MAPS Global Ministry Launches 50-Hour Prayer Meeting to Flood 10/40 Window with Power of God
CHRISTIAN ANALYSIS
Fifty hours of continuous prayer, worship, and gospel proclamation within nations where 3.3 billion people live in a spiritual desert is about to rise simultaneously from seven locations across the 10/40 Window.
Predominantly Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu nations, the 10/40 Window is filled with souls who are thirsty for the living water – Jesus. They’re people who are desperate and eager to hear the good news of God’s love and salvation.
Titled “50 Hours,” this non-stop prayer meeting within the 10/40 Window will commence April 10-12 with people exalting God and welcoming His presence into dark and dry spiritual regions.
From its Richmond, Virginia, home base, MAPS Global is also praying and worshiping as it sends 80 missionaries to support about 20 indigenous, Christian leaders and churches at four established houses of prayer. Three other locations within the 10/40 Window will become permanent MAPS houses of prayer, also known as bases, by 2028.
The global Body of Christ is invited to join 50 Hours, now in its 11th year of proclaiming the worth of Jesus, in three ways: through prayer, gathering, and giving financially to help MAPS forge new frontiers in missions.
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MAPS has prepared a guide to assist believers worldwide in interceding for the 10/40 Window during 50 Hours.
Globally, believers are also encouraged to join a Live feed from the seven regions on April 11, beginning at 7 p.m. (EST). MAPS leaders hope to raise $50,000 during 50 Hours to establish three permanent prayer bases by 2028.
In a recent podcast titled “50 Hours: A Desert Bloom,” MAPS leaders declared that as believers within each nation begin to sing to Jesus, the Lord sends the rain of His Spirit and an outpouring of His presence on people – some for the first time in their lives.
Forbidden by law to sing in some countries within the 10/40 Window, many people in these spiritual deserts come to faith in Jesus through life-saving encounters with God’s Son.
“It’s more than in the prayer room; it’s entire regions that open to the gospel because the presence of God displaces spiritual darkness over people,” said R.A. (Randy) Martinez, MAPS founder and president.
Last year, across seven locations, 50 Hours witnessed this dynamic by proclaiming that Jesus is the Sovereign King over the Earth through prayer and worship.
“The joy and wine of the Spirit was poured out. We saw healings, miracles, and deliverance,” said Martinez, who believes the demonstrations fulfill Isaiah 56:7-8. These verses state that the Lord God will make His people joyful in houses of prayer among the nations.
Much of the 10/40 Window is desert-parched sand and hardened ground under which dormant seeds are waiting for vital rain to germinate. With the right weather conditions, the deserts can bloom with flowers, greenery, and colors as far as eyes can see. Spiritually, the 10/40 Window is also a desert where people are like seeds waiting for the rain of God’s presence. Many are waiting to hear the gospel for the first time. In Muslim nations, for example, the ratio of missionaries to unbelievers is one for every quarter-million people, according to MAPS.
Martinez believes Jesus looks at the desert land of the 10/40 Window differently than man does because He knows that when spiritual and natural rains come, both people and flowers blossom.
Last year, as 50 Hours was winding down, the time in each country ranged from midnight and morning light to sunset in Richmond, home base for all of MAPS prayer rooms across the 10/40 Window. Martinez realized from his location in the 10/40 Window that Malachi 1:11 was being partially fulfilled: “My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets.”
In blogs, podcasts, and a full-length documentary (50 HOURS: A MAPS Global Film), MAPS Global highlights miraculous testimonies of young people encountering Jesus in supernatural ways across the 10/40 Window.
In most of the Muslim world, it is illegal to share the gospel, especially for adults to evangelize minors, but MAPS has found it is culturally and legally permissible for teenagers to share the good news. So MAPS seizes opportunities to take teams of short-term, youth missionaries to undisclosed locations in the Middle East.
During 50 Hours in 2017, a local prayer leader in an Islamic nation announced that a busload of teens and young adults who had experienced devastation and loss were on their way to the base from an ancient biblical city. “Many of them, coming from the Muslim world, had never been in anything like a worship service,” said MAPS Global leader Aaron Custalow.
In a prayer and worship set, the leader sang lyrics from a popular Christian song, “Good, Good Father,” in Arabic as MAPS leaders monitored reactions from the crowd. In Islam, Muslims are erroneously taught that Allah is not a father and that He has no son. “Number one, you’ve got that demonic ideology,” Martinez said. “No. 2, in Islam you don’t sing worship songs to Allah, especially in public, if you’re a female,” he continued.
An American female, who was a teenager at the time, joined MAPS Global on this short-term mission trip to the Muslim-dominated country in the Middle East. She was surrounded by mostly Arabic-speaking, young Muslims and teenagers who were refugees due to devastation of their homes and families.
“It was a wild moment for me, an American, to witness them declaring the truth about who the Father is, which is so against the grain of their culture and religion,” said a young woman who identified as Lucy to share her experience. “Little did I know, it was only just the beginning. These dormant seeds in the desert were being watered, and sprouting to life,” Lucy wrote in a blog published by MAPS Global.
In that nation and others within the 10/40 Window, the presence of God manifests in houses of prayer.
“Sometimes it’s with large groups of people; other times it’s with the one individual who wanders into the prayer room and experiences the presence of God,” Custalow said. “Everything in them comes alive as they begin to sing.”
In one of the most closed nations, where government and secret police monitor locals who come into contact with foreign workers, Martinez recounts supernatural manifestations in both the spiritual and natural realms over a period of time in the country.
While Martinez was in this region of the 10/40 Window, a leader from another missions organization came into the prayer room during 50 Hours to visit with Martinez. The leader told him a two-part prophecy would be fulfilled before God poured out His Spirit on people in the region. The first part was that “all the lights would go out” in this particular country. Later, a large earthquake hit, and that’s when it happened – all the lights went out at the same time.
Then the second part happened too. “That earthquake hit the highest point in the nation – the center of witchcraft. It shook the earth so much that new rivers formed in the desert,” Martinez said. A few months later, a rainstorm hit that desert and the downpour produced a “superbloom” – the second event which had been prophesied.
The leader told Martinez people in this region of the 10/40 Window opened up to the gospel in ways he had not seen over seven years of work. As a result, three mission organizations and two local pastors linked arms to keep the prayer center going until MAPS establishes a permanent prayer base.
“As we’re seeing this growth, God has given MAPS Global the vision to build (what amounts to) seven greenhouses, where people bloom as they encounter God. They’re not alone in the desert but, instead, they’re cultivated and nurtured as indigenous spiritual leaders,” said Martinez.
He urges pastors and leaders to stir up the people they lead, encouraging them to engage with the 10/40 Window and the 50 Hours event. “This is a great moment to infuse people with enthusiasm for what God is doing in frontier missions,” Martinez said.
Information about MAPS Global, 50 Hours, its podcasts and feature-length documentary (50 HOURS: A MAPS Global Film), training, and both short- and long-term missions opportunities is available at mapsglobal.org/50 Hours.
For a free prayer guide and link to the global meeting on Zoom sign up here.