This year, ERDO has taken up the call to continue the Buntains’ work and legacy in India. What they began as Mission of Mercy Canada has now become part of ERDO.
Mark Buntain was born in Winnipeg in 1923, and everyone who knew him while he was growing up saw the call of God on his life. He quickly joined the ministry, pastoring a small church in the Prairies before going on the circuit as a travelling evangelist. Ending up in Vancouver, B.C., Mark met Huldah at a church service and took her out for Chinese food.
At the restaurant, he spoke in Mandarin with the cooks. Proudly, he told Huldah that he learned the language from a restaurant owner, a friend back in the Prairies, because he believed he would be a missionary to China. Huldah, born in Tokyo, remembered the hard times her family faced in Asia and resolved to never see Mark again.
But it wouldn’t stick. They were soon married, and Huldah quit her job, left her family, and went on the road with Mark.
After a six-month evangelistic ministry in Asia, Mark heard God say his dream would stop there. In the airport on the way home, God told him he would be sent to India instead.
Only 18 months later, Mark and Huldah boarded a boat with their nine-month-old baby and made the three-month journey to India. The goal was to travel the country, holding evangelical tent meetings for a year, then they’d return to Canada. But four years later, in 1959, they broke ground on the Assemblies of God church in Kolkata.
For a third time, God changed their plans. They found themselves living with a small child in a home with no running water, in a country where poverty was rampant. Years later, Huldah recalled how when she first arrived in Kolkata, she would see people bathing in a river where garbage and dead bodies were floating. She was shocked to see how great the need was all around her.
In an interview, she said, “During the service one night, a beggar came in. He wouldn’t even take a seat. And in the middle of Mark’s message, he screamed out these words, ‘Preacher, feed our bellies, and then try to tell us there’s a God in heaven who loves us.’ He was right. Words are easy. Doing is much harder.”
Mark and Huldah faced many roadblocks. In the coming years, children from their congregation would be kicked out of schools in the area. These schools were supported by other churches that said this new church should be responsible for educating its own children. The problem was, Mark and Huldah didn’t have any money to start a school.
It was Huldah who recognized that they would have to educate children if they wanted to influence people for Christ, and she found an organization willing to sponsor 200 students. Their school opened in 1964.
Subsequently, they also began working in the health field. Huldah said:
A little girl in our first school fainted, and Mark said to her, “When did you eat last, Darling?” She said, “I don’t remember,” and he rushed her to a city hospital. There were two in the bed and two under the bed … lying on the floor. And he saw that they didn’t care if she lived or died; [she was a] low-caste child. He came home and said, “I will not only educate these children, but I will feed them and medically treat them.” And that started our compassionate ministries.
Mark and Huldah became humanitarians. They started feeding programs for children, then worked to build their own hospital where the poor would not only be treated but also given the love they deserved.
In 1977, Mark and Huldah opened the Assemblies of God Hospital and Research Centre. Together, they planted 700 churches, and where they weren’t allowed to plant a church, they opened clinics, saying, “The doctor’s table becomes the pastor’s pulpit.” They established Calcutta Mercy Hospital & Rural Clinics, which now treats 40,000 low-income families each year.
Sadly, Mark died suddenly in 1989, but Huldah continued the ministry. God whispered to her on her way to Mark’s funeral, “Take it one day at a time.” She did, continuing to travel to India and minister until her death in 2021 at the age of 96. Among her final wishes, she prayed that her passion for India and her ministry would continue.
This year, ERDO has taken up the call to continue the Buntains’ work and legacy in India. What they began as Mission of Mercy Canada has now become part of ERDO. The Buntains and their supporters faithfully served vulnerable children, women, families and communities throughout India for over 70 years, transforming lives, protecting children, and giving families and communities hope through the love of Jesus Christ.
ERDO is continuing to support these same projects alongside Mission of Mercy Canada’s trusted partners in India, ensuring the work continues.
Thank you for joining us as we build upon this strong foundation and continue to bring hope, dignity and practical care to those who need it most.
To learn more about the projects started by the Buntains and now continuing in India, visit erdo.ca/missionofmercy.
Alicia Webb is the marketing and communications manager at ERDO (Emergency Relief and Development Overseas). This article appeared in the October/November/December 2026 issue of testimony/Enrich, a quarterly publication of The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. © 2026 The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. Pictured: Mark and Huldah Buntain. Photo © ERDO.