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.

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2010 Aug 23 p. 1