Reaching the "10-4 Window"
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 10:36AM 
By: Clarke T. Cayton
A number of years ago, I was a World Missions student in Bible College, where I heard much about the “10-40 Window”. (A specific region in the eastern hemisphere of the world, between the 10 and 40 degree latitudes north of the equator.) This region is especially significant because it marks a section of the world’s population that is most “unreached” with the gospel. This region also experiences the greatest levels of poverty and disparity on earth. It was widely emphasized that if you really wanted to do significant “missionary” work, you would go to this area, because it is where the greatest need is.
All the while going to Bible College and learning about the “10-40 Window”, I was working for a Metro EMS Service. I guess I assumed that since I was employed in the Southern “Bible Belt”, everyone I worked with was a Christian. While I think if it really came down to it and I cornered all my peers and asked them, “Do you believe in God?” nearly all would have said “Yes”; I am quite convinced that believing in God and being a disciple of Jesus, can mean two totally different things. In fact, of the dozens of peers that I worked with, I am finding it hard recall anyone specifically that I could say, “Now that person was a follower of Jesus!”
I remember how everyone used to act so awkward around me, always apologizing when they said a cuss word or told a dirty joke. At the beginning of our shift many would verbally promise to be on their best behavior, as if I would be greatly offended if they weren’t. Funny behavior for a group of people who all claimed to believe in God. I began to realize that this peer group of mine, who seemed so familiar with “the God at Church”, were actually very foreign to the ways of Jesus. I found myself in a culture of lost and broken souls making up the “10-4 Window”.
In my final year at the agency, there were 4 female EMT’s who became pregnant by their male partners. I remember there would be wagers made on who would be the next to get “knocked up”. Affairs and divorces seemed to be common practice. In fact, two of my preceptors had an affair together not long after I was clear of my probationary period. I was devastated. I couldn’t believe it! He had a wife and kids at home, and she was married to a fellow paramedic. All the while, both of them were very encouraging to me and looked out for me in those early months. To the point that the female medic took it upon herself to go around and tell all the other females co-workers that I was not to be flirted with, come-on to, or touched, because she didn’t want me sucked into the culture and corrupted.
I was obviously very young back then. Naïve, green, sheltered; whatever you want to call it. But I learned very quickly, this culture I am a part of is tearing apart the lives of so many people around me! I began to question, “Could this really be an un-reached people group?”
One of the fascinating aspects of Emergency Services is that it is a closed-community. Everyone who works in it; be it Cops, Fire Fighters, Medics, or Dispatchers will typically only have close friendships with those inside the culture. Being only able to socialize with those who can “relate”. No wonder it is so hard for many to really “connect” at a church service! Nobody at church seems to really get them. So here we have a sub-community, cut-off and isolated from the “normal world”, wrestling with all the trauma and tragedy of life and being left only with the dysfunctional social comforts of each other.
Something has got to change in our culture, but this change will only come from within.
If we are to reach the un-reached of the “10-4 Window”, I can only assume it will only be done by those within the “10-4 Window”. We all are missionaries to our own lost culture. Our witness; the light of Jesus radiating through us, will likely be the only authentic and meaningful encounter our brothers and sisters will have with the loving God, who above all seeks to heal their broken lives.
We have to take our position seriously, with intentionality! Every encounter or shift we have with a peer is an opportunity to be a true friend, coming alongside them where ever they are at, with whatever they are going through. Your Pastor can’t do it. Your church can’t do it. You have to do it! We are the ones sent to make disciples right where we are at! And, we can do this, because we are one of them. And, if we can “get them”, they will “get us” and if they can “get us”, they will “get Jesus”. This is how we change the culture from the inside out.
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Reader Comments (1)
Global demographics are useful and instructive, but they can obscure our own personal calling to be who we are called to be where we are at. This piece also shows that ERs are as human as the rest of us, but curiously isolated while in our midst. May God empower you to be a witness to these people. If they do such noble work now, with all of the problems and failings typical of a socially isolated human community, how much more effective will they be as committed followers of Christ? Thank you for shedding light on this issue.