After the fishermen realized Chau had been killed, they left for Port Blair, the capital of the island chain, where they broke the news to Chau’s friend, who in turn notified his family, Pathak said.

"They were very well aware of the danger, but they still arranged for a boat and everything," said Yadav, a move he described as pushingChau in the mouth of death."

The police were taking painstaking efforts to avoid any disruption to the Sentinelese—a pre-neolithic tribe whose island is off-limits to outsiders as they searched the beach for Chau's body.  Indian authorities do not dare enforce their rule over North Sentinel island.   They haven’t have not even tried to send police ashore to question the tribe, whose members have been greeting outsiders with hostility for centuries. “I don’t believe there is any safe way to retrieve the body without putting both the Sentinelese and those attempting it at risk,” added Sophie Grig, senior researcher for Survival International which campaigns for such isolated groups They have been killed and persecuted historically by the British and the Japanese. They hate anyone in uniform. If they see someone in uniform, they will kill him on the spot. Police in the Indian Ocean paradise are now wrestling with a double dilemma: how to answer the prayers of Chau’s family and maintain the privacy around North Sentinel Island that is essential for the tribe’s survival.

Fears that 21^st century diseases as mild as the common cold could kill off the tribe, or that experiencing electricity and the internet would devastate their lifestyle, has left them in a guarded bubble that Chau sought to burst with his “Jesus loves you” message. He wanted to have a long-term relationship with them and if possible, to be accepted by them and live amongst them. It was a dream that could never materialize.

Reuters quoted a source with access to Chau’s handwritten notes, which he gave to the fishermen to pass on to a friend. The letters showed that while some members of the Sentinelese tribe were friendly, others were threatening. “I have been so nice to them, why are they so angry and so aggressive?” one note reportedly read. Some of the islanders were not receptive. Chau's letters recalled that on first contact, “two armed Sentinelese came rushing out yelling.” He came face to face with them and at one point was “just inches” away. As they approached him, Chau shouted, “My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you according to his letters. With him shouting in their faces, they may have believed that he was threatening them.

On November 16^th, he told the fishermen he would again canoe to the island but this time stay there, instructing them to return home and pass on his notes.

The death of the 27-year-old on November 17^th has cast a new spotlight on efforts to protect one of the world's last "uncontacted" tribes whose language and customs remain a mystery to outsiders.

Chau, in Instagram posts and in journals, had found its remote beaches both inspiring but frightening, he wrote in his journal. "Why does this beautiful place have to be have so much death here?" he wondered hours before his death. "I hope this isn't one of my last notes but if it is 'to God be the Glory” It was his last message.

If anyone really believes that it is possible to visit the island unharmed, they should consider that it isn’t just the risk of disease the inhabitants  get from your intrusion. You also have to think of how to handle yourself, what to say to them which will be impossible since no-one knows their language. and what would you  share with them” To them, whoever enters their small domain is from the  outside world and the interlopers are considered as an invaders  into their territory, as small as it is.

There is no doubt in my mind that this young man was a very dedicated Christian but he was also a very stupid Christian.
He had been warned that the tribal men on that small island had killed others who appeared on their island. It is one island he should have stayed away from. There are other places in the world where he could have conducted his missionary work. It was “a foolish adventure on this young missionary’s part.” said P.C. Joshi, an anthropology professor at Delhi University who has studied the islands. “He invited that aggression.”

My maternal grandfather was a dedicated Christian missionary who spent 30 years in Northern Nigeria in the early part of the last century. Although he did his work amongst the thousands of Muslims in that area, he was smart enough to conduct himself in a manner that would not infuriate the Muslim Communities that surrounded him. He didn’t preach Christianity to Muslims, It was only to other Christians he preached to. He was respected by all the leaders in that area—Muslims and Christians alike because of his dedication to assist them in any way he could when their need was apparent.  At the end of his thirty-year mission, the respect he earned and received from the people in the area he worked in made it possible for him and his family to return to Canada alive and well.