After the catastrophic Haiti earthquake struck in 2010, Steve Loh flew in to the country as part of a disaster relief team sent by Youth With A Mission (Texas).

Scouring the rubble for survivors, they found a man on the street, naked and desperately hungry. His arms and legs were fractured and, having been out alone for a week, was covered in his own faeces and urine.

Having compassion on him, Loh and his team took him into an ambulance where they fed and washed him. As they were cleaning him up, the man suddenly shouted in Creole: “Only Jesus can be this good. I want Jesus!”

Loh was shocked. They had not identified themselves as Christians, so how did the man know that they were representing Christ? A local on the team quickly shared the Gospel with him and he accepted Christ right that day.

The Haitian man who received Jesus after Loh and his rescue team pulled him out from the rubble and scrubbed his feet. Photo courtesy of Steve Loh.

“That taught me a lesson,” said Loh, who was the former director of YWAM Singapore’s Discipleship Training School and Medical Ships Ministry. “While there was obviously a supernatural conviction from the Holy Spirit, our act of mercy toward him was the very representation of Christ and our witness.

“What better way to preach the Gospel than to get on your knees and scrub somebody’s feet?”

Love of Christ in the darkest hour

This encounter inspired him to birth Rescue Relief International (RRI) in 2011, a rapid response agency that deploys professionally trained rescue personnel and medical staff immediately into disaster zones.

Since its inception, RRI has deployed aid workers to every major disaster, including the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and the 2015 Nepal earthquake.

“Our missionary call is to meet people with the love of Christ in their darkest hour,” said Loh. “It doesn’t get darker than a national disaster.”

An RRI team member cleaning the wounds of a victim of the Nepal earthquake in 2015. Photo courtesy of Steve Loh.

All volunteers are put through a gruelling four-day, three-night intensive training and a crash course in emergency search and rescue. Some, like army medics, join armed with formal training. 

In their quest to bring help and hope to the desperate, volunteers at RRI have seen the greatness and goodness of God, who has proven to be a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).

Steve recalled an incident when his team flew into Cebu during Typhoon Haiyan, but were unable to travel to Tacloban City, the disaster zone which was 90% destroyed.

“I prayed, and I think I heard God tell me to go and have a coffee,” Loh said with a laugh. So, he went to Krispy Kreme, got a doughnut and a cup of coffee, and sat down.

Just then, a man from across the room, who spotted Loh in his rescue uniform, approached him and thanked him for coming to help the locals. He then offered the contact of his friend from church, who was the captain of an airplane.

“God gave me an airplane!” Loh exclaimed, still in amazement seven years on. With that, his team was on the next flight into Tacloban City in their very own aircraft.

The plane, a C-130, that God provided Loh and his rescue team to get to Tacloban City in the Philippines after Super Typhoon Haiyan killed some 7,000 people at wind speeds of 313 km/h. Photo courtesy of Steve Loh.

Truly, no eye has seen, no ear has heard and no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9), he said.

“We had no idea how God would show up for us in these places. We had no idea the power of the Gospel just through acts of mercy.

“But God is amazingly surprising. He is astoundingly providing and consistent in His Word,” he added.

Since Loh left YWAM Singapore in 2018 to head YMCA as its general secretary and chief executive officer, the ministry has been “on standby for leaders to rise up in God’s timing”.

Loh conducting a health check and wound care for the survivors of the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Photo courtesy of Steve Loh.

Meanwhile, he remains convicted that everyone, not just medical professionals, can preach the Gospel boldly with their actions in these disaster zones.

“They can administrate, they can coordinate, they can play with kids, they can cook a meal. They can do any act of mercy that represents the character of Christ.”

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