MAPS Global started with a dream.
The ministry’s founder, R.A. Martinez, remembers waking from a vivid dream in March 2011. He had dreamed he was in an airport in a Middle Eastern country.
He looked out the airport window to see the country devastated by an earthquake. He saw a rescue worker lift an infant out of the rubble. He then turned to see a couple fleeing.
A voice called out to him in the dream and asked who would start a house of prayer and ministry there. “Not every dream is from the Lord,” Martinez said, but “…this particular dream initiated the calling on my life.”
Martinez, originally from Alabama, started in ministry at a young age as a worship leader. In his 20s he moved to Richmond, Virginia, with a friend to plant a church and a house of prayer, with a focus on prayer, worship and training others.
His dream came after they started to pray God would use them. “I could have never imagined where that prayer would have taken us,” he said.
Martinez said he was shocked by the dream — he wasn’t even sure where that country was on a map (MinistryWatch has agreed not to name the country for safety purposes). But seven months later he saw on the news an earthquake had shaken that same country. He later saw a photo of a rescue worker holding up a baby that looked like what he saw in his dream.
This convicted him to share God globally, he said—specifically, to establish prayer and worship centers across the earth.
With that, MAPS Global began to form. Based out of Richmond, Virginia, MAPS is a mission organization that shares the Gospel with people across the 10-40 window.
The 10-40 window is a rectangular area of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude, according to the Joshua Project. Of the 3 billion in this area, 62% of them live in an unreached people group.
After Martinez’s dream, he started to visit these people through short-term mission trips.
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In 2014, Martinez and his wife decided to move to Eurasia to better minister to people. As they prepared for the move, terrorists attacked a nearby country. The couple put their plans to move on hold, but decided to go on a short-term trip close to the area of the attack.
A month and half later, they and 20 volunteers flew there to pray and worship for 50 hours straight and establish a house of prayer.
In those 50 hours, countless refugees and locals came to know God, he said. They then trained and discipled locals to lead the house.
Creating an “Antioch model” to reach overseas
This location became MAPS’ first overseas base and changed how Martinez wanted to do missions. Instead of living overseas with his family, he established MAPS to train and send missionaries from the U.S. to establish bases like this.
“We call it our Antioch model, out of Acts 13,” he said. The three components they draw from the New Testament’s church in Antioch are prayer and worship, training and discipleship, and church community.
MAPS currently has three international bases and nearly 100 missionaries. They aim to plant seven bases and send 200 missionaries by 2028. They are not members of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, but Martinez says they hope to join in the next few years.
In the 2022-23 year, they trained 43 students, reached seven different locations and spent a total of 3,418 hours doing live worship, according to their 2022-23 Annual Report.
MAPS trains students on practical ministry skills and leadership development at either their Frontier Missions School at their U.S. headquarters or at an Indigenous Training Program on one of their overseas bases. After training, students apply to join staff. In Eurasia, MAPS has trained a dozen indigenous leaders, many of whom have now planted churches in their hometowns.
When MinistryWatch asked for more details on financial information, MAPS team members shared the annual report. They said their external audit will not be available until later this month.
According to the report, MAPS had a total revenue of $3.58 million in the 2022-23 fiscal year. Around 2,500 donors contributed 18,112 donations, a 25% increase in donations year over year. Martinez attributes this increase to greater visibility of the ministry due to a new property purchase in Richmond, and to more people getting involved with their programs.
Of the $3.58 million, $1.97 million went to headquarters to pay staff and missionaries there ($1.5M), along with program expenses ($312K) and building expenses ($132K). Another $443K went to the frontier base in the Middle East, $267K to the base in Eurasia, and $85K to the base in Levant. In each case, the majority of money was spent to support missionaries and staff, followed by program expenses and then building expenses. Also, $698K was spent on what’s known as ‘The Beautiful Campus” where MAPS holds weekend services that are open to the public.
MAPS is incorporated as a church with the IRS, so it is not required to file a 990 and has chosen not to do so.
Main photo: Screenshot from MAPS 2022-23 Annual Report