Until recent ceasefire agreements in the Middle East, Christians who gathered to pray and worship in war zones regularly heard overhead missiles hit their targets – explosions happening as they courageously united to exalt the name of Jesus from secret locations.
In this environment of uncertainty, a covert prayer room staffed by indigenous believers and supported by a missional base in the United States is meeting to pray and worship for 50 consecutive hours beginning April 23rd.
Beyond that location, more than 1,200 believers across six other prayer points within the 10/40 Window will join in worship and prayer during the same 50 hours, creating a symphony of voices unto the One true God of nations.
Over 100 short-term missionaries recently boarded flights to North and East Africa, the Levant, the Arab Gulf, the Middle East, Eurasia, and the Himalayas, where they will join about 150 staff and missionaries with MAPS Global for its annual 50 Hours 10/40 Window Prayer Meeting.
WATCH the 50 Hours Trailer for Stories About ‘Man in White’ Visions:
The exception is the Levant, where, because of the potential for renewed war, only local believers and MAPS Global staff who’ve worked in combat zones will lift voices in worship and prayer. The Levant, which has about 1 million unreached people, is within the 10/40 Window, where 3.1 million people are hungry for the gospel.
This year’s theme for 50 Hours, A Symphony of Worship, reflects Revelation chapter five’s description of people from every nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue giving praise to God and to the Lamb.
This symphony of prayer and worship is opening the 10/40 Window to the gospel – the missional piece of MAPS Global – as sounds from secret prayer spots pierce the spiritual realms above the majority Muslim region, while Hinduism and Buddhism fall close behind because of large populations in East and Southeast Asia.
“The gospel is bearing fruit and breaking out with power in historic ways in every single place that we’re working,” MAPS Global President and Founding Pastor R.A. Martinez told me.
From the first 50 Hours in Iraq 10 years ago to seven locations today, each prayer gathering occurs sovereignly in moments of high tension and crisis, including 2026, with wars and tenuous ceasefires in a region known for conflict.
Even amidst war, all seven locations are opening to the Gospel – even in Islamic strongholds – as the presence of God battles spiritual principalities and powers.
“We’re watching prayer and worship literally change frontier missions from the hardest and darkest places as light overcomes regions closed to the gospel,” said Martinez, who leads the MAPS Global family from its home base in Richmond, Virginia.
As local leaders and short-term missionaries pray and worship, they’re pouring what amounts to spiritual gasoline on years of labor in the 10/40 Window by MAPS and other ministries.
“It’s catalyzing openness to the gospel with new ministries growing and replicating from the prayer rooms,” Martinez said.
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Miraculous things are increasingly common in places like MAPS Eurasia Missions Base, within one of the largest unreached Muslim nations in the world. It was once referred to as the black hole of missions.
Fifty new believers connected to the Eurasia base have been baptized over the last four years. Local leaders tell Martinez that openness to the gospel among people in this nation is unprecedented since daily worship and prayer began there.
“We’re literally seeing historic movements of the gospel across these regions that have been for a century and almost a millennium has been closed. Now they’re opening in the most amazing ways, and nobody knows this story,” Martinez said.
A number of bases are staffed by leaders who were saved and trained at MAPS’ schools and are now hosting 50 Hours of prayer and worship.
Muslims are constantly encountering Jesus and connecting with MAPS, which trains them to be vocational missionaries to their nations and people.
At the Eurasia base, one of the main leaders came to faith in Jesus and received training from MAPS; he now leads 50 Hours from a location in another city in this nation.
Last year, 1,000 people gathered in the prayer rooms across the 10/40 Window asking the Lord for mercy, harvest and salvation. Pastors and partners are joining MAPS staff leaders for 50 Hours in a few locations this year.
In the Middle East, the ratio of local believers to Western missionaries who pray and worship is about 50/50.
At the Eurasia base – home to a prayer room with the largest population of local believers – an indigenous-led church hosts the gathering while MAPS builds a base for a house of prayer and school.
In East Africa and the Levant, the bases are mostly indigenous, as is the case in the Himalayas, where Nepalis form the prayer expression. The leaders of the base in East Africa are indigenous – a first.
“We’re building presence-centered prayer and worship environments that are local-church expressions,” Martinez said.
The exception is North Africa, in one of the most closed nations. There, it is illegal for a native to be in the same room as a foreign Christian.
Besides short-term and staff missionaries who dispatched on April 18, faith leaders are on board for 50 Hours this year, as they have been for previous 50 Hours events.
A pastor of a church in the Midwest joined MAPS Global in the Levant last year, leading a team of intercessors for 50 Hours.
Gathered with believers from all seven bases online, Gerald Murphy realized a fulfillment of Malachi 1:11: “My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be brought to me.”
“That one moment ignited my heart in a powerful way,” said Murphy, who pastors Garden City Church in Columbus, Ohio. “There were representatives on the call from Richmond, where the sun was going down, all the way to the Himalayas, where the sun was rising.”
The idea for MAPS Global formed in the mind of Martinez 15 years ago, following a dream that was set in Turkey. He saw missionaries evacuating after an earthquake and a baby being pulled from the rubble.
“In the dream, I heard the audible voice of God. It was like thunder. It went through me and then came up in me as I saw this earthquake scene unfold before me. The Lord asked, ‘Who will build the house of prayer?'” Martinez said.
Awakening from the dream, Martinez sat up in bed and wondered why the Lord had asked this question. “I literally told the Lord, ‘I don’t know where that place is.’ Like if you had rolled out a map and said, ‘point to Turkey,’ I didn’t know,” said Martinez.
Newly married and 23 at the time of the dream, Martinez was shocked at the news that followed in 2011.
Seven months later, the dream played out in real time as news headlines publicized an earthquake that hit Turkey. The Associated Press posted a photo of rescue workers pulling a baby out of the rubble, which was what Martinez had seen in the dream.
Remembering the house of prayer the Lord asked about, Martinez heard Him speak the words: “Who will build the house of prayer in Turkey?”
“Just like Jesus said in Mark 14 of Mary of Bethany, who poured oil on Jesus in an extravagant offering of worship, ‘Wherever this gospel is preached in all the world her story will be told.’ The movement that is going to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth is going to be the movement that’s fueled by extravagant worship like Mary of Bethany, pouring out everything on the head, hands, and feet of Jesus,” Martinez believes.
To assist believers who want to pray with the seven locations, MAPS Global prepared a guide to intercession for the 10/40 Window: 50 Hours 2026 Digital Prayer Guide. Information about MAPS Global and how to support it is available at mapsglobal.org/50hours.
WATCH the Full Documentary – ’50 Hours: A MAPS Global Film’
