John Chau and Oakchia: Missionaries with Courage

John Allen Chau

John Allen Chau, a 26-year-old graduate of Oral Roberts University and an American missionary in the Pacific, was killed November 21, 2018, by indigenous people on North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal.

For centuries, the Sentinelese people have resisted all contact with the outside world, sometimes violently. As a result, the Sentinelese people have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

National Public Radio reports that Chau's death has launched a national debate over the appropriateness of evangelizing cultures which are either ignorant of or hostile to Christianity, especially when the evangelist faces potential death for sharing Christ.

The debate is not new.

200 years ago another missionary, a Choctaw Indian named Oakchiah, faced imminent death for boldly sharing Christ with a culture hostile to Christianity.

The culture was the Choctaw tribe.

The threat of death came from Oakchiah's own father.

On the south bank of the Arkansas River, just north of the old fort from which Fort Smith, Arkansas draws its name, lies a grave that contains the body of Oakchiah. His courage to share Christ in a hostile area where his message was not welcome is similar to Chau's story. 

Born in Mississippi in April 1810, Oakchiah grew up in a full-blood Choctaw family steeped in traditional ways. He and other Choctaws lived in what is called "The Old Choctaw Nation," an area that encompasses most of modern Mississippi.

Previous to the Choctaws forcible removal by the U.S. government during the 1830s to Indian Territory (Oklahoma), an awakening of Christian faith came to the Choctaws in Mississippi. Many tribal natives came to faith in Jesus Christ, and those new Indian converts became evangelists for Christ among their southern Indian tribes.

Oakchiah was one of those Christian converts.

According to those acquainted with Oakchiah after his conversion, the young Choctaw Indian became an active, energetic, and zealous evangelist for Christ. He desired that those among his people who still walked in darkness come to know the Savior. Oakchiah took the Christian name William Winans at his baptism, but he also retained his Indian name Oakchiah until his death to move among the Indians as a Chrisitan evangelist.

Whenever an opportunity was given to Oakchiah, he would speak boldly of Christ to his fellow Indians, warning in his native tongue that all should repent of their sins and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Oakchiah stood only about five feet and five inches. He was thin and delicate in frame, with an expressive face. He spoke in a dignified, graceful, and easy manner. His fellow Indians considered him popular, earnest, and very successful preacher. He conveyed his message gently and soothingly, melting the hearts of the hearers. A contemporary said, “In almost every instance when I have heard Oakchiah preach, people have been bathed in tears before the sermon closed.”

But Oakchia's message troubled and offended many others who were wed to the old ways. Bitter persecutions arose against Oakchiah from within his own family. Oakchiah's earthly father told him that if he ever again spoke to the people about Christ, he would kill him.

Duly warned, Oakchiah had a decision to make before the next council meeting.

Would he heed the advice of his father and be silent about Christ? Or would he risk his own life and again appeal to the Choctaws to turn to Christ for salvation?

Oakchiah chose to continue to preach the gospel of Christ. He knew his decision could cost him his life.

The Oklahoma Historical Chronicles, Volume IV, Number 2, tells what happened next:

Having faithfully preached Christ to his people for the last time, as he supposed, he returned to meet his infuriated parent, at the threshold of the cabin. There the father stood with form erect, broad and athletic, in the vigor of manhood; his tawny visage was rendered almost black by the malice which rankled in his breast; the deadly rifle was in his hand, and he was fully prepared to consummate his fiend like purpose.

Oakchiah approached, expecting to fall, but was calm and fearless; for he was in the discharge of duty, and God’s grace wonderfully strengthened and sustained him in the dark hour of trial. With deep peace in his soul and with love beaming in his countenance, and with unusual tenderness in the intonations of his voice, he addressed his parent:

"Father, will you shoot me? What have I done that I must die so soon? Father, I die a Christian, and shall go to the land of the pure and good to live with the blessed Savior!"

Although the rifle had been leveled to take deadly aim the old man paused, his muscles relaxed, the weapon fell to the ground, and a torrent of tears gushed from his eyes, and flowed down his cheeks. He was a warrior who could boldly meet the deadly foe on the battle-field; his spirit never cowered in presence of danger or of death; he scorned the rage and power of man; but the meek spirit of a follower of Christ completely unmanned him. In such forbearance and love he saw arguments irresistible in favor of the Christian religion.

Thus the father was conquered; his haughty spirit was subdued; he became deeply penitent, and was soon numbered with the believers in Jesus. \

Oakchiah would later move to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and continue faithfully preaching Christ among the Choctaw and Chickasaw people.

Not many Oklahomans know of this preacher of the gospel buried right across Oklahoma's border on the southern bank of the Arkansas River, but the testimony of faithful preachers like Oakchiah and Chau are an encouragement to all of us called to proclaim Christ to the nations.

It's too early to know, but I wouldn't be surprised if God uses Chau like he used Oakchia to soften the hearts of many toward Christ.

They though are dead, yet they speak.