Chau maintained a lively Instagram feed of his travels in Africa and other remote locales - including photos of leech and snake bites - and led missionary trips for youth from Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, his alma mater, and others. He spent at least part of the year living in a remote cabin in Whiskeytown National Recreational Area in California, according to his posts. In his bio, he said he was a follower of the Christian group "the Way," as well as a wilderness emergency medical technician and explorer.