MAPS Update and Steve Heading Back to Guatemala...Again!

Zoom Link for “MAPS” Call February 16th, 2025

This pic is from last year with Ray Gurney, Cesar Gonzalez, and (in the blue shirt) Eddie Gonzalez, Cesar’s nephew, who is a pastor in La Casita, Guatemala.

Good morning everybody!

Well, our Kansas City Chiefs got humbled on Sunday, and I’m finally off the hook for paying Guatemalan kids in hamburgers to pray for the Chiefs to win! (See the last update for that story!)

I know that we are a week past Groundhog Day, but if it feels like we keep repeating the cycle of me introducing you to our MAPS initiative and then telling you I’m going to Guatemala, this update will NOT dispel that narrative!

Next Tuesday, February 18th, I am scheduled to go to Guatemala on a trip with my good friend, Ray Gurney, pastor of Cross Creek Baptist in Oak Grove, Missouri. Ray and Cesar planned this trip to celebrate their birthdays. (Ray’s is February 10th, and Cesar’s is the 16th…of the same year!) While celebrating, they had planned to do some motorcycle ministry. But then, after all the developments from our last trip, plans were made to add a quick trip to Monjas to check in with our cowboy friends, the new James Project, and touch base with our soccer friends as well!

While getting Ray up to speed on all the new developments, he mentioned that it would be a lot easier if I just went too! After Cesar joined the arm twisting and after I cleared it with Nola, I decided to book my plane ticket. I’ll share more about all this when we get back. For now, I want to invite you again to our MAPS initiative and tell you a quick story about how this is helping me connect with one of my grandkids.

You Can Still Join us to do “MAPS”!

For those who are new to our updates, “MAPS” is our daily scripture plan for having lifegiving conversations with Jesus that we started as an experiment in January and have continued into February. Because of continued interest, we will have another Zoom call about it on Sunday, February 16th, at 4pm.

My Forgetfulness and God’s Grace

Last week, Nola and I spent a few days in Omaha, Nebraska, with our Nebraska crew (aka Josh, Kristin, Brayden, and Landon) to help in the beginning stages of finishing out a basement.

On Sunday evening, right before going out to celebrate Nola’s birthday, I realized that I had forgotten to do my MAPS for the day, so I pulled out my phone and started working on it. Brayden, my 11 year old grandson looked over my shoulder. “Papi, what are you doing?”

“I’m trying to do my MAPS for today. Do you want to help me?”

“Sure!” Brayden replied enthusiastically. “How does it work?”

“My verse for the day is ‘Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat; or about the body, what you will wear.’” I shared.

“Okay,” Brayden said, hesitating for further clarification.

“We need to say it in our own words,” I said, still looking at my phone, “and then we need to do something about it.”

I’ll spare you what we came up with. But we talked about what each of us tended to worry about, and we came up with an action we both wanted to do. Here was our collaborative prayer that we prayed together: “Jesus, thank You for providing us everything we need for living, eating, and having clothes to wear. And thank You for helping me and Brayden do this together. Amen.”

I know it was Nola’s birthday, but I felt like I got the best gift of the day!

If you’d like to give MAPS a try, below are all the links to get started!