When Robin Png was a child, he would help out at his father’s hawker stall at Margaret Drive selling Chinese desserts.

“My father was famous for his sweet potato soup,” said Robin, 64.

One day, members from Queenstown Baptist Church came by the stall and asked Robin if he would like to go to church with them. He was nine at the time.

“I had never experienced such friendliness and love before. Most of them were in secondary school, so they were older than me and I was attracted by the brotherly love they showed.”

So Robin accepted their invitation. In church, he went to Sunday School and heard about Jesus, but never got to see a Bible. No one shared the Gospel message of salvation with him either. The first time he attended the main English service, he got a shock.

“I saw 20 over people in blue and purple walking down and smiling. I thought they were angels. Later I realised they were the choir.”

By the time Robin was in secondary school, he stopped attending church.

When Robin was 12, his father discovered that he had been sneaking off to church every week and forbade him from going. Around that time, he started Secondary 1 and extracurricular activities took up much of his time. So he stopped going to church.

But he never forgot the name of Jesus taught to him in his youth. That name would one day come to his rescue.

The name of Jesus

In polytechnic, Robin took up Nautical Studies. As part of the course, he had to sail on board a ship to learn to be a navigator. His job was to shadow the first duty officer which entailed working in shifts.

One night in the cabin, Robin had a strange encounter.

In the weeks that he was at sea, Robin’s nights were disturbed by a strange entity.

“I felt someone strangle my neck. I couldn’t breathe. This went on for several nights. Each time I woke up, it was 1.45am.”

One night during such an encounter, he summoned enough courage to shout out at the top of his voice: “I don’t care who brought me into this world, but I have done nothing wrong.”

Then he went back to sleep. The next night, he experienced the same choking feeling.

This went on till, one night, he remembered something from his childhood.

“Suddenly in my subconscious, the name ‘Jesus’ appeared in my mind. I quickly shouted twice in my sleep, ‘Jesus! Jesus!’

“After I shouted the second time, I opened my eyes and saw a black figure go out of the room from under the door. I wasn’t frightened. I was relieved. After that, it didn’t happen again.”

One little booklet

When Robin returned to Singapore for a break, he decided that he would pack some books to read on board the ship.

Robin (right) learnt to sail and dive as part of his polytechnic course.

He had kept many things from his time in church as a child. Among them was a copy of the Four Spiritual Laws by Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ, now known simply as Cru. The booklet was one of the pieces of literature he packed.

By chance, he bumped into a friend from primary school on a day out and decided to ask if his friend had any books he could lend him.

“He gave me the Good News Bible. I didn’t even know it was a Bible. I had gone to church for so long, but no one had ever given me a Bible. When I opened up the book and saw a lot of pictures in it, I thought: Must be a good book.”

Back on board the ship, he read the Four Spiritual Laws booklet during his free time.

“When it came to the Sinner’s Prayer, the Holy Spirit convicted me. I memorised it by heart and knelt down in my room, and prayed it word for word.

“In the midst of it, I saw a vision of a weighing scale. One side was down and one side was up. I looked clearly. The down side was my sins up to the age of 17. The up side was all my good works.”

Though the vision was but a quick flash, Robin knew what it meant. In his life up till then, his sins had far outweighed any good he had ever done.

“After the prayer, I felt a heavy burden in my chest lifted up. Now I know it’s divine peace. Tears just came. That was my conversion.”

A life changed  

When Robin came home, he was “so happy”. He returned to the church of his childhood and began attending worship services regularly. When the church made an announcement about baptism, he signed up.

Robin was almost 20 when he was baptised.

“I went into the water and got baptised by a missionary from America. He was so big he took up half the pool.

“When he baptised me, I went down and when I came up, I was so happy I hugged him and gave him a kiss. The experience completely changed my life.”

Robin (right) being baptised.

Robin would go on to study in a Bible school and become a Youth Pastor before becoming a counsellor. Today, he heads the Restorative Hearts Ministry, a Christian organisation that reaches out to cancer patients and persons with mental wellness concerns through restorative talks, cancer and mental wellness restorative groups, professional counselling and pastoral care, and hospital and home visits.

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