Josh returned from Guatemala three days ago (Monday), and he had an amazing time!!! I am VERY glad to have him home, but am equally glad that he got to go on such a powerful trip. It was a group of all men (24 of them!) who went in the mountains of Guatemala to serve and build houses for Mayan widows and orphans.
Here is a bit of info. about Guatemala:
"The Maya civilization flourished in Guatemala and surrounding regions during the first millennium A.D. After almost three centuries as a Spanish colony, Guatemala won its independence in 1821. During the second half of the 20th century, it experienced a variety of military and civilian governments as well as a 36-year guerrilla war. In 1996, the government signed a peace agreement formally ending the conflict, which had left more than 100,000 people dead and had created some 1 million refugees." http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/gt.html

"Between the late 1970s and the mid-1980s, the people of Guatemala were subjected to a state-sponsored campaign of political violence and repression designed to not only defeat a left-wing, revolutionary insurgency but also destroy Mayan communities and culture. The Mayan Indians in the western highlands were labeled by the government as revolutionary sympathizers, and many Mayan women lost husbands, sons, and other family members who were brutally murdered or who simply "disappeared."

Based on years of field research conducted in the rural highlands, Fear as a Way of Life traces the intricate links between the recent political violence and repression and the long-term systemic violence connected with class inequalities and gender and ethnic oppression––the violence of everyday life." http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/catalog/data/023110/0231100329.HTM

If you want to read more about the group with which Josh went, it is Extended Hands (www.extendedhands.org). This is the group that Harry, our pastor, runs and of which we showed a video at our wedding reception.