Although it has not been widely known, a mission team from 24-7 Spain has been in Nepal for almost 2 weeks.  The team is in the nation to pray, play and obey... much the same as 24-7 Mission Teams have been doing across Europe and around the world.  Aside from providing practical service to local believers, the team has also been involved in organising football (soccer) tournaments across the area in which they are located.

 

Five days ago, as the team returned home from a  football match against a local team, they found themselves immersed in some of the riots currently transcurring in Nepal over fuel prices.  These riots and accompanying strikes had brought the entire country to a virtual standstill.  Most professional truck drivers in Nepal had been on strike over two days, but there had been some that had tried to leave strike lines and return to work.  Amidst burning cars and local youth manning barriers, the team saw one such man try to flee a mob of rioting strikers.  They watched helplessly as the young man was caught by the mob and beaten brutally.  The menace presented by the rioters was so great that the team decided to stay in the house of a friend rather than return to the base where they had been housed.  It turned out that the "house" of the friend was a mansion with enough beds for the entire team!  The team went on to win the city-wide football tournament, making the evening news and the front page of the newspaper the next day.