Nepal is in a state of growing crisis ahead of proposed elections in April.
A severe fuel shortage is affecting everyday life in a country where a third of the population already live in abject poverty.
The capital, Kathmandu, and many other major cities in Nepal are running out of fuel supplies - impacting people in their homes, the transport system and institutions such as schools and hospitals.
There are long queues for fuel, huge increases in food prices and the daily power cuts are reported to be the worst in living memory.
This is happening because of violent anti-government protests from the Madheshi ethnic group in the Terai plains of southern Nepal.
Nepal is completely dependent on fuel imports from India, which come in through five border crossings. The road from Birgunj, in the Terai, to Kathmandu handles 60 per cent of these imports.
They are blockading the major route for petrol, diesel and gas deliveries from India and have called a general strike.
The authorities in Nepal have responded by imposing daytime curfews to try and enable fuel tankers through.
Last gas cylinder
BMS medical worker Katrina Butterworth lives and works in Kathmandu with her husband Martin and their two daughters. The family are experiencing the situation first-hand. Katrina reports:
"Gas cylinders are the chief form of fuel for cooking used within the city. The hospital ran out of gas yesterday, so it is now cooking the rice on an outside wood fire.
"In our house we are on our last gas cylinder. We are only using it for the absolute basics of cooking. We also have roughly eight hours of powercuts per day, especially during peak times like morning and evening. Rumours abound that it is going up soon to 12 hours per day.
The Madhesis are protesting against the against the country's unelected coalition government, which has been in place since the end of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal in 2006.
Their demands are for an autonomous state for Madheshis, who make up around a third of the country's population.
"We also have no water; in fact we have had no water in the pipes for around a month. We use the well in the garden, but this requires electricity to pump it up and the water is quite murky anyway.
The streets are almost empty except for protestors. It is hard to get to anywhere in the city and almost impossible to move outside of the city by public transport.
Whether the Nepal's elections, planned for 10 April, will actually take place is unknown and depends largely on talks between the government and Madhesis politicians.
BMS worker Christine Preston asks British Baptists to pray fervently for the situation, "Campaigning for the elections has begun with promises of change but few believe it will happen. Please pray for us as the Holy Spirit leads.
"We need men and women of integrity, insight, wisdom and peace to ensure the aspirations for access to education and health care of the many ethnic and caste groups are met. Do join with the Church here in earnestly praying for this".