American missionary latest winner of Darwin Award

For some strange reason, John Allen Chau, an American missionary, thought it would be a good idea to visit a remote island off the coast of India and make contact with the remote Sentinelese tribe who tend to be hostile to outsiders.

Chau, 26, knew what the dangers were that lie ahead of him, yet still he persisted. He wrote in his journal before he was killed, "God, I don't want to die."

He was intent on making contact with the tribe on North Sentinel Island, and they didn't disappoint him.

"You guy might think I'm crazy in all this but I think it's worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people," his last note read. He had sent it to his family on Nov. 16, shortly before he left the fishing boat that had ferried him to meet the tribesmen and thus, his Maker. He had been illegally ferried there by a local fisherman, and then took a kayak the rest of the way.

The tribesmen looked like scary leprechauns, standing about 5-feet-five-inches tall with yellow paste on their faces. They were angry at Chau's arrival, he wrote, but still, he tried to speak their language and sing worship songs.

"I hollered, 'My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you," the now dead Chau wrote. He also said in his chronicle that a child shot at him with an arrow that missed but pierced his waterproof Bible.

Chau's mother, Lynda Adams-Chau, wrote in an email that the fishermen saw the tribe burying John on the beach the next day.

Several fishermen involved in helping Chau get to the island and a friend who helped organize the not-so-bright mission, have been arrested.

"They were very well aware of the situation, but they still arranged for a boat and everything," police official Deepak Yadav said. He described the incident as "pushing [Chau] in the mouth of death."

Chau's mother, also a missionary, pleaded for the release of those arrested, saying that her son acted "on his own free will."

On Instagram posts and in his journals, Chau wrote that he found the remote island inspiring but frightening. "Why does this beautiful place have to have so much death here?" he wrote. "I hope this isn't one of my last notes but if it is, 'to God be the Glory.'"

Chau is being seriously considered for top recipient of the Darwin Award.

Please click the "Follow" button in the margin and be sure to get the latest Brain Flushings at a computer near you. Also, please visit the ads on this page because it helps the economy and me.

Tweet