“I didn’t come to find God. I just wanted to quit drugs”: Richard Khalil, Chaplain of The Helping Hand

Richard Khalil remembers his prayer clearly. It wasn’t dramatic or poetic. It was a prayer of surrender.

“I said, ‘Lord, I deserve to be here.’ No more bargaining. No more 70% obedience. This time – 100%.”

Richard was in prison for the fourth time, and this time, something finally broke in him.

Drugs at age 11

Richard Khalil, 65, is the Chaplain at The Helping Hand, a halfway house founded by Robert Yeo in 1987. 

One might not have expected that he would turn out this way if one had met him as a child.

When he was 11 years old, Richard experimented with marijuana. By the time he turned 13, he had started on heroin.

“It was the hippie era of the early 1970s,” he told Salt&Light matter-of-factly. “Drugs were prevalent and drug use was more visible in the community.”

Richard as a young man.

Richard grew up in a family of nine children – three girls and six boys. Five of those boys would eventually get involved with drugs.

Theirs was not a case of dramatic dysfunction in the family. In fact, Richard’s father worked as a court interpreter, and his mother was a schoolteacher. The family lived in government housing in Sturrock Road.

“People always say kids get into drugs because of wrong company, but I don’t blame my friends. I gravitated toward that group. I wanted to get high,” he admitted.

“I saw my older brothers and their friends using it, and naturally curiosity grew. Growing up with limited supervision, I was free to roam. And being constantly around that environment made experimentation feel almost normal.

“What began as curiosity soon became dependency.”

Richard’s first incarceration came in 1983 at the age of 22. “This marked the beginning of a long struggle with addiction and poor choices,” he told Salt&Light.

He was arrested again at 27, 30 and finally 34 years of age. Four times, totalling five and a half years behind bars.

“Interestingly, my first sentence was the longest – about 27 months – because I was recalled from the Daily Release Scheme,” he recalled. The Daily Release Scheme is a community-based programme allowing suitable inmates to serve the final phase of their sentence while working or training outside prison.

“Each experience reinforced how deeply I was trapped in the cycle I couldn’t break on my own,” he said.

“In prison, you think seriously about giving up. But once you’re out… you think this time you won’t get caught. You think you can beat the system.”

“I didn’t come here to find God”

In 1994, Richard walked into The Helping Hand by himself, but it was not salvation or faith he was after.

“I didn’t come here to find God. I just wanted to quit drugs,” he admitted to Salt&Light.

What drew him was the transformation of former drug abusers, men he knew from the Drug Rehabilitation Centre. He saw them change into calm and stable people. 

Richard (third from right) with peers at The Helping Hand in 1994.

Richard was baptised at East Coast Park on April 1, 1994.

At THH, Richard’s own journey to Jesus was not a dramatic one.

“It was quiet, gradual, deeply grounded in faith rather than emotion,” he said of the daily walk through morning devotions, Bible study, conversations and watching others’ lives being rebuilt.

Eventually, in early 1994, at the age of 33, Richard received Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. He was baptised on April 1 that year.

He said: “When I said the prayer to accept Christ, five minutes before and after, I felt exactly the same. There were no visions, no overwhelming emotions.”

Working out his salvation

Conversion did not mean instant victory for Richard. In fact, he relapsed and left the halfway house several times after becoming a Christian.  

In 1995, a month after walking away from The Helping Hand again, he was arrested.

It was that fourth incarceration became the turning point for Richard.

“Before that, I still had one foot in the world. I believed God was good, but I still wanted drugs,” he admitted to Salt&Light.

“But that fourth time in prison, I finally surrendered drugs.”

After serving 18 months, Richard completed the final six months of his sentence back at The Helping Hand. This time, he stayed. 

Although his conversion experience was simple, Richard clung on to his salvation, believing in two things.

“What gave me assurance was firstly, the Word of God,” he said. “I had been taught that if I was sincere – and I was – then Christ had already accepted me. My confidence came from believing this truth, not from feelings.”

The second source of his assurance was witnessing for himself the lives that had been changed by Jesus.

“I saw real change in the lives of people around me, especially my late elder brother,” he said. “Knowing who he used to be, I couldn’t deny that something real had happened, and that God is real.”

For him, conversion “wasn’t a single moment. It was a growing assurance over time, marked by peace, joy and an increasing freedom from addiction.”

Richard (with light brown guitar) serving as guitarist at the 5th anniversary of the Mennonite Church of Singapore in 1997. He was baptised by this church, which used the chapel at The Helping Hand for Sunday worship.

At THH, Richard encountered its founder Robert Yeo.

He recalled: “He was a mentor and role model to me. He was older than me by 12 years. 

“I knew Robert was a former addict. He had once walked the same path as the rest of us, but he turned his life around and was now leading a halfway house. That made his life and testimony credible.”

The older man took him under his wing. 

“The biggest influence he had on me was discipline,” Richard told Salt&Light. “He taught me to read and live by the Word of God, to pray consistently and to understand that real change comes from God.”

He added: “One statement he made that has stayed with me: ‘Don’t count the days – make the days count.'”

Making the days count

Richard began helping others, and soon, he sensed a call to deeper ministry. In 1997, he formally joined The Helping Hand as a staff member. Today, he has served in THH for nearly 30 years.

“My life changed progressively, not overnight. But the direction became clear,” he said.

He enrolled in Singapore Bible College for a four-year course. There, in 1998, he met a classmate who would become his wife.

“Over time, our relationship grew naturally, and we got married in 2001,” Richard said, recalling opposition from his wife’s father.

Richard and Annabel on their wedding day in 2001.

“He initially opposed the relationship due to my past. His concern was understandable – he wanted to protect his daughter.”

But God would provide a way through this. After graduation, Robert Yeo sent Richard to the Philippines to lead a sister halfway house called House of Hope.

“My father-in law was residing in Cebu, in a place close to the halfway house. He saw the change in my life, and how I treated his daughter.

“Over time, our relationship transformed, and my father-in-law eventually accepted both me, and the faith. He passed on during COVID.”

Richard and Annabel have two sons, and both of them know his story. While he does not hide the fact he was once addicted to drugs, he does not dramatise nor glorify the fact. He wants them to have the facts about drugs, and not become curious about them.

Richard with his family.

The numbers unsettle him: In 2025, half of all new drug abusers arrested were under 30. The youngest was just 12 years old. 

Among teenagers, arrests rose sharply — especially for methamphetamine — while cannabis use among youths climbed as well. Overall, new drug abusers increased by 17 per cent from the previous year.

To Richard, these are not statistics. They are warning signs.

“I started at 11,” he said quietly. “So, when I hear about a 12-year-old being arrested, I understand how it begins. It’s not always broken homes, it’s curiosity.”

To young people, his message is simple and direct: “Be curious about other things. Don’t be curious about drugs.

“And if you have started, please seek help.”

Behind every arrest is a family holding its breath, hoping the story does not end in prison. For the ones who fall, but come to THH, Richard walks alongside them as Chaplain, guiding them through to freedom.

Richard visited House of Hope in the Philippines recently – the halfway house where he served for three years and won over his father-in-law.

He said candidly: “Some relapse, some return to prison, some struggle with motivation. In the early days, leadership was more top-down. Now we spend more time explaining, encouraging, walking with them.”

It is a position he does not take lightly, one that reveals the grace of God to the drug abuser. “I always felt The Helping Hand was where the Lord wanted me to be, a place where I could use my past.”

ABOUT RIDE & RUN TO RESTORE 2026

Addiction isolates. Recovery requires community. That is why The Helping Hand’s annual Ride & Run to Restore fundraiser matters so deeply.

Residents ride and run alongside supporters in a powerful picture of restoration in motion. Fundraising sustains operations, but even more importantly, community presence sustains hope. Support is the bloodstream of restoration.

This year, the fundraiser event is on April 18, 2026 and commemorates the 39^th anniversary of The Helping Hand. The ministry aims to raise S$300,000 to sustain their rehabilitation programmes and services for former drug abusers. 

You can sign up to ride 50km or run 5km, and encourage your friends to donate in support of your efforts. Click here to sign up and support.

ABOUT THE HELPING HAND

The Helping Hand was founded in 1987 by Robert Yeo, an ex-offender who believed that the Gospel could break addiction at its root.

Its mission has remained steady: To help ex-offenders break free from addiction through spiritual renewal, structured discipline and community support.

A typical day begins early — quiet time, devotion, chapel, work. There are counselling sessions, discipleship groups and partnerships with churches across Singapore.

But more than programming, change hinges on two things: Relationship with God, and reconciliation with family.

Recovery is not merely about abstinence. It is about identity.

From addict — to son.
From offender — to father.
From prisoner — to brother-in-Christ.

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