WILLS POINT, TX – The primary ministry of Gospel for Asia and numerous similar efforts are focused on a portion of what has become known as “The 10/40 Window.” A recent article published by Advancing Native Missions, “What Is the 10/ 40 Window and Why Is it Important,” prompted this writer that it is time for Missions Box News to remind our readers of the window.

The term “10/40 Window” was coined by Luis Bush, CEO of Partners International, in 1990. He was looking for a way to inclusively describe “an area of the world with great poverty and low quality of life, combined with a lack of access to Christian resources and unreached unbelievers.”

The area he was attempting to describe included Northern and Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and much of Southern Asia. He drew a rectangular box around the region on a map. That box was nearly the entire region between 10º and 40º north of the equator, reaching across Africa and Asia.

Here are 7 reminders why the 10/40 Window is so significant.

1. Two-thirds of the entire population of the world live inside the window. That’s approximately 5.1 billion people.
2. Eighty-five percent of those people live in abject poverty – the poorest of the poor.
3. Two-thirds of those people are unreached by the good news that Jesus Christ has come to give them everlasting life. That’s nearly 3 billion people.
4. The vast majority of people in the 10/40 window live under the stronghold of Islam (865 million), Hinduism (550 million), Buddhism (270 million), and animism (140 million).
5. Half of the least evangelized cities in the world are inside the 10/40 window.
6. Satan continues to build spiritual strongholds in the 10/40 window countries as more of them are enacting laws that limit the freedom to share the Gospel.
7. National missionaries, i.e., native citizens, have the best opportunities to reach out to others as the hands and feet of Jesus. However, even national missionaries and pastors are not exempt from persecution.

“The poor are lost, and the lost are poor.” There is an interesting connection between spiritual and physical poverty. When the chains of spiritual bondage are broken and drop behind us, those who were once blind can also see how to build a more fruitful life. The very believers who have shared the Gospel are also able to teach them how to live and how to make a living.

Pray for the people in the 10/ 40 window who need to hear the Gospel. Pray for the workers in those countries, for health, strength, and courage. Ask the Lord to tear down the spiritual strongholds that bind the lost and open their hearts to His grace.

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