John Allen

John Allen Chau was born on December 18, 1991 in Scottsboro, Alabama, the youngest of three children to Lynda Adams‑Chau, a European‑American organizer for the Chi Alpha ministry, and Patrick Chau, a Chinese‑American psychiatrist who fled mainland China during the Cultural Revolution. Growing up in Vancouver, Washington, he attended Vancouver Christian High School where his family worshiped at the Chinese Evangelical Church of Vancouver. Chau was fascinated by historic explorers and missionaries such as David Livingstone and Bruce Olson, and by his teens he was already dreaming of reaching the most isolated peoples on Earth. He earned a Bachelor of Science in exercise science, graduating cum laude from Oral Roberts University in 2014, where he also managed the university soccer team. During his college years he participated in short‑term mission trips to Mexico, South Africa, and Iraqi Kurdistan, experiences that sharpened his resolve to pursue a life of evangelical outreach.

After graduation, Chau intensified his training, enrolling in a rigorous “boot camp” run by the Kansas City‑based organization All Nations in 2017, a program that simulated hostile native encounters with mock villages and fake spears. By 2018 he had visited the Andaman Islands twice without setting foot on North Sentinel Island, but his obsession with the tribe grew into what he called “his burden.” In October 2018 he moved to Port Blair, assembling a contact kit of picture cards, medical supplies, and gifts, and even paid two local fishermen ₹25,000 to bring him within sight of the forbidden island. Ignoring Indian regulations that prohibit contact with the Sentinelese, Chau made several attempts to approach the shore, offering a waterproof Bible, fish, and worship songs, before a Sentinelese youth shot an arrow that pierced the Holy Book and his chest on November 17, 2018. His body was later buried by the islanders, and his death sparked worldwide debate over the ethics of uninvited missionary work, legal protections for isolated tribes, and the tragic consequences of cultural hubris.