Update:
Came across this tweet “on the internet.”
I understand that “comments for this thread are now closed.”
Therefore, this “update.”
I have mixed emotions about the tweet, but wonder what you think:
Oh shucks, you still cannot comment. Anyway, here it is.
When you glorify a missionary for crossing a border illegally to share the Gospel…
But demonize a mother tear-gassed for crossing a border illegally to save her children…
Maybe your gospel is too small.
Original Post:
During his final journey to the North Sentinel Island in the middle of the Bay of Bengal – between India and the southern part of Myanmar — young American Evangelist John Allen Chau was full of hope and wonderment, but he also had a perception of possible danger and struggled with a sense of fear.
The young missionary’s hope and mission was to bring Christianity to the Sentinelese, one of the world’s most isolated tribes, among the last “uncontacted” people on earth.
In his final journal entries, Chau writes about “seeing bioluminescent plankton under a canopy of stars as fish jumped in and out of the water like ‘darting mermaids.’”
He is also well aware of the dangers involved. On this and previous visits he approaches the island “clandestinely” at nighttime to avoid detection. He has already been hit by an arrow, only to be saved by his waterproof bible.
But Chau also has fears, once again reflected in his final entries provided by his parents to the Washington Post.
“I‘m scared,” he writes. “Watching the sunset and it’s beautiful — crying a bit . . . wondering if it will be the last sunset I see.”
And, finally, “I think I could be more useful alive…but to you, God, I give all the glory of whatever happens…”
The 26-year-old missionary did not survive his November 17 attempt to bring Christianity to the Sentinelese. After leaving the fishing boat that had brought him close to the island, Chau paddled the rest of the way to shore on a kayak.
Tragically, shortly after setting foot on the island, Chau was apparently shot with arrows and buried on the beach.
Now, as Indian authorities are contemplating “the delicate task of trying to recover [Chau’s] body…they have to learn ‘the nuances of the group’s conduct and behaviour, particularly in this kind of violent behaviour,” says Sky News.”
While it is not clear if and how authorities will attempt to find and punish those responsible for Chau’s death — or even to recover his body — Chau himself was perfectly clear.
“I think I could be more useful alive . . . but to you, God, I give all the glory of whatever happens,” he wrote in his diary and asked God to forgive “any of the people on this island who try to kill me, and especially if they succeed.”
Chau’s family concurs. In a statement shared on Chau’s Instagram account, they plead, Chau had “nothing but love for the Sentinelese people…forgive those reportedly responsible for his death.”
Controversy and sharply differing opinions abound on Chau’s “mission,” illegal under Indian law “both for the protection of the Sentinelese, who would likely die from exposure to modern day diseases, and for outsiders who may be attacked and killed.”
Chau’s death has caused “widespread outrage in Hindu-majority India, where Christian evangelicals are often viewed with anger or suspicion. Critics say his brazen violation of Indian law was selfish and put the fragile tribe at risk — potentially exposing them to modern diseases for which they have no immunity,” according to the Washington Post.
The Times of India writes how, “far from saving their souls, Chau presented a threat to [the North Sentinelese].”
Regardless of one’s viewpoints on this issue, it probably will not be the last time that a missionary gives his life on what he or she believes is a mission of God.
Thousands already have done so in what they sincerely believed were such missions.
In a long “timeline of Christian missions” dating back to the Apostolic Age, the following entry jumped out at me:
“1956 – U.S. missionaries Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Edward McCully, Nate Saint, and Roger Youderian are killed by Huaorani Indians in eastern Ecuador. (See Operation Auca)”
You see, when I was seven or eight years young, we lived in a small town called Shell Mera, established by and named after the Royal Dutch Shell company that was exploring for oil in Ecuador’s rain forest (El Oriente), a company for which our father worked.
Not far away lived several indigenous tribes, some friendly, some not so.
Some had only recently come into contact with the “civilized world.” Deeper still, hiding in the dense jungle, there were tribes so isolated, so “unreachable,” that they came to be known as “los no contactados”, “the uncontacted.”
Our father would show us photographs of his and his colleagues’ encounters with members of one of the more friendly tribes (below) and tell us how one of the company’s planes had flown low over the huts of one of the less friendly tribes, visible through openings in the emerald canopy, and dropped beads and small mirrors trying to establish contact with the natives, only to see them raise their bows and arrows or point their spears and blowpipes at the aircraft.
Photo by the author’s late Father, Leonardus Kortekaas, who wrote on the back of the photograph: “Chief Taisha, of the Jivaro tribe, and his son, Segundo, with their 16-foot blowpipes, September 1948.”
(Young Chau is reported to also have tried to engage the Sentinelese by “offering gifts of fish, scissors and safety pins…”)
A few years later, in January 1956, after we — and Shell — had left Ecuador’s Oriente, we learned that five U.S. Evangelical Christian missionaries who had been trying to bring Christianity to one of these “uncontacted” tribes — the Huaorani, also known as “Aucas” — had been killed by Huaorani warriors.
The missionaries had been, taking off from the airstrip at Shell Mera, flying periodically over the Huaorani settlement, also dropping gifts.
Recent aerial view of Shell, Ecuador, showing the runway from which the missionaries took off in January 1956. (Photo: Casa de Fe)
On what was to be their last flight, they landed near the Huaorani village and set up a temporary camp, named “Palm Beach,” a mere 60 miles from Shell Mera as their piper club flew, on a sandbar along the Curaray River. After some initial contacts, including gift exchanges with the Huaorani, tragedy struck a few days later. The five missionaries were speared to death.
Today, a storm of words and opinion has followed the Chau tragedy, many praising missionaries, calling them an inspiration for generations to follow, others criticizing them in particular Chau, calling what happened “a misplaced adventure,” a needless waste of life.
In 1964, eight years after Operation Auca, Dr. Harold Sala made the mission the theme of one of his commentaries. In it, he quoted Jim Elliott, one of the missionaries killed, as saying, “He is no fool to give to God what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
According to Sala, “a listener wrote a sharp letter of rebuke saying that the five who were killed were the real fools. ‘They got what they deserved — a spear in the belly!’”
Regardless of the debate, our thoughts and prayers are with this young man’s family.
Lead photo: John Allen Chau. File photo from family’s Instagram account.
Part of this story appeared previously at The Huffington Post.
