Lapp, Glen D. (1969-2010)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2010 Aug 16 p. 1, 7

Birth date: 1970

text of obituary:

MCC mourns Health team worker killed in Afghanistan with nine others

By Celeste Kennel-Shank

Mennonite Weekly Review

A Mennonite Central committee worker in Afghanistan was shot to death Aug. 5.

Glen D. Lapp, 40, of Lancaster, Pa., was traveling in northeastern Afghanistan with a medical team focusing on eye care. Local police found the bodies of two afghans, six Americans, one Briton and one German from the team, Aug. 6.

The tam worked with MCC partner organization International Assistance Mission, a Christian nonprofit organization working in health care and economic development in Afghanistan.

"Glen served with commitment and grace as well as with a love of the people there," said Arli Klassen, MCC executive director, in a statement. "We are grateful for his service to God, to the church and with the Afghan people. He will be missed, and he will be remembered."

This is the fourth conflict-related death of a worker during service in MCC's 90 years.

The Taliban and an affiliated group have said they are responsible, accusing the dead of trying to convert Afghans to Christianity, the New York Times reported. MCC has heard conflicting reports about the incident and is not sure who killed the team members or why.

Dirk Frans, IAM executive director, said in a statement the group was not distributing Bibles or trying to convert people.

"Our faith motivates and inspires us — but we do not proselytize," Frans said. "IA would not be invited back to villages if we were using aid as a cover for preaching."

Lapp was to complete his two-year MCC term in October, and had already written his end-of-term report from Afghanistan.

"Where I was, the main thing that expats can do is to be a presence in the country," he wrote, "treating people with respect and with love and trying to be a little bit of Christ in this part of the world."

The Eye Camp team had finished a 100-mile trek through the Hindu Kush mountains to treat people in remote, poor communities when its members died, according to the IAM website.

"IAM is a longtime and trusted partner of MCC," said Ron Flaming, MCC director of international programs.

IAM does not use weapons for security, MCC reported.

Lapp worked for IAM as executive assistant and as manager of the provincial eye care program, serving on several eye care teams.

"Glen really enjoyed this work; he told us that often," Flaming said. "Eye disease is a significant problem in Afghanistan, particularly in the remote areas in the north."

Serving in Afghanistan fit Lapp's passions to help the less fortunate, to enjoy adventure and to seek knowledge, his family wrote in an Aug. 10 statement.

Lapp was "a dearly loved son, uncle and brother," they wrote. "Before Glen went to Afghanistan, we discussed the possibility of his death. We all were at peace with his decision to serve there. Although his absence is painful, we would not for one moment deny him the great fulfillment that his work there brought him."

'Spirit of courage'

MCC's partners in Afghanistan work in education, advocacy, food security and disaster relief. MCC's one other worker in the country is safe; MCC has not made any decisions about future work.

'MCC is very much involved in peacebuilding in Afghanistan, and my hope is that MCC can continue along that vein and continue to help this country work towards peace on many different social, ethnic and economic levels," Lapp wrote in his report.

Lapp had served with MCC responding to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He also worked as a nurse in Lancaster, New york and Supai, Ariz. He was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.

Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster, where Lapp was a member, heard of his death during its Aug. 8 service.

Afghanistan's decades of conflict and hardship are more present now for those who knew Lapp, said Chad Martin, pastor, in his sermon that morning, available online.

"I'm grateful for Glen's life, because it is written in our hearts," Martin said. "May the same spirit that guided him in the work he did and the way he lived, that spirit of courage and compassion and hope and care, may that spirit be our guide as well."

Contributing: Cheryl Zehr Walker of MCC.

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2010 Aug 23 p. 1