Training as a chemical engineer, he deliberately specialised in water and wastewater treatment with ministry in mind. “It all started back in uni—one of my goals was to do water treatment overseas and use my skills to serve Jesus,” he says. God opened the way through an internship with Samaritan’s Purse in North Carolina, where he learned how emergency water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) responses are set up and sustained.
That experience led him to join the Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART). The model suits his season of life: he keeps his full-time engineering job in Brisbane but is ready to deploy for short stretches when crisis hits. “Samaritan’s Purse does give a lot of opportunities to serve Jesus—overseas deployments through DART and locally through Australian Disaster Relief,” he explains. For Nahil, DART is the bridge between ordinary workdays and a heart for ministry through helping sharing Jesus’ love with those in need.
In 2024, historic flooding devastated southern Brazil, crippling municipal water supplies. Nahil arrived to find a city still swamped, with only one access road open and families living in tents on the streets. “It was quite eye-opening,” he recalls. “We’ve had flooding in Australia before… but [there] people had to resort to living in tents on the streets.”
The WASH team moved quickly. “We deployed almost immediately… and we deployed ten water treatment systems… set them up in key locations and taught the locals how to use the system,” Nahil says. “Each water system can provide 10,000 people with drinking water per day.” The maths still humbles him: ten systems, potentially reaching 100,000 people with safe drinking water each day.
Brazil also gave him a front-row seat to quiet, persistent courage. He remembers a school principal who had been coordinating food and clothing for his neighbourhood and “was over the moon” when the team offered to install a water system at the school. When the taps finally ran with clean water, “it was so cool to see the joy on his face… he was very quick to help people as well,” ferrying buckets to neighbours who needed them.
Another moment still stirs him. At a church that hosted one of the first WASH sites, the local pastor told Nahil:
“If I had known that me losing everything would allow me to help and reach so many people for the Gospel, I would have lost everything a long time ago.”
For Nahil, the words cut through the chaos to the heart of the work: make Jesus known, serve people, restore hope.
What happens behind the scenes matters too. Nahil loved the unity of a team drawn from “America… Australia… Greece… Scotland,” all focused on one goal. He points to the clarity of leadership and the spiritual centre that held them together: “They were very focused on what the goal was… but they also made it clear that we are helping in Jesus’ Name and that is our main focus.”
Deployments are demanding, so preparation goes beyond packing raincoats and gumboots. When a call came with just a day and a half’s notice, Nahil gathered a circle of people to pray. “I really wanted to make sure that I was well equipped spiritually,” he says, asking friends to keep praying while he served.
Back in Australia, he’s just as eager to roll up his sleeves. Through Samaritan’s Purse Australian Disaster Relief, he spent a Saturday in the Gold Coast Hinterland in October 2024, helping remove fallen branches and trees from a woman’s driveway and yard. “She ended up tearing up… she was so overwhelmed by the support,” he says. “Moments like that really show the love of God through our actions.”
Serving has reshaped his perspective. He talks about gratitude—for everyday comforts at home and for the privilege of being part of God’s answer in hard places.
“The main thing was knowing that God is in control all the time,” he reflects. “It was really a blessing and encouragement that God would choose me—and our team—to help serve in this way.”
DART has also become a witness in his relationships. Nahil says friends at church and beyond often ask about the work. “Even though the work itself is quite practical, there is a heart behind it—and it’s to serve God… to show the love of Jesus to people in need,” he says. Those conversations open doors to share why he goes and whom he serves.
Since those first deployments, God has continued to open doors to serve in His Name. In 2025, after the deadly Myanmar earthquake, Nahil joined a response team helping bring clean water to hard-hit communities—another reminder that the right skills, offered in the right moment, can protect health and restore hope.
Nahil, third from the left, with fellow Australian and New Zealand DART members in Myanmar.If you’re an Australian or New Zealander wondering whether your profession belongs on the front lines, Nahil’s encouragement is simple and broad-minded:
“Look into different types of ministries where you can use your skills to serve God… Through Samaritan’s Purse, I found out that I could use my engineering skills to serve Jesus… You might be a doctor or nurse, or you might work in logistics or human resources… I’m sure whatever skills you have… can all be used to serve God.”
DART, he says, is a practical way to do exactly that—keeping your career, staying rooted in your community, and stepping out in Jesus’ Name when a suffering community needs you most.
