Report from BHW Nepal Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key Person: Navin Darlami

We spent time with Navin from 25-28 November 2025. We have never met him before and have supported him through Sowers International (INT02). He spent some time telling us about his background, his family and his ministry. He is an engaging man with an interesting story and has a great sense of humour.

On the third day he wanted to show us some of the churches he had planted and local sights. Hannah, his wife, came too and it was a good opportunity just to hang out and get to know them better. We visited the first church, just outside Surkhet. There were no people there, just the building (yellow building in photo below). Around 50 people meet in the village, it is the result of open air meetings a few years ago, while they could still do them. It was then a 30-minute drive across the valley and up the surrounding hills to visit the second church (bottom photo). This one is in his family village and has more than 60 people regularly attending. There was a leadership seminar going on in this church, I reckon around 70 people.  

Current Situation

Personal

Navin and Hannah are in their early 50's with three adult children. Their youngest son lives with them still and is a student. Their daughter has two children, her husband is in the military, and she lives in France to earn money. She has only been there a few months language learning. Their two children live with Navin and Hannah. Their other son lives in Kathmandu. They live in a modest house, it is very tired with several cracked walls, but they seem quite happy there.

Navin is one of six siblings and the first in his family to become a believer. All his siblings and parents became Christians. His mother died about 10 years ago. His father became a believer at 100 years of age and was baptised at 103, he lived to be 106.

Navin became a believer at college and became a Sower in 2016. The Edwards were the Sower's contacts. 

They are a lovely couple and very easy to relate to.  

Context

Since the early 2000's it has become increasingly difficult to do open air preaching. Officially they can do it, but local people resent their presence and create issues for them. He has been imprisoned more than 40 times because of preaching outdoors.

The work of Sowers has been effective. Since he joined, he has done more than 40 seminars and trained more than 500 people. He has been directly involved in planting 15 churches and there are many others they don't know about. He is constantly on the lookout for people who can become mentors of new churches that are being planted. Currently there are about 100 people in his mentoring network. Most of the churches have been planted as small groups, some have small church buildings but most meet in homes. 

Recent Events

He has recently organised a couple of seminars but is finding it difficult to do this because of availability. He has a team that works with him.

He has recently been reviewing all the materials they use as they are discovering that the current materials are not entirely suitable.

They have not been able to do the open air programmes at all since 2020, so people have to be invited to a venue and then they are able to talk with them. This involves singing some songs to them, using mystery stories to engage the people and they cannot talk about Jesus until the end of the programme once they have understood the crowd dynamics.

They had to stop open air programmes as local Buddhist priests would stir up the crowd and create issues, which often lead to his arrest. At virtually every open air programme people would come to Christ, and this continues with their current format.

Partnership's Influence within the Community

The church leaders love the training for their people, mainly because it means more people come into church because of the focus on evangelism. 

Ideas for the Future

Navin wants to add more people to his team, probably three or four in an ideal world.

There are many opportunities for training, but he cannot do it all and he cannot go to all the widespread places with the cost of transport. 

He wants to continue adapting the Sowers material and adapt the training seminar format. Currently the seminars are five days, but it is impossible for people to come for that length of time. He thinks a three-day seminar would be much more appropriate.

They need to print more books and manuals and need a video projector. It appears the day of the newsprint sketch board is over, at least for the meantime.

He is very positive about the future, but when I asked him about how he was feeling about ministry his comment was, “I am happy but not satisfied.”

Current Issues and Challenges

The cost of living is constantly putting pressure on funds. 

People are busier than ever just surviving and this impacts their availability.

Prayer and Praise Points

1) That he has been able to establish a strong network of people in churches and as team members.
2) That people are regularly coming to faith.
3) For safety as they travel and meet as Christians and seek to witness to others. 

Comments

This is the first time BHW personnel have visited Navin. It is quite expensive to get there, and it is not ever going to be a typical BHW partnership. However, it was good to meet him and relate to him. He was very encouraged as he has not had contact with people from outside for a long time and Sowers does not have a representative in this region. The Edwards from Tauranga were the last ones to visit, they went several times. 

I do not recommend any changes to the budget here.