Global Volunteers has been called a “Mom and Pop Peace Corps.” That makes Michele Gran “Mom” and husband Bud Philbrook “Pop.” Indeed, the idea for Global Vounteers was conceived on their honeymoon.

The St. Paul, Minnesota couple were already booked for a honeymoon cruise when Gran had a change of heart. She wanted a more meaningful beginning together. Philbrook had participated several years earlier in a community development project in India, and he knew of a similar one in Guatemala; the couple spent their first week of married life in a Guatemalan hut, working all day on community projects. When they returned to St. Paul, they found that—thanks to a newspaper article about their unusual honeymoon—other people asked them about traveling to serve. “People were coming up to me and saying, ‘I’ve always wanted to do something like that, but the Peace Corps is too long a commitment,’” says Philbrook.

Philbrook, an attorney and former state representative, and Gran, who holds a master’s degree in international communications, decided to bring average people together to do cross-cultural community development around the world. Global Volunteers was born.

The nonprofit organization recruits North American volunteers who pay their own travel and living costs to work a few weeks far from home. US volunteers don’t show up and start directing the action; they join teams directed by community leaders. Gran and Philbrook explain to volunteers that they’re going to work with and learn from their hosts, as a one-person-at-a-time way of waging peace. Much of Gran and Philbrook’s work is in identifying communities that can use help and working with the communities leadership.