"Explorer in the soul": an American missionary killed in India

SEATTLE – John Allen Chau spent the summers alone in a California cabin as an emergency responder in the wild, led backpack expeditions into the Cascade Mountains, in the north-west of the country, almost lost his leg following a rattlesnake bite.

But kayaking on an isolated Indian island, home to a tribe known to attack strangers with bows and arrows, has proved an adventure too far for the outdoor enthusiast and the Christian missionary. Police announced on Wednesday that he had been killed and authorities were working with anthropologists to try to recover his body in North Sentinel, in the Andaman Islands.

"The words can not express the sadness we have felt about this report," said his family in a statement posted on his Instagram account. "He loved God, life, helping those in need and loving only for the sentinel people."

The visits to the island are severely limited, which Chau knew, the authorities said. Police arrested seven fishermen accused of helping him reach it and Chau's family pleaded for their release, saying he had acted "of his own free will".

Chau, 26, was originally from southwestern Washington State, where he attended Vancouver Christian High School. He then graduated in Health Sciences and Exercise at Oral Roberts University, a Christian University in Oklahoma. There, he worked with the mission and outreach department of the university.

"I've never known a man and a friend so brave, selfless, more compassionate," said Bobby Parks, the former department director. "John lived and gave his life to share Jesus' love with everyone."

Chau also worked with More Than a Game, a non-profit football program by Parks for disadvantaged children, including refugees. Chau went to the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq in 2014 to work with young Syrian and Iraqi refugees, Parks said. He has also worked with Burmese refugee children in Tulsa, Okla., For several years.

Last year, on Father's Day, Chau noted on Instagram that his father had come to the United States as a refugee during the Cultural Revolution in China. He has also documented his many travels, posting photos of climbing the peaks of the Cascade Mountains, scuba diving on previous trips to the Andaman Islands and fishing in Southern California.

One of Chau's friends, Casey Prince, 39, of Cape Town, South Africa, met the adventurer five years ago. Chau went with members of the Oral Roberts football team to volunteer in the football development and social leadership program founded by Ubuntu. Football Academy.

Since then, Chau has returned to Prince's home and his family or guardian and coach in the program about four times. More recently, he went from mid-September to mid-October, said Prince.

Prince described Chau as easy to love, kind, cheerful and driven by two passions: an outdoor love and a fervent Christianity.

"He was an explorer in the soul," Prince said. "He loved creation and was there, I think I probably found and connected with God in this way and deeply so."

Prince declined to discuss what Chau had told him about his travel plans to India or the islands, saying he wanted to focus on Chau's legacy. But he said that Chau accepted the dangers of his adventures.

"If he took a risk, he was very conscious of it," Prince said.

In a question-and-answer forum for the Outbound Collective's outdoor wilderness website, Chau said that he had fallen in love with the outdoors when he was a kid, when he was read books like "Robinson Crusoe" and "The Sign of the Beaver", the story of a white boy who becomes friends with a Native American boy after being abandoned in a booth in Maine from the 18th century.

This last book "inspired my brother and I to paint our face with wild blackberry juice and to walk our backyard with bows and spears that we created from sticks," Chau said. "Since then, nature is my home."

Alex Burgdorfer, who lives in Eugene, Oregon, said he met Chau last year, when both people had taken a recertification course for first responders in the wild. The two men got along well because of their mutual interest in traveling and hiking. They had recently tried to get together for a hike in the Northwest.

"He was an inspiration to me," he said. "His energy was pure, he gave you all his attention and thoughts."

Burgdorfer recalled that during the wilderness first aid course, Chau gave a brief lecture on the treatment of snake bites in the desert, telling the group that he had been bitten by a rattlesnake and had almost lost his leg.

This happened during one of the three seasons, Chau was living alone in a cabin at the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in California, where he would be sent in case of emergency in wilderness. Burgdorfer said Chau was standing near a river when he was bitten at the left ankle. Chau's Instagram feed displays his grotesquely swollen leg and indicates that he has spent several days in the hospital.

Chau had been working for two years at Mount Adams, in southwest Washington State, looking for incoming students at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, the director said, Will Symms.

"He has always been a great person to hang out with and talk to," said Symms. "He loved traveling and showing people the wonder of things all around."

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Flaccus reported in Portland, Oregon.