SALT & LIGHT INTERVIEW - PART 3
by Christine Leow // July 29, 2026
Ps Robin Png (left) with the team from Restorative Hearts Ministry. All photos courtesy of Ps Robin Png.
Saying goodbye is part of Pastor Robin Png’s every day life.
Less than a week after his interview with Salt&Light, someone with end-stage cancer with whom he had been journeying passed away.
“Life is uncertain, but Jesus Christ is the sure and steadfast anchor of our souls,” Ps Robin, 64, told Salt&Light.
Since he started Restorative Hearts Ministry (RHM) in 2020, a ministry that reaches out to cancer patients and their caregivers, Ps Robin – as RHM’s Care Pastor – has attended around 50 funerals of those stricken with cancer and conducted 20 funerals.
He has also had the opportunity to celebrate the remission of 100 cancer patients and shared the Gospel with just as many.
Ps Robin (back row, first from right) with the RHM team, including his wife Jennifer (front row, third from right).
“My heart is filled with gratitude over the mercy and sovereign hand of God in our divine appointments,” he said. “I am thankful for every opportunity to share the Gospel. We never know when a divine appointment may change someone’s eternity.”
Ps Robin is so burdened by those battling cancer because he was once a cancer warrior himself.
Out of pain
In 2012, Ps Robin was diagnosed with nose cancer. He went through radiotherapy and then chemotherapy, before being declared free of cancer.
But within two years, he suffered a relapse. He had surgery was to remove the tumour and it was a success.
Ps Robin in 2012 before his first cancer diagnosis.
Then in 2017, cancer struck again. This time it was acute myeloid leukemia and Ps Robin went through chemotherapy and stem cell transplant.
Since then, he has been cancer-free the last nine years.
Through his illness and the side effects of treatment, the faith he first embraced as a 17-year-old was put to the test, and he heard God speak on several occasions to assure, chastise and teach.
Ps Robin underwent seven days of non-stop 24-hour chemotherapy to treat his acute myeloid leukemia, followed by stem cell therapy.
“I revisited my faith and life through the cancer journey, and I drew closer to God and found more meaning and purpose in life in knowing God and doing His will,” Ps Robin told Salt&Light.
He felt he had not aided the physically and spiritually poor.
During his first battle with cancer, Ps Robin had sold his counselling practice to concentrate on his treatment. As he sought God on the way forward after treatment, he heard a Voice say: “Minister to the poor and sick.”
So he started cancer support groups. After four years, he thought his mission had been accomplished. He closed the groups. Then he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
When he had recovered from that, the word he had received from 2012 returned to him. He felt that while he had concentrated on helping the sick then, he had not aided the physically and spiritually poor, including orphans.
So he started RHM. The organisation ministers to cancer patients and persons with mental health challenges, as well as their caregivers.
Tapping on Ps Robin’s years as a Pastor and counsellor, and his ties with local churches and Christian groups, RHM offers restorative talks, cancer and mental wellness support groups, professional counseling and pastoral care, as well as hospital and home visits.
“Not a writer” but his devotional materials bless many
Ps Robin ministers with his wife Jennifer, as well as a team of five volunteers who facilitate support groups and do visitations. Advisors come alongside to give talks.
In the beginning, a female Pastor who had attended one of Ps Robin’s talks supported the ministry. After two years, Ps Robin told her she could stop because enough ministry partners had come alongside RHM to fund its work.
In its first year, RHM also expanded its work to include devotional materials.
“A new cancer patient became a Christian and she was so excited to share the Gospel in the hospital and clinic. She asked me for materials to pass to pre-believers and I didn’t have any,” Ps Robin recalled.
“That planted a seed in me to do a devotional book. Whatever questions I asked in my soul searching when I was going through my cancer journey, I put it into the devotional book.
“I’m not a writer and I don’t know anything about printing, but the more I wrote, the more I realised it was so systematic and relevant.”
My Grace is Sufficient: A 30-day Devotional for Cancer Patients was the result. Within three months, all 1,000 copies of the book were given out, such was the demand. Since then, 6,000 more copies have been printed, and the soft copy downloaded by thousands from the RHM website.
Ps Robin’s devotions books are available on the RHM website.
One person gave the book to his sister who had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and had decided not to get further treatment. She asked to meet Ps Robin.
“As we talked, she said, ‘I know about Jesus, but I don’t know Him personally.’ That opened the door for me to share the Gospel,” recounted Ps Robin.
She received Jesus into her life that day and when she passed away, her brother asked Ps Robin to conduct her wake service where many of their relatives got a chance to hear the Gospel as well.
Writing devotions to meet growing needs
As Ps Robin ministered to those with cancer, he realised that their mental health also took a hit.
“Their mental health is affected because they cannot sleep well and they spiral into depression,” he explained.
“Cancer survivors asked me for something for them. So I wrote my third book Joy in Living God’s Will.”
He wrote a second book to address the emotional and mental well-being needs of cancer patients. Two thousand copies of Restoring Hearts, Renewing Minds were printed, and soft copies were also made available for downloads.
“After that, cancer survivors asked me for something for them. So I wrote the third book Joy in Living God’s Will. It is also a 30-day devotional book.”
When he realised that the cancer journey can be a very long one, he wrote a sequel to his first book. More Than Conquerors is a 50-day devotional book for cancer patients. There is now also a devotional book for pre-believers called Hope Beyond Suffering and one for caregiver, too, called Grace Through the Storm.
Ps Robin with the book he wrote for pre-believers.
“Why didn’t God heal me?”
In the seven years of running RHM, perhaps the most heartbreaking thing for Ps Robin has been managing the questions of believers who do not experience healing.
“The common question is, ‘Why didn’t God heal me? Is it because I have sins that are not forgiven?’
Ps Robin (right) and Jennifer (third, right) with the RHM visitation team who do home and hospital visits.
“He wants to solve the problem that is deeper than physical healing.
“I tell them, ‘No, all your sins are forgiven. You have asked the wrong question. God is more interested in healing your heart first.’”
Many desire physical healing, noted Ps Robin, because they are afraid of pain, suffering and death. He tells those with whom he journeys that Paul himself had a thorn in the flesh which God never removed despite being asked three times (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).
“You must believe that God gives you the best (Romans 8:32). God has given you Jesus Christ His Son. What else won’t He give you?
“He wants to solve the problem that is deeper than physical healing.”
Guiding them to hear God
On one occasion, a man asked Ps Robin to pray for his healing. He had applied for a Build-To-Order (BTO) flat and was afraid he would not live long enough to move into it.
“As I prayed for him, a word came up: ‘The will of God’. That opened up an opportunity to widen the question to other areas of his life.
“Then healing doesn’t become the top priority.”
“God gave her not only His presence, but also healing.”
On another occasion, Ps Robin had the chance to counsel a woman who refused treatment. She said: “Chemotherapy is poison. I don’t want poison in my body.”
She wanted to rely solely on her faith in God for her healing. But when questioned if God had told her not to seek treatment, she admitted: “God didn’t tell me anything.”
That allowed Ps Robin to encourage her to return to her oncologist to talk about her medical concerns. The woman eventually sought treatment and is now in remission.
“She had a dream in which she was inside a house and there was a thunderstorm outside. She was very afraid.
“In the dream, God told her, ‘You are inside. You are safe.’ She woke up and prayed, ‘I don’t want healing if Your presence doesn’t go with me.’
“God gave her not only His presence, but also healing.”
Tending to the soul
Ps Robin firmly believes that God can heal and does heal. However, if physical healing does not happen, it does not mean that the person lacks faith.
Instead of just tending to the body, Ps Robin tends to the soul, too. For instance, he helped a woman on her deathbed reconcile with her mother.
“We have seen people restored and fulfilled in God.”
A woman battling Stage 4 breast cancer and her husband were helped by Ps Robin, who counseled them and prayed with them to allay their fears and uncertainties. Over time, her husband saw how God transformed his wife and their family and accepted Jesus. He and the family were later baptised together. Today, the woman serves cancer patients, offering the same hope and comfort God gave her.
“I believe in restoring hearts first. I prepare them to meet God,” he told Salt&Light. “The good news is that many eventually are ready to go to heaven. Some share that they saw angels or Jesus coming to be with them.”
RHM also helps those who are financially poor, providing high protein milk and arranging for transport to go for cancer treatment. The ministry supports orphanages in the Philippines and Indonesia as well.
Although RHM is funded entirely by donations and partnership support, Ps Robin said: “I feel more blessed now than when I was drawing a pay every month.
“We’ve been able to reach non-believers, and they receive Christ and we baptise them.
“We’ve helped Christians see a new purpose in their lives. They have drawn close to God. We have also seen people restored and fulfilled in God.”