Change Your World

I LOVE Kluang Project – An Interview with Pastor Jit Pang by Jasmine Yow

November 5th, 2009 » No Comments » CYW BLOGS

A wave of Change has been launched in the little town of Kluang, Johor, as a result of the Change Your World venture that began with Change Your World Quest in August 2009.  The Change Your World Event on 23 August 2009 inspired many youths to start loving their city and nation, and as a result, the I LOVE Kluang project was born.

I caught up with Pastor Jit Pang, the guy behind the I LOVE Kluang initiative today to find out what has been happening in his city, and in this day and age where many of us are simply cynical that our country will ever change, I came away inspired that a bunch of young Malaysians were willing to step out humbly with a heart that said, I will do my part to change the world.

1. Why was I LOVE Kluang started, and what is it about?

It actually started off as the Railway Line Project in April when some youth in the youth group I lead alerted me about a poor family eating only one meal per day. I wanted to love the community in a practical way, so I thought, why not we start feeding the one household we knew?

The next month, we discovered there were families living in a squatter area along the whole Railway Line and low cost housing areas in Kluang that lived in abject poverty, and we quickly multiplied our help to a dozen households.

After the Change Your World Event, a hundred over youths pledged to do something for Malaysia, and we decided to turn this into the I LOVE Kluang project because loving Kluang is exactly what we want to do…. (Click here for more of the interview)

Don't Just Observe

September 24th, 2009 » 3 Comments » CYW BLOGS

You don’t get to change the world simply by observing it- Gareth Evans, Former Foreign Minister of Australia

I came across this quote here while doing my media analysis assignment today. A sense of urgency stirred within my heart again (I realize that when your eyes and ears are open, your spirit quickens much more easily).

It made me reexamine the way I am living my life: am I all puffed up, satisfied that I am more aware than others of things that are going on in our country, thinking I am already changing the world? Or am I ACTUALLY contributing to change?

I used to think that initiating change is a very stressful process. It made me feel inadequate and afraid. But God has shown me that Change does NOT require effort or sacrifice that is soooo big that it cripples us. Dreams can be overwhelming, but they should never incapacitate. God takes our little steps of obedience and faith to create ripple effects! We just need to be willing to act.

So awareness is good, but things must not stop there. A man that knows too much about a problem without taking action to correct it only makes things worse because the only thing he will be able to offer is negativity as the problem becomes bigger in his eyes.

Are you doing anything to address the problems you know of?

Jasmine Yow

CYW BLOG FACILITATOR