Hopeful missionary John Allen Chau grew up in a Christian home in Vancouver, Washington and had a passion for hiking, camping and travelling.
Back in high school, he learnt about the isolated Sentinelese peoples of North Sentinel Island, who fiercely protect their home from outsiders.
The hunter gatherers live on a small island - about the size of New York's Manhattan Island - situated in the Indian Ocean.
Advert
While it is estimated that the land could comfortably support between 80 and 150 people, between 15 and 500 are currently living there.
At the age of 27, he paid a fisherman to help him get across to the island in November 2018.
Chau's intention was to visit the peoples to 'declare Jesus' to them.
Advert
"You guys might think I'm crazy in all this but I think it's worth it to declare Jesus to these people," he wrote in the letter to his parents.
"Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed.
"Rather please live your lives in obedience to whatever he has called you to and I'll see you again when you pass through the veil. This is not a pointless thing - the eternal lives of this tribe is at hand and I can't wait to see them around the throne of God worshiping in their own language as Revelations 7:9-10 states.
"I love you all and I pray none of you love anything in this world more than Jesus Christ."
Advert
Chau also wrote in his diary: "I hollered: ‘My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you'.
"I regret I began to panic slightly as I saw them string arrows in their bows. I picked up the fish and threw it towards them. They kept coming.
"I paddled like I never have in my life back to the boat."
Sadly, after making land he was believed to have been hit and killed by arrows.
“The fishermen saw a dead person being buried at the shore which from the silhouette of the body, clothing and circumstances appeared to be the body of John Allen Chau," a police statement read at the time.
Advert
Chau's family also released a statement, which said: "We recently learned from an unconfirmed report that John Allen Chau was reported killed in India while reaching out to members of the Sentinelese Tribe in the Andaman Islands.
"He loved God, life, helping those in need and had nothing but love for the Sentinelese people.
"We forgive those reportedly responsible for his death. We also ask for the release of those friends he had in the Andaman Islands."
Anish Vij