FROM ONE NEWS NOW/AFA

Christian optometrist, Mennonite among victims
Associated Press - 8/9/2010 8:50:00 AM
The pastor of a church that supported the leader of a medical team whose ten members were killed in Afghanistan says Tom Little was sharing God's love through mercy ministry. (See earlier article)

The bodies of the civilian volunteers, including Little and five other Americans, were flown to Kabul as friends and family denied Taliban claims that the group tried to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Also flown to the capital was the lone survivor of the attack, an Afghan driver who said he was spared because he was a Muslim and recited verses from the Quran as he begged for his life.

Rev. Lawrence Roff, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Schenectady, NY, says Tom Little was an optometrist who worked in Afghanistan for more than 30 years. Roff says his congregation prays that Little's martyrdom will now "open the eyes of many."

A religious relief organization says a Mennonite from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, also was one of ten members of the medical team gunned down in Afghanistan.

The Mennonite Central Committee says the family of 40-year-old Glen Lapp was informed of his death Sunday. He was part of the International Assistance Mission providing eye care and medical help. The Taliban says it was responsible, alleging that the workers were trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

The committee says Lapp was a graduate of Eastern Mennonite University and had a nursing degree from Johns Hopkins University. He also volunteered to help the response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

In a recent report to the Mennonite group, Lapp wrote that he and other aid workers were "treating people with respect and with love and trying to be a little bit of Christ" in Afghanistan.

Other Americans killed in the attack were Cheryl Beckett, 32, of Ohio; Brian Carderelli, 25, of Pennsylvania; Dr. Tom Grams (age and home state unavailable), and Dan Terry, 63, of Wisconsin. Dr. Karen Woo of the United Kingdom, Daniela Beyer of Germany, and two Afghans -- Mahram Ali and Jawed (only name given) -- also were among the victims.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has labeled the killings a "despicable act of wanton violence."