Glen D. Lapp's decision to risk his life as a Mennonite missionary in Afghanistan didn't come as a shock to Valerie Weaver-Zercher, who was a friend of his at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia in the early 1990s.

"I wasn't surprised at all when I heard of his decision to go to Afghanistan in 2008 with the Mennonite Central Committee," she said Monday, as she and other friends were grieving over the murders of Mr. Lapp and other members of a medical team, include five other Americans, in a remote part of Afghanistan on Friday.

"He was one of the most adventurous and athletic people I've ever known," said Mrs. Weaver-Zercher, who is from Lancaster County, as was Mr. Lapp. "He always seemed to be taking off on some bike trip or mega-hike somewhere. His concern for other people would make him a priceless member on a missionary team like this."

Mr. Lapp was a member of the Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster, one of many Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in Lancaster and surrounding counties that works with the Mennonite Central Committee. It was formed in 1920 by churches in the U.S. and Canada that sends food, clothing, blankets, books and school supplies to about 60 poorer nations around the world. Mennonite volunteers went to Haiti soon after the January earthquake and expect to be there for five years.

"We work in providing relief and disaster response, development of housing and communities and in peace-building efforts," said Ron Flaming, director of international programs for MCC, which is headquartered in Akron, Lancaster County.

Mr. Lapp was a dedicated Christian, said those who knew him. In a recent report to the Mennonite Committee, Mr. Lapp wrote that his goal overseas was "treating people with respect and with love and trying to be a little bit of Christ in this part of the world."

"As with many of our alumni around the world, Glen was fulfilling EMU's mission of serving and leading in a global context, which often involves great personal sacrifice," said university President Loren Swartzendruber.

Dr. Lisa Schirch, a professor of "peacebuilding" at EMU's Center for Justice in Harrisonburg, Va., told a local news outlet there that she had talked to Mr. Lapp often about the risks involved with humanitarian work in Afghanistan.

He thought that the needs of the people were more important than his personal risks, she said. "There's not a lot of medical assistance available to people in those remote areas" where he and his team work, she told hburgnews.com.

Julie Hurst, who knew Mr. Lapp both at Lancaster Mennonite High School and Eastern Mennonite University, asked Mr. Lapp before he went to Afghanistan in 2008 "if he was worried about his safety, but I never saw him get rattled. He knew it was dangerous, but he was clever about negotiating potentially dangerous situations. And he loved Afghanistan -- the people, the mountains, the rugged terrain. He did a lot of mountain biking. He also loved playing volleyball."

Ms. Hurst was among a group of family and friends who gathered Sunday night at his parents' house in Lancaster "to reminisce and grieve."

She said Mr. Lapp had a knack for "blending" in while overseas, she said, recalling a photograph of him with some Afghans and "it was hard to pick him out. He was dressed in native garb, with a turban."

Mr. Lapp, 40, had gone to Afghanistan in October 2008 and was supposed to return to his home in Lancaster in October. He had a degree in nursing from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and had worked as a nurse in Lancaster and in New York City. He also volunteered for medical relief efforts after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the American South.

However, he wasn't doing medical work in Afghanistan. He was an executive assistant for the International Assistance Mission, an Afghanistan-based missionary group, which was partnering with MCC to provide eye care and medical help to Afghans. Mr. Lapp managed the partnership's ophthalmic care program in Afghan provinces.

Mr. Flaming said MCC always works with a local partner in foreign countries, either a Mennonite church, or another Christian church, or a nongovernmental organization, such as the IAM.

He said there are conflicting reports that the Islamic Taliban may have been responsible for the murders of Mr. Lapp and other team members. Some press reports had the Taliban taking credit, but Mr. Flaming said, "Local officials in Afghanistan are fairly confident it was not the Taliban. There's a good chance this was a band of bandits and it had to do with robbery."

Other reports said the team may have been killed for "proselytizing," or trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, but Mr. Flaming said that isn't correct, either.

The International Assistance Mission, which has operated for 40 years, "has a strict policy [against] proselytizing. They were on a humanitarian mission related to medical care, not to proselytize. They also weren't spies for America, as some reports have suggested," he said.

He said IAM workers are prohibited, "for safety reasons, from sharing any information from any government."

Meanwhile, the bodies of the six victims who were U.S. citizens, which had been flown to Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday, were to be brought to the U.S. for autopsies as part of an FBI-assisted investigation, the Los Angeles Times reported.

And the Afghan national who was the driver for the humanitarian team was being held and questioned by Afghan authorities. An Interior Ministry spokesman wouldn't say if the driver was suspected as being an accomplice to the gunmen or was simply being questioned because he was the only survivor. He said he had survived by pleading for his life and by reciting verses from the Koran, the Muslim holy book.

Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.