I will never forget when we returned from Indonesia to New Zealand in 1993 we were taken on to the pastoral team at our church and among other things I was given the specific role of Missions Pastor. One of the “inspirational ideas” I believe I was given from the Lord was the challenge for our church to pray through the 10/40 window for a whole month, because the Christian world was being challenged to do that. So I floated the idea to our church of about 300 to commit to praying through the month twenty-four – seven. 24 hours / day; seven days a week for the whole month. At first most were shocked at the idea, especially when I suggested that we rouse ourselves and go and pray at church, not in the comfort of our own homes or worse yet, our own beds. I divided the days into half hour time slots through the day and through the night. Many people told me they didn’t think they could pray for a half an hour non stop. I spent time developing materials that people could use for prayer fuel. Then in a morning service before the Praying through the 10/40 Window began, I went to the month’s timetable laid out on the wall and filled in my name for the two hours between 2.00 and 4.00 am every second day. People were inspired to commit and pray.
People caught the significance and the excitement and the practice grew through the month. It was so exciting to see people coming down to church for their allotted time but coming earlier to join with the people praying before them and staying later to join with those who came later. All said it was like God was in the midst of it all and their capacity to prayer increased significantly.