What's your name?

For the majority of people, this question takes less than five seconds to answer and for other people to understand and move on. Not for me. Answering this question usually involves the following:

 me saying my name, the other person not understanding, me slowly articulating every sound, and when they still don't understand, I'll have to spell it out for them. But usually, they hear me by the second or third time and I just kindly accept their pronunciation of my name. It usually falls into three categories: 'hilda', 'hull-dah' or 'hew-dah'. I don't really mind anymore, and I am totally not hatin' on those who can't say it 100% correctly (most people are pretty good and even I sometimes question myself). And now, I pretty much react to anything from Hilda to holder and everything in between. 

It's clear that 'Huldah' isn't a very common name and so I thought I would see who else in the world shares this privilege(?). I turned to Facebook first, and turns out the majority of other Huldahs are African if not European (seems like I might be the only Chinese one). And like I'm sure most people have done with their name, I punched my name into Google to see what could possibly come up. I was half expecting Google to hit me back with a "did you mean.....?" But surprisingly it didn't. The top search was the original person who had my name which I already knew and who I was named after - a prophetess in the Old Testament of the Bible (2 Kings 22:14).

Another Huldah unexpectedly popped up and so I thought I would investigate what type of person she was. And turns out her story is pretty amazing:

In 1954, Huldah Buntain and her husband decided to travel to Calcutta, India to begin ministry work and evangelistic services for one year, not knowing what was in store for them. They began hosting services for the people in large tent, but because of monsoons they had to relocate to a hall. Gradually the congregation grew larger and they soon decided they had to build their own church. But finding land did not come easy in a small city of 14 million people. The only property that was available was where they had their tent meetings but that was owned by a Muslim family and they refused to hand it over. However, after continually visiting that family and developing a strong relationship with them, the grandfather of that family decided to sell them the land. And so the very first church in Calcutta was built on that property.

And from that point on, one year turned into over 50 years. They eventually established their own Calcutta Mercy Ministries after a beggar attended one of their services and inspired them after saying to them "Preacher, feed our bellies and then tell us there is a God in heaven who loves us". From then and gradually, their ministry has grown to include over 700 churches, several Bible colleges, a nurses' training centre that will become a college, over 100 schools, and a hospital.

        

Even at 79, she refused to retire and continued to change lives.

"Little did we know what God planned for our lives when we arrived by ship in October, 1954. I will never forget our first week in Calcutta. Many people warned us it was a hopeless city, but we believed that nothing was impossible for God. Over the years there was much discouragement and the devil fought hard to hinder the progress of our ministries. But through God’s help, the Calcutta Ministries have culminated into one of the world’s most comprehensive Christian inner city outreaches.

I am often asked how we were able to accomplish so much for the Kingdom of God:

We took it one day at a time. We worked hard and we did our best to listen to the voice of the Lord, knowing that He was the One who sent us. He was the One who performed the miracles and He was the one who sustained us."

This reminds me of something that I learned during Ignite week: "start small, think big, dig deep". Changing people's lives doesn't come about very easily, although it will always be something I aspire to do one day. But one thing's for sure, God will always have my back if I let him change my life first.

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So I guess a random act of curiosity and boredom turned into a gem of some sort. It's always nice to read inspiring stories of change in the world and catching glimpses of God's work on earth. And it always starts with one person and an idea.