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Chau studied at Vancouver Christian High School and graduated in 2014 with a degree in Health Sciences and Exercise from 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 participated in More Than a Game, a non-profit football program by Parks, aimed at underprivileged children, including refugees.
Chau went to the Kurdistan region, north of 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.
Casey Prince, 39, a native of Cape Town, South Africa, met Chau five years ago on a trip with members of his university's football team.
He told The Associated Press that Chau was easy to love, kind, cheerful and full of twin passions: a love of the outdoors 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."
He said that Chau had accepted the dangers of his travels. "If he took a risk, he was very conscious of it," Prince said.
Dependra Pathak, director general of the Andaman and Nicobar Indian Islands Police, said Chau arrived in the archipelago on 16 October. This was not his first visit to the islands, after being made in 2015 and 2016.
Chau organized his visit to North Sentinel through a friend who hired seven fishermen at the price of 325 USD to take him on a boat, which also towed his kayak, Pathak said. .
The island was completely banned until the beginning of this year, but visits are still very limited and the required authorizations have not been requested, Pathak said.
The American landed in his kayak on November 15 and sent the boat with the fishermen at sea to avoid detection, said Pathak in a press release. He traded with some members of the tribe, offering gifts like a football and fish. But members of the tribe got angry and shot an arrow at him, hitting a book he was carrying.
Chau returned to the fishing boat for the night and left for the tribal meeting on November 16th.
On November 17, the fishermen on standby watched from afar the men of the tribe pull Chau's body.
Pathak said the seven fishermen were accused of endangering the life of the American by bringing him into a forbidden zone as part of his "stray adventure".
He was apparently killed by arrows, but the cause of death can only be confirmed when his body is found, Pathak said.
Police inspected the island by air on Tuesday and a team of police and forest officials used a coast guard boat to get there on Wednesday. Another visit was scheduled for Thursday, he said.
Survival International, a global non-profit organization for tribal members, described the Sentinels as an "unaffected" community of between 50 and 200 people who "vigorously reject contact with strangers".
"This tragedy should never have happened, and the Indian authorities should have strengthened the protection of the Sentinels and their island for the safety of the tribe and foreigners," said Stephen Corry, director of Survival International. "The Sentinels have shown time and again that they want to be alone and that their wishes should be respected."
Associated press contributed.
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