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“I hope this isn’t one of my last notes” – U.S Missionary wrote before Killing by Indian Tribesmen
The journal of John Allen Chau, 26, the American missionary/adventurer who was killed while trying to meet and convert members of an endangered tribe in the Andaman and Nicobar islands of India has been released by his mother.
Chau was taken to the North Sentinel island by fishermen who said the tribespeople shot him with arrows, dragged his body along the beach and buried him.
The journal shows a treacherous journey by dark in a small fishing boat to the area where the small tribe, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, lived in huts, Washington Post reports.
Chau wrote that they reacted angrily as he approached them, trying to speak their language and sing “worship songs” to them.
“I hollered, ‘My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you,’” Chau wrote in his journal.
He added that one of the juveniles shot at him with an arrow but it pierced his waterproof Bible.
Shortly before leaving the fishing boat on November 16th, Chau wrote: “You guys might think I’m crazy in all this but I think it’s worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people.”
He added: “God, I don’t want to die.”
Chau said he found the island both inspiring and frightening. He wrote:
“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.’”
It is illegal to visit the island according to Indian law, and seven fishermen were arrested for facilitating Chau’s trip there.
The fishermen told police that they last saw Chau alive on Friday.
His family wrote on Instagram: “He was a beloved son, brother, uncle, and best friend to us. To others he was a Christian missionary, a wilderness EMT, an international soccer coach, and a mountaineer. He loved God, life, helping those in need, and he had nothing but love for the Sentinelese people.”
