The Ichtus Burger Bash started at 6 p.m. on Aug. 26. This function was put on by the campus ministry, Ichtus. Ichtus is the Greek word for fish but putting the Washburn spin on it: Ich for Ichabods the t for the cross, and us for the students of Washburn University.

“The reason for the change was because it just seemed more fitting,” said Elizabeth Evans, junior and English major. “K-state has a group named Ichtus but we wanted to put more of Washburn into it.”

Ichtus house is located at 1621 S.W. Boswell, and is across from Morgan Hall. The purpose of having the Burger Bash was for the students of Washburn University to be able to get free food and learn a little more about the organization of Ichtus.

Eduardo Bousson, Campus ministry’s pastor, Eduardo Bousson, has been involved with Campus Ministry since July, 2009. Bousson found his calling to become a pastor at the University of Puerto Rico.

“We strive to know God’s love and seek to let God’s love be known. We are open minded and open-hearted. And even when we are affiliated with the United Methodist Church, everyone is welcome.”

 Ichtus has three values of which they reflect as a Washburn community: love, mystery and transformation. Love represents what Jesus taught people to do, mystery represents the things that people don’t know, complexity and grace. Transformation represents the final outcome, both personal and communal.

 “I know college students always love free food and on Sunday at 6 p.m. we have that for students,” said Bousson. Sunday night Ichtus meets for an informal time of sharing and a home cooked meal provided by the church.

On Tuesday nights, they meet for Bible study at 5:30 p.m. in the newly remodeled Ichtus house.

Thursdays are set aside for worship.

“It’s an intimate, informal experience with student led music and prayer, and a message relevant to your daily experience,” said Bousson. Any student in this organization can lead a prayer, unless, of course, they aren’t comfortable with the whole idea.

Lucy Curtis, occupational therapy major and transfer student from Emporia, talked about leading once a month missions.

“The missions can be anything from Let’s Help to rescue missions or even teaming up with the Catholic organization on campus to help promote awareness about homelessness.”

The mission of this organization for this year is to reject apathy and become more evident in the Washburn University and Topeka community.

“By reject apathy what I mean is, we don’t really think about how everything we do affects other people in the world. We are concerned with are spiritual growth and we get so caught up in that we forget about our community,” said Bousson.

Students can sign up online for a weekly newsletter about Ichtus at www.ichtuswu.org. If students are interested in learning more about this organization either e-mail [email protected] or call (785) 233-1844.

Also, students can follow Ichtus on Facebook at Ichtus at Washburn or Twitter at CMatWU.