T1B

NEW DELHI (AP) — The young American, paddling his kayak toward a remote Indian island whose people have resisted the outside world for thousands of years, believed God was helping him dodge the authorities.

"God sheltered me and camouflaged me against the coast guard and the navy," John Allen Chau wrote before he was killed last week on North Sentinel Island. Indian ships monitor the waters around the island, trying to ensure outsiders do not go near the Sentinelese, who have repeatedly made clear they want to be left alone.

When a young boy tried to hit him with an arrow on his first day on the island, Chau swam back to the fishing boat he'd arranged to wait for him off shore. The arrow, he wrote, hit a Bible he was carrying.

"Why did a little kid have to shoot me today?" he wrote in his notes, which he left with the fishermen before swimming back the next morning. "His high-pitched voice still lingers in my head."

Police say Chau knew that the Sentinelese resisted all contact by outsiders, firing arrows and spears at passing helicopters and killing fishermen who drift onto their shore. His notes, which were reported Thursday in Indian newspapers and confirmed by police, make clear he knew he might be killed.

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE," wrote Chau, who appeared to want to bring Christianity to the islanders. "Would it be wiser to leave and let someone else to continue. No I don't think so."

Indian authorities have been trying to figure out a way to recover Chau's body after he was killed last week by islanders who apparently shot him with arrows and then buried his body on the beach.

Even officials don't travel to North Sentinel, where people live as their ancestors did thousands of years ago. The only contacts, occasional "gift-giving" visits in which bananas and coconuts were passed by small teams of officials and scholars who remained in the surf, were years ago.

Police are consulting anthropologists, tribal welfare experts and scholars to figure out a way to recover the body, Dependera Pathak, director-general of police on India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where North Sentinel is located, said Thursday.

Chau paid fishermen last week to take him near North Sentinel, using the kayak to paddle to shore and bringing gifts including a football and fish.

Scholars know almost nothing about the island, from how many people live there to what language they speak. The Andamans once had other similar groups, long-ago migrants from Africa and Southeast Asia who settled in the island chain, but their numbers have dwindled dramatically over the past century as a result of disease, intermarriage and migration.

Chau estimated there were about 250 inhabitants on the island, with at least 10 people living in each hut.

"The tribe's language has a lot of high pitched sounds like ba, pa la and as," he wrote.

It's not clear what happened to Chau when he swam back to the island the next morning. But on the morning of the following day, the fishermen watched from the boat as tribesmen dragged Chau's body along the beach and buried his remains.

Seven people have been arrested for helping Chau, including five fishermen, a friend of Chau's and a local tourist guide, police say.

In an Instagram post, his family said it was mourning him as a "beloved son, brother, uncle and best friend to us." The family also said it forgave his killers.

Authorities say Chau arrived in the area on Oct. 16 and stayed on another island while he prepared to travel to North Sentinel. It was not his first time in the region: he had visited the Andaman islands in 2015 and 2016.

With help from the friend, Chau paid fishermen $325 to take him there, Pathak said.

After the fishermen realized Chau had been killed, they left for Port Blair, the capital of the island chain, where they broke the news to Chau's friend, who notified his family, Pathak said.

Police surveyed the island by air Tuesday, and a team of police and forest department officials used a coast guard boat to travel there Wednesday. It was not clear if they have returned since then.

Chau, whose friends described him as a fervent Christian, attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Before that he had lived in southwestern Washington state and went to Vancouver Christian High School.

-- The Associated Press

Dipshit wrote:"Would it be wiser to leave and let someone else to continue. No I don't think so."

Dinsdale wrote:
Police are consulting anthropologists, tribal welfare experts and scholars to figure out a way to recover the body

m2 wrote:I think poptart would make a great fill in to carry the message of Christ to the Indian nighers on the sweltering island in the Indian Ocean.

Would poptart put his faith to the test???

smackaholic wrote:Looks like we've got ourselves yet another christian sect, The Darwinians.

They better have one hell of a recruitring department though, as they won't be able to rely on breeding new members.

Softball Bat wrote:What do you call being too ignorant to have basic medical care in 2018?

- Chuck D.

Dr_Phibes wrote:

Dinsdale wrote:
Police are consulting anthropologists, tribal welfare experts and scholars to figure out a way to recover the body

a shovel should do the trick. night time is good, people tend to be asleep.

Dr_Phibes
PHD

Softball Bat wrote:What do you call being too ignorant to have basic medical care in 2018?

- Chuck D.

Softball Bat wrote:

m2 wrote:I think poptart would make a great fill in to carry the message of Christ to the Indian nighers on the sweltering island in the Indian Ocean.

Would poptart put his faith to the test???

Well, the North Sentinel Islanders have not resolved their issues.

Separation from God
Sin
Satan

Hence, it is 2018 and they are using sticks and living in their own shit.


There is a whole lot about this story that I do not know about, but...
Chau died a martyr's death.

One of my favorite chapters from the Bible is Acts 7.
Acts 7:54-60 is particularly outstanding.


Acts 7:54-60
[54] When they (Jews) heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
[55] But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
[56] And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
[57] Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
[58] And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
[59] And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
[60] And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.


Stephen explained why Jesus is the Christ -- and Jesus stood on the right hand of God as he did so. Verse 55.
Epic!

Witnesses laid down their clothes at... whose feet? Verse 58.
Saul.
Epic!

Saul, later called by God, wasn't too influential in the explosion of faith in Christ, was he?
ha!

The martyr's death of Mr. Chau is part of God's work.




Matthew 24:14
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Derron wrote:And when the inhabitants of this isolated cyber village looked upon their work, they took shots of vintage whiskey and drank the finest micro brews and they smoked the finest weed around.......save for one. He drank wine coolers and strawberry margaritas with the womenfolk. They called him kierland. Well, they did for a while before he was once again smite by the cybergods.

smackaholic wrote:Wait a minute, what was the past tense of smite?

Softball Bat wrote:Yeah, if Chau had only had the Yootoobs.

He wouldn't have ended up buried in the sand next to a clam.

Softball Bat wrote: He wouldn't have ended up buried in the sand next to a clam.

Shlomart Ben Yisrael wrote:

Softball Bat wrote: He wouldn't have ended up buried in the sand next to a clam.

Red snappers snappin'
Clam shells clappin'
Mussels flexin'
Flippers flippin'


:|

Softball Bat wrote:Yeah, if Chau had only had the Yootoobs.

He wouldn't have ended up buried in the sand next to a clam.