The members of the Sentinelese tribe on India’s Andaman Islands are among some of the last off-grid tribes in the world.
Very little is known about the “stone- age” people, but that didn’t stop 26-year-old Christian missionary John Allen Chau from attempting to befriend the indigenous group, getting himself killed in the process.
On Nov. 15, US-based Chau jetted over to the island on a boat chartered from some fishermen, but upon his arrival the tribe became upset, firing an arrow, which narrowly missed Chau and struck the Bible he was carrying instead.
This didn’t deter the traveller from returning the next day to try again. During his second attempt to reach the Sentinelese, Chau was killed by a shower of arrows launched at him, before his body was buried in the sand. Kyla McCarthy’s husband, Danny, studied with Chau at Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, and they attended a month-long mission trip together to South Africa.
She spoke to WHO about the tragic incident, remembering the young missionary – a groomsman at her wedding – as having an impact on everyone he met. “He had such a servant’s heart and was always the first one to step up and volunteer.” She believes his selflessness is what led him to make the decision to travel to the dangerous island in the hopes of converting them to the Christian faith.
“He never thought of himself. He always thought of others before himself. Truly, going to see these people in this indigenous group was a dream of his – as crazy as that might sound.”
McCarthy says Chau had gone to the remote island in the hopes of preaching to them.
“He really felt the pull of God on his heart to go and speak the Gospel to these people. He’d visited the surrounding islands in the past so he was sort of familiar with the tribe and their hostility or fear of outsiders.”
She reveals that before Chau set off to the island he was very well aware of the potential risks he’d be exposed to.
“[Danny] and him had a conversation and my husband asked him, ‘Are you sure that you want to do this?’ and he knew the risks and he said, ‘Look I know that if I go there I’m probably going to be killed, but God has called me to go and try to reach these people.’ “I think any concern or fear that he had was wiped out by the call that he felt he had on his life,” McCarthy tells WHO.
“He wrote something to his family before going, saying, ‘I know you may think I’m crazy but I really feel like I’m supposed to do this and if something is to happen to me, please don’t blame the people, just know that I wanted to do this.’ ”
During his short journey, Chau had kept a journal to log his thoughts, several of which have been made public online by his parents.
His mother, Lynda Adams-Chau, spoke to The Washington Post and confessed she was struggling to accept her son’s death. “I believe he is still alive.”
Hours before his death, Chau wrote in his journal: “Why does this beautiful place have to have so much death here? I hope this isn’t one of my last notes but if it is, ‘To God be the Glory’. ”
An eyewitness who spoke to Reuters said Chau had brought gifts including footballs, scissors and safety pins. The source told the media outlet Chau had written, “I have been so nice to them. Why are they so angry and so aggressive?”
The source revealed that Chau had travelled to the Sentinelese “to establish the kingdom of Jesus on the island”. In his last journal entry, Chau wrote a letter to his family: “You guys might think I’m crazy in all this but I think it’s worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people. God, I don’t want to die.” Human rights organization Survival International wrote on Nov. 21, “Tribes like the Sentinelese face catastrophe unless their land is protected. I hope this tragedy acts as a wake-up call to the Indian authorities to avert another disaster.” On Nov. 22, Chau’s family took to Instagram to post a tribute to their son. “We forgive those reportedly responsible for his death.”
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