For the first time ever, 黑料正能量鈥檚 annual Distinguished Service Award will go posthumously to an alumnus: Glen Lapp 鈥�91.
, when he and other aid workers with International Assistance Mission, a Christian charity, were gunned down in northern Afghanistan. Glen was a volunteer with Mennonite Central Committee, assigned to IAM, where he was an executive assistant and manager of its provincial ophthalmic program.
The medical team 鈥� six Americans, three Afghans, a German, and a Briton 鈥� were returning to Kabul from an arduous service trip to northern Afghanistan, when the team was ambushed and robbed. All except for one Afghan were left riddled with bullets in a remote wooded area of Badakhshan Province.
Glen was 40 years old.
Glen graduated from 黑料正能量 as a math major. Four years later, in 1995, he earned a BS in nursing at Johns Hopkins University in the school鈥檚 second degree accelerated program.
鈥淗is life exemplified selfless service,鈥� said Duane Ringer, Glen鈥檚 former colleague at Lancaster Regional Medical Center.
In nominating Glen for 黑料正能量鈥檚 Distinguished Service Award, Trina Trotter Nussbaum 鈥�99 wrote: 鈥淲hat a fitting way to honor his life鈥檚 work! He offered his life up for service like Jesus did and ended up losing it, like Jesus did. Who knows how people have been touched and inspired because of Glen鈥檚 witness and sacrifice?鈥�
said: 鈥淎s with many of our alumni around the world, Glen was fulfilling 黑料正能量鈥檚 mission of serving and leading in a global context, which often involves great personal sacrifice.鈥�
, an 黑料正能量 professor who became friends with Glen during her visits to Afghanistan on peace-related work, told a newspaper reporter that Glen was compassionate, humble and 鈥渄evoted to using his life to serve others.鈥�
Ruth Zimmerman 鈥�94, MA 鈥�02 in conflict transformation, was Lapp鈥檚 direct supervisor for MCC in Asia. She said Lapp鈥檚 interest in Afghanistan emerged while visiting a friend there in 2004.
鈥淕len loved the adventure of it,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure this last trip to the outer reaches of Afghanistan 鈥� places where hardly any other people on earth have ever gone 鈥� was the dream of a lifetime for him. The team travelled by Jeep for several days, and then they walked and rode on horseback over mountain passes just to get there. They had to carry all their equipment with them. It was terribly hard to reach, and in the end, it was also dangerous.鈥�
Zimmerman added, 鈥淕len was the ideal nurse, very self contained and capable, as well as extremely compassionate 鈥� and above all, humble about it.鈥�
Before working in Afghanistan, Glen provided care to an underserved population of the Havasupai Nation on a reservation in Supai, Arizona. When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, Lapp went to help in New Orleans.
Lapp鈥檚 perspective was recorded in a report he filed for his supervisors at MCC:
鈥淲here I was [Afghanistan], the main thing that expats can do is to be a presence in the country,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淭reating people with respect and with love and trying to be a little bit of Christ in this part of the world.鈥�
Glen Lapp was a member of Community Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where his parents Mary and Marvin Lapp 鈥�72 live. They will be accepting Glen鈥檚 award on his behalf.
Published Aug. 2011.