FOCUS brings Christian students together
Christian students of all denominations gather at universities across America in a group called FOCUS (Fellowship of Christian University Students).
Minister Rob Gunn heads the non-denominational religious gathering as a branch of the national organization Campus Crusaders for Christ.
Campus Crusade has full-time staff on more than 140 campuses in the United States. Gunn is employed by Campus Crusade and his position with FOCUS is full-time.
Gunn describes FOCUS as a way for Christian students of all denominations to grow in their relationship with God and tell others what it means to be a Christian.
“We have people who are Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, just all different religious backgrounds who all believe in Christ,” Gunn said. “Because we’re non-denominational, we’re a great picture of unity. We’re kind of a picture of what we’d like the rest of the world to be like and although every one comes from different backgrounds, we have the same views on what’s truly important,” he said.
Laura Swank, a senior studying biology and a member of the leadership council (The Servant Team) of FOCUS, agrees one of the greatest things about such a group is the diversity.
“There’s a variety of people just from different walks of life that are all Christian,” Swank said.
Swank and other members of the Servant Team plan and organize weekly Bible study classes at 7:30 p.m., other activities such as prayer events and retreats and help with the Sunday services held at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Logan at 9 a.m. Many students attend their own denominational services after FOCUS Sunday mornings. Eighty to 90 students are involved in FOCUS at Utah State University and around 40 people attend Bible study, Swank said.
“Everyone is welcome to come. We love to learn from anyone, it’s nice to have a community of people here,” she said.
Along with her involvement in FOCUS, Swank and her brother Aaron, a graduate student studying environmental engineering – also involved in FOCUS – have participated in summer mission projects.
Last summer from May to mid-August, Laura served a medical mission in West Africa. After being accepted by the International Missions Board, she raised $2,500 to travel to Senegal to administer basic first-aid and teach preventative medical methods such as sanitation, first aid and baby health care to the people there.
Ten other college students from across the nation worked with Laura. They learned the basis of the foreign language in the first week in cities and villages.
Laura said she lived in a city the majority of the time but also lived in “the bushes” in a hut for a time as well. Along with the medical side of her experience, she said the short-term missionaries talked and prayed with the people and set up groundwork for the long-term missionaries in the area.
“We’d walk around the villages and talk and pray with the people. We were possibly the first Christians they had ever met. We were basically just laying ground work for future missionaries,” Laura said.
The people in West Africa were very receptive to the Christian missionaries helping them but sometimes had a hard time understanding Christianity, she said.
“It was difficult at times because they had so much African tradition and we didn’t know how much to interfere. Also, the people there are so friendly that they’d say they’d accept something when they didn’t always fully understand it. They were very receptive to us helping them though,” Laura said.
Aaron served in Siberia after his freshman and sophomore years at USU at Evangelistic Explore Camps and for the past two summers has served summer missions in Uzbekistan teaching English.
“It’s definitely changed my perspective of the world,” Aaron Swank said. “My heart has gained a love for those people of the world.”
After he graduates, Aaron said he may look into being a full-time missionary and finding a way to use his field of study to help those in less fortunate countries.
Aaron said FOCUS has helped him ground his faith as well as make good friends.
“Being around people who have a desire to know about God and being able to ask questions and seek answers is great,” he said.
Other universities in Utah with Campus Crusade organizations are BYU, College of Eastern Utah, Southern Utah University,University of Utah, Utah Valley State College and Weber State University.