The 10/40 Window
Sunday's sermon at church got me thinking really long and hard about my Christianity, my faith, and my beliefs. This one thought keeps going through my mind, “I want to do more……!” I want to contribute in some tangible way to people who live their lives in daily struggle, hunger, fear, and hopelessness. The sermon introduced the term The 10/40 Window, a term I was not familiar with. The 10/40 Window is where the majority of people who are oppressed, hungry, impoverished, in pain, and living with fear live. Wikepia gives this definition: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 10/40 Window is a term coined by Christian missionary strategist Luis Bush in 1990[1][2] to refer those regions of the eastern hemisphere located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator, a general area that in 1990 was purported to have the highest level of socioeconomic challenges[3][4] and least access to the Christian message and Christian resources[5][6][7] on the planet.
The 10/40 Window concept highlights these three elements: an area of the world with great poverty and low quality of life, combined with lack of access to Christian resources.
The Window forms a band encompassing Saharan and Northern Africa, as well as almost all of Asia (West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia and much of Southeast Asia). Roughly two-thirds of the world population lives in the 10/40 Window. The 10/40 Window is populated by people who are predominantly Muslim, Hindu,Buddhist, Animist, Jewish or Atheist. Many governments in the 10/40 Window are formally or informally opposed to Christian work of any kind within their borders.
Here is a picture:
, in a blog posting from Heart of God Ministries, entitled, After God's Own Heart: A Study in Intimacy, discussed The 10/40, saying,
“When you think of the starving children with bloated stomachs, malnutrition and disease, this is where they are. When you think of the oppressive governments in the world, you think of Tien An Men Square. You think of the human rights violations in Miramar (Burma) or the killing fields of Cambodia. You think of Iraq and its gassing and torture of the Kurds to the north and the Shiites to the south. They are here in this Window. Corruption abounds, and totalitarian governments seem to have permission to do whatever they will with their people.
When you think of natural disasters, this is the area in which they take the worst toll. You remember when Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida...That very same week a cyclone, which is the same thing as a hurricane, smashed into Bangladesh and 300,000 people in Bangladesh died in that storm. We cannot comprehend that number.”
The 10/40 is a region of despair. It is the region of the world where the poorest of the poor live. I read that the average income is barely $200 per month per family in some regions. They must be not only poor in worldly terms of monies, but poor in spirit, as well. Hopelessness brings despair, despair brings hopelessness...I would think that living in that environment would invite hopelessness to grow and fester like an open wound.
An important point my pastor made in his sermon was that this Window or region of people were considered “unreached” and have never been given the opportunity to hear the gospel. This is greatly important to me, but I want to concentrate on another aspect of the impact of knowing about The 10/40 Window - that is the desire I have to do something. I realize that I am not equipped or necessarily ready to do something grand or great, but even little things done in love can have lasting and profound ends. With this in mind I began to think about ways I could help.
Here is a list of things I could do:
· PRAY – there is definite power in prayer, so if I commit to remembering all the people who live in The 10/40 Window and offer daily prayer for their comfort, safety, and care, I could help. Prayer changes things! I will pray.
· I can be more informed! If I learn more about this region and the different organizations and missions that are trying to make a difference, there may be more ways that I can help. But in not knowing, I cannot begin to understand how I can help. Sharing awareness can be a help.
· Sharing some of the really awesome sites I’ve learned about would make helping as easy as typing in the web address and going from there. Here are a few that may be relevant: (I cannot take credit for the research behind finding these sites – mostly they come from other sources which I will site as I go along. The descriptions, although loosely edited, are provided by the original sources.)
The following 6 sites I read about in an article written by Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times. Kristof points out that these are a few of the lesser known organizations that can and are making a big impact.
1. www.ArzuStudioHope.org Arzu employs women in Afghanistan to make carpets for export. The women get decent wages, but their families must commit to sending children to school and to allowing women to attend literacy and health classes and receive medical help in childbirth.
2. www.fonkoze.org Fonloze is a terrific poverty fighting organization for Haiti. A $20 gift will send a rural Haitian child to elementary school for a year, while $50 will purchase a family a pregnant goat.
3. www.pih.org (Partners in Health) Another great Haiti-focused organization which provides therapeutic foods, a lot like peanut butter, to treat a severely malnourished child for one month. PIH also contributes to providing agricultural implements and training for a family to grow food for itself. (My youth group made the peanut butter supplement, called “Plumpy Nut” during a 30 Hour Famine weekend. The recipe is at the end of the post. It is quite good and the kids loved it.)
4. www.panzifoundation.org Panzi Hospital treats victims of sexual violence in eastern Congo, the rape capitol of the world. Contributions pay for transport to a hospital for a rape victim and for counseling and literacy and skill training for a survivor for a month.
5. www.camfed.org (Campaign for Female Education) Camfed sends girls to school in Africa and provides a broad support system for them.
6. www.somaly.org (Somaly Mam Foundation) fights sex slavery in Cambodia and around the world. It is run by Somaly Mam, who was sold into Cambodian brothels as a young girl before escaping years later.
7. www.WorldVision.org When I was a Youth Ministries Director my youth group participated in World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine. World Vision is an amazing organization dedicated to helping overcome poverty and hunger in the lives of children and their families.
The following sites I learned about through a fantastic book by Zach Hunter, entitled, Generation Change. In the book, Zach shows how we can contribute to change. It’s an awesome read! Zach focuses a lot on how to help children in our hurting world.
8. www.soles4souls.org Soles4Souls is a Nashville-based charity that collects shoes from the warehouses of footwear companies and the closets of people like you. The charity distributes these shoes to people in need, regardless of race, religion, class, or any other criteria. Since 2005, Soles4Souls has given away over 14 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes (currently donating one pair every 7 seconds.) The shoes have been distributed to people in over 127countries, including Kenya, Thailand, Nepal and the United States.
9. www.jedidiahusa.com Wear your cause by purchasing one of Jedidia’s cool shirts. Jedidia sportwear is a series of shirts designed to speak out about problems facing the world today. In 2010 World-renowned surf photographer,Aaron Chang, accompanied Jedidiah’s founder, Kevin Murray, on a trip to Cambodia to meet and photograph the community. Four of his photos have been used to create a special edition line of T-shirts that will benefit World Vision’s efforts to protect innocent children from the sex trafficking trade in Cambodia. $10 from the sale of each shirt will be used to fund the construction of the international humanitarian agency's trauma recovery center that will hold more than 70 children per year in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
10. www.love146.org This organization used to be called Justice for Children International. They renamed themselves in honor of a young girl they saw being sold who had been given a number (146) instead of being called by her name. On their Web site you’ll find many ways to get involved in helping free children from sex trafficking.
11. www.ijm.org IJM, or International Justice Mission, is
a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.
12. www.compassion.com On this site you can sponsor a child and your investment can help break the cycle of poverty and give hope to a child.
13. www.adventconspiracy.org Check this site out to see how you can spend less and give more.
14. www.drytears.org Dry Tears raises money to provide clean water.
15. www.nothingbutnets.net Your contribution can help protect a child from malaria carrying mosquitoes by providing a chemically treated mosquito net to give each person a safe place to sleep.
16. www.tomsshoes.com Toms Shoes is an innovative company that not only makes cool shoes but also provides shoes for poor children around the world. With every pair of shoes you purchase from Toms, a second pair will be given to a child in need.
The reality that poverty and despair exist is just mind-boggling. My heart aches for those people affected by such hopelessness and chaos. There is so much hurt in the world. I know it’s easy for me to sit here and blog about such a huge human crisis while I enjoy all the comforts of living in a wealthy country, where , personally, I don’t have to worry about hunger, utter poverty, a safe place to sleep and rest, or where my next meal is coming from, but it is vital that I show compassion and love and concern for those in need. It’s not much, but in some small way, maybe by sharing some of these important sites, and sharing about The 10/40 Window, others will find ways in which they can help, too. I will pray and I will continue to become more informed and aware. I will continue to “Look Up” and share hope.
"Plumpy Nut Recipe"
2 C Peanut Butter
2 C Powdered Dry Milk
2 Tbsp. powdered confectioners sugar
1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil
Mix together and enjoy!
Refrigerate.
PLUMPY NUT RECIPE: 2 cups peanut butter, 2 cups powdered (dry) milk, 2 TBSP
powdered sugar, 1/2 TBSP vegetable oil. Mix well, use a hand blender if you have one.
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