John Allen Chau, the missionary killed by an indigenous tribe on an island off the coast of India, was working with an evangelical missions organization called All Nations. Over at Christianity Today’s “Quick to Listen” podcast, Morgan Lee (have I said yet that she is a former student?) and Mark Galli (editor of CT) talk to Mary Ho, the executive director of All Nations.
Listen here:
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Some takeaways:
- All Nations was founded by Floyd McClung, an “international leader’ of Youth with a Mission (referred to in evangelical circles as Y-WAM).
- Chau contacted All Nations “about two years ago” and told them about North Sentinel Island and the Sentinelese.
- Chau believed that his “life call” was to take the Gospel to the Sentinelese. Ho said that “every decision” Chau made with his life from that point forward was to prepare him to reach the Sentinelese. This include training in sports medicine, health, exercise science, EMT training, linguistics, missiology, and cultural anthropology.
- Ho describes him “as a young man who was thorough and meticulous in his preparation.”
- Ho says that All Nations train people in an approach to missions that “respects the local cultures.”
- Ho says that Chau had 13-types of immunizations and quarantined himself for several days before he went to North Sentinel Island. (He was physically fit and exercised daily during his quarantine).
- All Nations “encourages” its missionaries to travel in groups of two or more. Others were willing to go to North Sentinel Island with Chau, but Chau decided he wanted to go alone so he did not risk the safety of others.
- Based on the conversation with Chau, Galli thinks that he was “well-prepared.”
I wish Morgan or Mark would have asked Ho if All Nations endorses Chau’s decision to break Indian law.
With some of this information in hand, Wheaton College missiologist Ed Stetzer has offered his take on Chau’s death in a piece at The Washington Post.
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