I was saved from a scuba diving accident 100 feet below the waves

Two weeks before a scuba diving trip to Redang, Malaysia, in 1998, I had been battling a runny nose.

Excitement clouded my judgment and I convinced myself I was fine. What I didn’t realise – or chose not to – was that my airways were not fully clear. In diving, this is a serious risk: Blocked passages can prevent pressure equalisation, a danger that becomes life-threatening at depth.

I travelled with a group that included close friends from university and colleague-friends from the major Singapore telco I worked for.

Before we set out to sea, the Christians among them knelt on the shore near our resort and prayed for God’s protection.

I watched with a mixture of bemusement and mild impatience. To me – a committed believer of another faith – their prayer seemed sweet but unnecessary.

I walked away buzzing with excitement, ready for the dive I’d been anticipating for months.

My dive buddy was an experienced diver. We descended confidently as a group into choppy waters stirred by the approaching monsoon season.

Rachel (centre) and dive buddies in a photo taken before the incident.

Within minutes, we reached the sea bed at 100 feet – a world of cool grey light, where sunlight barely reaches and silence is total. Beneath the sand, a cluster of stingrays lay perfectly still. We hovered there, captivated.

And then the pain started.

Crisis at 100 feet

Pressure began building in my ears – slowly at first, then escalating rapidly into sharp, stabbing pain that felt as though my eardrums were about to burst. I waved to my dive buddy, knocked against my air tank to signal distress. Nothing. No one noticed.

I knew the rules. Divers should ascend slowly – no more than 30 feet per minute – to avoid injury, pausing half way up, and again at 15 to 20 feet for safety stops to allow pressure to equalise. Ignoring these steps can turn a routine ascent into a life-or-death situation.

Rising too fast can rupture the lungs. But the agony was so overwhelming I could not hold still.

In pure panic, I began shooting upward.

I thought I was going to die.

The name I called out

In my panic, I did what I had always done. I cried out to my god, chanting from deep within my heart. But there was only terrifying silence. Nothing came back.

“I was born into a Malaysian family steeped in traditional spirituality; our home was filled with many idols,” said Rachel, with her younger brother, pictured in their father’s arms.

Then I remembered my friends kneeling back at the resort. I remembered the name they had called upon.

“Jesus,” I cried within my spirit, “I don’t know You. But if You are real, save me!”

Then something happened that I cannot fully explain.

It felt like time stood still as a deep, inexplicable peace settled over me. It was something I had never once felt in years of practicing my faith, years of operating purely from the discipline of the mind I could control.

It came from somewhere outside of me, and yet reached the very inside of me. My spirit recognised it before my mind could catch up.

As I rose through the water, the light above grew brighter. I knew: I was going to be okay. I would live.

Blood, saltwater and tears

I broke through into choppy waves, grabbed the buoy line and gasped for air. Tears streamed down my face, mixing with saltwater and blood from nasal vessels that had burst from the pressure.

But I was breathing. I was alive.

I waved toward our boat in the distance and watched it make its way to me through the rolling swells.

Back on board, the team of experienced dive leaders examined me carefully, asking pointed questions and watching closely for symptoms that typically follow such a rapid ascent – and one from great depth without safety stops.

My lungs were intact. I had no decompression sickness, no nitrogen narcosis, no symptoms that would require emergency evacuation to a hyperbaric chamber. I was breathing normally, and didn’t need help from oxygen we had access to.

I went straight to my doctor for further checks on returning to Singapore after the three-night trip.

Medically, I was completely fine.

The only effect from the dive? Both eardrums were blocked, but they equalised slowly on their own over two weeks of medical leave at home.

During those two weeks of still and quietness, I could not stop reflecting about what had happened at the depth of 100 feet.

Someone real had met me there. The true living God had met me when I was in deep waters.

Wanting to know the One who had met me

Not long after this trip, my friends invited me to New Creation Church.

I went – curious, open, and honestly a little overwhelmed.

In November 1998, when an invitation was given at church for anyone who wanted to respond personally to Jesus, I stepped forward and made a decision to follow Him.

It wasn’t an emotional reaction or out of gratitude for surviving the dive.

It was something deeper. I wanted to know the One who had met me at 100ft feet below the waves at Redang.

In a moment between life and death, Jesus had responded. The god I had grown up with had not. The contrast was not subtle.

It felt as though my spiritual eyes – which I never knew I had – were opened. I sensed that my life had purpose, and was part of a much bigger story that was being written by Someone who knew me personally and deeply.

As it says in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you … plans to give you hope and a future.” 

I found myself wondering: How had I lived so long without recognising this?

Blessings that followed

Here’s something I love telling people: I was never an academic achiever. And I never thought of myself as particularly smart as I grew up in a humble family with limited exposure and opportunities.

But the year after giving my life to Jesus, I topped the entire International MBA cohort at the University of South Australia.

Rachel (second from right), receiving a blessing from God – the Academic Excellence Award for 1999.

I knew in my heart it wasn’t luck or hard work. It was a blessing from my Heavenly Father. It was also an answer to a prayer of blessing a diving buddy had prayed over me – a new believer – to experience the goodness of God much more.

This prayer was answered again and again. God was showing me who He was – and who I could be in Him.

My career took off from there in ways I could never have engineered – from SingTel and my MBA into the international arena with Deloitte, and across global corporations including WPP, Ericsson, GE Digital, NXP, Accenture, and Dentsu. Nearly three decades of executive leadership across continents, all guided in grace, by a loving God who had already written those days, and with His Hands over the works of my hands. 

Another blessing? My husband Leon and our children Jency and Samuel.

Life 2.0 – The Jubilee calling on stewardship

Three years ago, at 49 going on 50 — a year of Jubilee — I sensed the Lord calling me out of the corporate world entirely.

I had to unlearn to relearn what it meant to abide in Him. Opened doors led me to coach, mentor, teach and serve as a volunteer in the social services.

Rachel (second from left) with (from left to right) HCSA Community Services Board President, Dominique Choy; Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs, Associate Professor Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim; and HCSA’s former CEO, Kim Lang Khalil-Pang.

I also founded Antioch Streams, a specialised advisory firm and ecosystem platform that helps business leaders move beyond simply “being sustainable” to actively building generational legacy as good stewards through companies for innovation and impact.

Everything – the boardrooms, the countries we’ve lived in, the decades of learning — now are used in service of something greater and more meaningful to lives beyond my life and my family’s, to impact life together as communities.

Rachel was invited by the South Korean Government in partnership with KILSA Global to be keynote speaker and VC panel judge at the South Summit (a deep tech and AI forum on Regenerative Economy) at Incheon.

With Jesus, it is always a journey of growth from glory to glory. Romans 8:6 says: “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”

Not a bed of roses – but never alone

Life since 1998, when I came to Christ, has not been a bed of roses. There have been real challenges, heartbreaks, and seasons of deep pain. Marriage and parenting stretch you in ways nothing else can. Career, health, relationships – none of it is immune to difficulty.

But I have discovered a pattern: In moments when I feel completely overwhelmed, guidance and peace has always come – just like that moment in the depths of the ocean, I call out, and God answers. Always, faithfully, and in time.

Even more remarkably, what began as a desperate cry in a life or death situation has grown into an intimate, daily relationship with God. I no longer just call out in times of crisis; I seek guidance and direction in everyday life, in God’s wise counsel before crisis arrives. I feel His presence walking with me, knowing me fully, and shaping my life in ways I could not have planned on my own.

My life was changed 100 feet below the surface of the sea at Redang, in a moment between life and death. It showed me that God is real, that He meets us in our deepest struggles, and that His grace can bring us through the impossible.

A version of this story first appeared on Stories of Hope

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