Of whom the world was not worthy: John Allen Chau vindicated a year after his death, as missions group claims his martyrdom a clarion call to reach the unreached
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – November marked the one-year anniversary of the death of American missionary John Allen Chau, whose lone effort to reach the North Sentinelese unreached people group ended in martyrdom and yielded a slew of criticism from the world and Christendom.
Kansas City-based missions organization All Nations, however, which took a stand on behalf of Chau and his motivations in the aftermath of his death in November 2018, said a year later the 27-year-old’s solo adventure with the Lord had inspired people around the world.
“There are 7,000 people groups who have never had the chance to hear that Jesus loves them,” said Pam Arlund of All Nations. “[Chau’s decision] has led so many to pray and so many to ask themselves ‘How can I help people to find out about Jesus for the first time?’ It’s been truly inspiring.”
Numerous editorials surfaced in the months after Chau’s death, criticizing him for supposedly not being responsible with his potential as a disease-carrier to a people group not in contact with the outside world, and for allegedly defying an Indian travel ban on the North Sentinel island between India and Burma.
Research from All Nations this year, however, proved both allegations to be false.
“Since he was 18 years old he felt a call from God to share the love of God, the goodness of God with the North Sentinelese,” said Dr. Mary Ho of All Nations. “And every decision he has made in the last eight, nine years has been to equip him to love and to care for the North Sentinelese.”
“He was extremely well-prepared in every way,” she said.
Ho explained that Chau had received 13 immunization shots prior to leaving for North Sentinel, and even quarantined himself for a season to avoid transmitting harmful bacteria to the untouched island.
In the months following Chau’s death, India’s This Week magazine even revealed that in August 2018, a few months prior to the young man’s first trip to the island, the Indian government had lifted a Restricted Area Permit on North Sentinel, which the outlet praised as a boon to tourism that would “allow foreigners to visit these islands without prior permission.”
“I think I could be more useful alive … but to you, God, I give all the glory of whatever happens,” Chau wrote in one of his journals.
Bobby Parks, who served as Oral Roberts University’s missions director while Chau was a student there, called him “the most thoughtful, loving, compassionate and prepared servant leader I ever served Jesus and others with.”