Katherine Peters

Class of 2006
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Katherine “Kat” Peters walks whereof she speaks.

Her deep Christian commitments have led her to extensive involvement in bettering the lives of Latino people in barrios and on the tree-lined streets of Washington, D.C. Whether organizing a vacation Bible school in a Hispanic neighborhood near her home congregation (Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Sioux Falls, S.D.) , doing children’s ministry in a Hispanic mission (Gloria Dei Lutheran Hispanic Mission in Valparaiso), or traveling to Central America on mission trips, Peters has practiced her international service and Spanish majors.

When it comes to connecting faith to life, Peters suggests the phrase “simply means living out, in actions—words and deeds—the convictions that proceed from faith. This includes involvement in one’s local community and community of faith, while striving to serve others with the love that emanates from a loving and faithful God.”

Peters also believes that the phrase has an easily overlooked dimension, a “backstreet,” if you will. “Not only does faith inform and transform and direct life, but life must inform and transform and direct faith. Faith cannot be deepened or strengthened without really taking a look at what happens in life. For faith to inform truly loving actions, faith must be informed by the reality that exists for people so that the service meets a need.”

This connectedness of faith and life became most real to her in the summer of 2005 when she served as an “advocacy intern” for Lutheran World Relief. “Probably one of the most inspirational testaments to the connection between faith and life was all of the work that I saw being done by people of faith in Washington on behalf of the poor around the world. Individuals in various faith-based organizations were dedicating their lives to change situations of injustice and violence because they believed in a God that does not wish to see people hungry or killed. My faith had also led me there so that I could learn to work to change harmful policies.”

She continues, “While I was there, I met seven Colombians who had traveled to the United States to speak with members of Congress and other U.S. governmental departments because their lives are being affected by U.S. policy toward Colombia. That was real life to me. Christians from Colombia who recognized that faith has something to say about the things they were experiencing on a daily basis—war and poverty, discrimination and violence.”

Traveling the “backstreet” of faith and life isn’t easy. As Peters explains, “When you’re working in hopes of changing a situation of civil war and violence, faith gets tested every day as there are more killings, or more weapons sent to Colombia, or another activist abducted, or livelihoods destroyed. It’s all so big that feeling overwhelmed and tiny in comparison to all of the problems is very easy. But faith is most alive when I could see communities of people actually making a difference, changing minds in Congress or coming to a new awareness themselves about what the world is like and how we can respond.”

Peters sums up her experiences this way: “Throughout traveling to Latin America, working with Latinos in the United States, or working with Lutheran World Relief, I think the most important thing that I’ve learned has been that faith is experienced in communities of people who live together and support each other, always working to improve their lives or the lives of others, and hoping for a new time when wars and oppression will end.”

As a student, Peters appreciates the way Valpo has helped her maintain the faith and life connection. “VU has been a place for me to think critically about what my faith means to me, what faith means to communities, while always remaining a community that is safe for this kind of critical thinking. I have been asked to wrestle with my understandings of the Bible and theology in addition to wrestling with my understanding of the world and the way systems and institutions work. That’s a real shake-up of a process, but VU is an excellent place to struggle with this because there are others here who have undergone a similar struggle. They understand the importance of the questions as well as the importance of the answers to those questions and are good guides along the way,” Peters says.

Following graduation, Peters began working with three Valparaiso churches to build connections between the area’s Hispanic and Anglo communities, an activity she believes will keep her focused on connecting faith and life. She says, “Whatever I may be doing in five or 10 years, I hope that my job or career helps me to stay tuned to the “back street,” so that what I do on a daily basis can meet the real needs of those Christ called ‘the least of these,’ realizing that what I do to the least of these, I do to Him.”

Our Valpo