How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
- Isaiah 52:7 NASB
The 10/40 Nations are:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chad, China, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Gibraltar, Greece, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Macau, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Korea, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Western Sahara, and Yemen.
The “1040 Window” is simply a term used to describe a region of the world that encompasses the landmass that lies between 10 degrees north to 40 degrees latitude north of the equator, stretching from the northwest tip of Africa, all the way across the Middle East and Southeast Asia to the Pacific Ocean. If you were to draw it on a map, the top would go from Portugal through Japan and the bottom would go from Guinea through the bottom tip of India all the way to the Philippines.
Two-thirds of the world’s population, 4.1 out of the 6.6 billion people, resides within its borders. Within its boundaries you’ll find intriguing cultures, incredible food, and majestic landscapes. Yet with all its beauty, it still bares the ugly scares resulting from the unimaginable poverty, hunger, and oppression that are found within it.
In this part of the world, the disease of child prostitution and pornography exists on a scale that’s hard to imagine. Starvation and malnutrition are rampant and there seems to be no end to them in sight. There are an estimated 100+ million children who are orphaned, having lost all their family members due to illness, war, or genocide. The problems do not end here but continue on with, failed economies, governmental and social collapse, corruption on a massive scale, and morbid living conditions induced by poverty.
Here, poverty has gripped the populace and it continues to strangle the life and hope out of any person caught within its unforgiving grasp. Eighty-five percent of those living in the 10/40 window are the poorest of the world's poor. Even with all these problems, there is yet a much greater need that goes mostly ignored. This problem is the obvious absence of the gospel of Christ from the hearts of most people. The greatest need of all the people is to be given the opportunity to hear the gospel of Christ preached to them for it is the only hope for all nations.
The sun rises here like any other place in the world, yet, it still remains the darkest landmass in world. It is here where you will find most of the world’s remaining unreached peoples, those who have yet to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ presented to them.
It is within the 10/40 boundaries that you will find the nations that most violently oppose the Christian faith and persecute its followers. As a matter of fact, 97% of all unreached people groups reside within the 10/40 Window. Only 2.17% of these unreached people live in North and South America combined!
The people who are lost in the 10/40 Window are not "more lost" than your neighbors who do not know Christ. They are "unreached" in the sense that their ears have yet to hear the gospel preached. Their greatest obstacle is not that they are "lost" and separated from God but, but their lack of access to the gospel that can save them. People can be unevangelized without being unreached, consider the United States.
There are people in the United States who have not heard the full gospel. However, they have not heard the gospel because they refuse to hear the message (or we refused to share the gospel with them). If anybody who resides in the United States wants to hear the gospel, they have easy access to it. This is not the case for most people living in the 10/40 Window.
Most people living in the 10/40 Window find it extremely difficult to learn the truth about Jesus! We believe that there are two main reasons for this. First is the great opposition that the gospel encounters from governments and society. Next is the absence of missionaries that are able and willing to sacrifice their lives so they gospel may be preached among the unreached. We believe that given the opportunity to hear the gospel of Christ preached, there are hundreds of millions of people that would embrace the truth and turn to God.
Then 10/40 Window is not a spiritual vacuum. All of the world's major religions had their beginnings in this part of the world. Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism all have their headquarters here. Also present are the numerous indigenous religions and millions of people who have no religious beliefs at all. While most of the people living outside of the 10/40 window have already been exposed to the gospel many times over in their lives, the exact opposite is true for those people living within the 10/40 window. Within the 10/40 Window there remains roughly one billion Chinese, 865 million Muslims, 550 million Hindus, 275 million Buddhists, and 140 million tribal peoples. This amounts to a total of 2.83 billion people who have yet to hear the Gospel of Christ preached to them just once! Out of these people, 680 million have never even heard the name of Jesus! That fact should bring tears to the eyes of every Christian and fuel our determination to reach the lost.
