Aid group rejects claim workers sought converts
A Mennonite aid group in Pennsylvania denied Monday that a member killed with nine others during a medical mission in Afghanistan had tried to convert Muslims to Christianity, the Associated Press reports.
The Mennonite Central Committee joined a chorus of protests over Taliban claims the volunteers had engaged in proselytizing.
John Williamson, a representative with the Akron, Pa.-based aid group, dismissed those claims as "rubbish" after a morning news conference about the death of member Glen Lapp. Lapp, a 40-year-old nurse from Lancaster, had been in Afghanistan for nearly two years.
Lapp was a "very kind, loving, respectful person" who enjoyed sharing stories with the Afghan people, Williamson said.
Lapp was among 10 aid workers — six Americans, two Afghans, one Briton and a German — fatally shot Thursday after being accosted by gunmen following a two-week medical mission to impoverished villagers in remote Nuristan province.
Lapp was on assignment with the International Assistance Mission, a Kabul-based Christian charity that organized the trip. An official with the group said it was authorized to treat people in the remote Parun valley for eye disease.
Director Dirk Frans insisted there was no attempt to preach Christianity. He said members were likely carrying personal Bibles in English and German — but not in Afghan languages as the Taliban alleged.
The family of a young photographer who was among those killed said he had gone to the country to document its people and landscapes, along with the medical group's humanitarian efforts.
"He loved people and was particularly concerned for the poor," the family of Brian Carderelli, 25, of Harrisonburg, Va., said in a statement Monday.
Carderelli, a 2009 James Madison University graduate, was an Eagle Scout who enjoyed hiking, snowboarding and surfing. He went to Afghanistan in September and was compiling an album titled "The Beauty — It's Not All War."
In Tennessee, the father of a woman who was among those murdered said he hopes Afghan leaders will honor the victims by pushing for freedom in their country.
Cheryl Beckett, 32, understood the risks but had grown attached to the Afghan people after repeated visits over six years, according to her father, the Rev. Charles Beckett, a senior minister at Woodlawn Christian Church in Knoxville.
Carderelli was a lifelong member of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Harrisonburg, and was very active there, said family friend J.D. Patton, and elder at the church.
"Brian was a Christian who was killed as he was fulfilling his life ambition to use his talents and training to show the love of Christ to the poor and disadvantaged," the church said in a statement.
Lapp was just the third volunteer killed in the Mennonite group's 90 years of international relief work, Williamson said.
