The beginning — Bangalore, 2005
In 2005, Pastor Raju Baskota visited Bangalore for the first time. He had not come planning to start a church. He had come for meetings with brothers and sisters in Christ, and simply to see the city.
But as he walked through Bangalore, he began to notice something. Nepali people — everywhere. At construction sites. In restaurants. Working as security guards. In beauty parlors. Studying in colleges. Coming home from long shifts at hotels. He saw them, and these were sights he could not forget.
What struck him most deeply was this: at that time, very few of them seemed to know about each other. There was no Nepali Christian fellowship he could find. If Nepali believers existed at all in this huge city, they were scattered, disconnected, isolated. And the much larger number of Nepali people who didn't yet know the Lord had no one — or very few — speaking to them about Jesus in their own language.
A deep conviction settled in his heart. Someone needs to bring these people the gospel in Nepali. Someone needs to gather the believers in one place. Someone needs to disciple them, walk with them, build them up, and prepare them for the Lord's work.
He returned home from that first trip with a vision burning in him: to begin ministry work among the Nepali-speaking people of all of Bengaluru.
The beginning of ministry — 2006
Second visit: In 2006, that vision became reality. Great Hope Nepali Church was informally established — not as a branch of any other organization, but as an independent Nepali church — committed to taking the gospel to Nepali-speaking people in Bengaluru.
The first gatherings began in a small room in Koramangala, one of central Bangalore's busy neighborhoods. Just three or four Nepali brothers and sisters meeting together. There was no formal space. No signboard. Not even something you could formally call a "church" at that stage.
There was only this — a handful of Nepali people, one Bible, prayer, and Nepali worship songs sung from the heart.
A little later, the group began gathering at a local church, where roughly 10 believers and seekers would come together each week.
But God was working. The small group grew. New people came. Nepali believers in Bangalore began to find out, through quiet word of mouth, that such a fellowship existed. People who had felt alone in their faith for years suddenly had brothers and sisters. People who had never heard the gospel in Nepali heard it for the first time.
The move to Kothanur
As the church grew, the small Koramangala fellowship needed a larger, more permanent home. The ministry eventually moved to Kothanur in north-east Bangalore.
At Kothanur, the ministry took its current shape: regular Sunday worship in Nepali, active prayer fellowship, kids' fellowship, youth fellowship, women's fellowship, and weekly small groups. The name people now know us by — Great Hope Nepali Church (GHNC) — became settled here in the community's memory.
How the church is led today
Great Hope Nepali Church operates under Pastor Raju Baskota's vision — but not by him alone. From the very beginning, this church has been built on the principle of shared leadership.
Our board of church members and a team of dedicated elders and leaders work alongside the pastor in carrying out the ministry. Decisions about teaching, finances, ministry direction, and care for the congregation are not made by one person — they are made together, prayerfully, by leaders who answer to God and to the church family.
Beyond the leadership team, the full membership of the church participates in ministry. People serve in worship, in prayer, in hospitality, in teaching, and in caring for one another. The work of the church is all of our shared work. This has been true since 2006, and it remains true today.
Where the ministry meets today
Today, the ministry gathers at two locations in Bangalore:
- Kothanur (Hennur Bagalur Road) — our main Sunday worship location, where two services are held each week. Address: 2nd floor, Great Hope Church Ministry, Hennur Bagalur Road, Kothanur Post, Bengaluru 560077 (directly opposite Uttam Sagar restaurant).
- Vinayaka Nagar — our third gathering point, serving Nepali believers in another part of the city.
The ministry reaches beyond Bangalore
Something remarkable has happened over the years. Many of the brothers who came to know the Lord — or who grew in their faith — at GHNC have returned to Nepal. Some have gone back to their villages, others to various towns and cities across the country.
And wherever they have gone, they have not gone quietly. These brothers now support local churches and pastors in their own places. Some have planted churches themselves. In various parts of Nepal, there are now small, healthy congregations led or supported by people who first met Jesus, or who first grew in faith, here in Bangalore.
This was not the original plan. We did not set out to plant churches in Nepal from Bangalore. But God had his own plan. The ministry that began with three or four believers in Koramangala has become a ministry whose fruit now grows in Nepal itself.