No Access: The 10/40 Window

"The issue is not lostness but access to the Gospel." --Xplore (pg. 12)

Most people that have grown up within the church at least have heard about the 10/40 window. The 10/40 window stretches from 10 degrees latitude to 40 degrees latitude encompassing West Africa to East Asia.

Taken from joshuaproject.net 

The thing that separates people that are living in the 10/40 window from people who are not Christians living outside the 10/40 window is access. In the United State, even if you are not a Christian, you could find a Church, a Christian, or a bookstore with the Bible and Christian books. Point being, that you could find about Christianity if you wanted to. But in the countries within the 10/40 window you couldn't even find out about Christianity if you wanted to. You could live your entire life and never meet a Christian.

They have no access. 

Because they have no access, they need missionaries to go there more than any other place in the world. While we need missionaries in every country, many countries at least have access to the Gospel. Around 10% of all missionaries are even going to the unreached. And believe me, 10% is an generous estimate, some believe that it is more around 5%!


On top of that, only 2 cents for every dollar for missions goes to the unreached and 10/40 window. If you thought the wage gap was bad for men to women, look at the wage gap for missionaries going to the unreached!

Why are they unreached? 

I want to clarify a few things first:

1. They are not unreached because of sin. Everyone is separated from God because of sin. That's a human affliction, not a regional one.

2. They are not unreached because they are in places so remote that no one can get there. Most of the people in the 10/40 window live in places you can reach in 72 hours. You could be in Beijing, Tokyo, India, or Egypt in a few days.


The reasons that they remain unreached today are complicated. Many of the places were the origins for various religions. The Middle East gave birth to Islam. Buddhism is from China, Shintoism is from Japan, and Hinduism is from India. Things like Communism (non-religious) and Sharia Law remain barriers in many places, even if they are no longer the Nation's law.

Some of these governments are oppressive to Christians. Others have very negative connotations of foreigners.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Some places have hostile environments.

The real reason so many places remain unreached. 

 The real reason that so many people have not heard the gospel is because we have chosen not to reach them.

From Gospel Meditations for Missions:

Paul taught us that the essence of mission is going places where Christ is not already named (Romans 16:20--It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not build on someone else’s foundation.) I don’t understand why church planters so frequently ignore the little word not. The mission is not to plant the coolest church in town, but the only church in town. Why target The Bible Belt when so many places don’t even have a Bible? Roughly 35% of the world has no access to the Gospel. I'm not talking about the people in your neighborhood who have never heard "a clear presentation or the Gospel" (but you could if you would just cross the street). I'm talking about the 2,400,000,000 people who couldn't find a church if they tried. How is this possible? How many of our mission workers are even targeting them? I might be satisfied with a proportionate 35%. But get this: it's less than 5%! Tip a waitress 5% and she'll spit in our soup the next time you order lunch. Five measly percent is a yawn in the face of the Great Commissioner, a shrug at the plight of the damned. It's tantamount to telling the unreached to go to Hell.

Forgive my candor, but I don't know how else to verbalize what our inaction is communicating. We're cloistered in climate-controlled cathedrals, feasting while billions can't even find a drop of Water. "We do not well! This is a day of good tidings!" (2 Kings 7:9) Our main problem isn't fear. Certainly we prefer our crosses guilded, not bloody--but there's a bigger issue. Christ is not our life (Philippians 1:21--For to live is Christ and to die is gain). We're self-absorbed. Distracted. Apathetic. Unimpressed at the stunning honor of fulfilling biblical prophecies. Passionate about anything other than harvest fields of unreached souls--unreached not because they're unreachable, but because we've chosen not to reach them.

All of this his leaves me (Kayla) with just one question: What is more important to you: your comfort, money, and friends which are all temporal, or the thousands of people, whom Jesus died for, who are eternal.

Who do you love more: yourself or God? One cannot serve two masters.