{"id":325,"date":"2022-08-17T20:16:34","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T20:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/2022\/08\/16\/looking-forward\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T19:49:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T19:49:22","slug":"looking-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/looking-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Forward!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Pastor Jim and Pastor Kate, 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Pastor Jim (PJ): <\/strong>If you\u2019re new to campus this fall, we\u2019re looking forward to welcoming you in person at the Chapel of the Resurrection. If you\u2019re returning \u2013 as a student or member of the faculty or staff \u2013 we\u2019re looking forward to seeing you again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I drove to campus this morning there was a news report observing that things on college campuses across the country are, in many important ways, returning to a pre-pandemic state with lessened restrictions and in person classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe over the last two and a half years you\u2019ve gotten out of the habit of going to things, of actually leaving the house (or your dorm room) to be somewhere with lots of other people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting together to be together is at the heart of life at the Chapel of the Resurrection. We are planning on eight opportunities every week for you to take a break from work or study and get together with other people who are seeking a community rooted in God\u2019s enduring love for each of us. Though each of these prayer and worship services has its own vibe, music is at the heart of every one of them. Sometimes the music invites us to quiet reflection. Sometimes the music calls us to join in joyful celebration. Every time, the music calls us together to make us one community of voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I encourage you to make the time to join in one or more of these gatherings and find some blessing in the songs we sing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The full schedule is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Pastor Kate (PK): <\/strong> <\/strong> Pastor Jim shared about how we are looking forward to getting back to \u201cnormal\u201d Chapel life. I\u2019d like to share about a couple of new adventures we\u2019re embarking on this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valpo has a new partner institution: The Rifai Institute, <\/strong>a program focused on (1) helping students from underrepresented faiths and cultures feel welcome and safe and (2) fostering interfaith conversations on campus. The institute\u2019s first director, Momin Mirza (\u201822), and I have just returned from the Interfaith Leadership Summit in Chicago, full of inspiration for creating new opportunities for connection across differences. The Rifai Institute’s first event will be a service of prayers for peace in remembrance of the 9\/11 attacks. This service will take place on September 11th at 6 p.m. More info to come!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next: this year marks the 35th anniversary of Soul Purpose,<\/strong> a liturgical drama troupe which performed on campus and in congregations until 2009. In commemoration of this anniversary a group of Soul Purpose alumni and current students will perform one of the troupe\u2019s classic plays, Annie\u2019s Party<\/em>, during Homecoming Sunday worship. We also hope to honor this anniversary by re-starting Soul Purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PJ:<\/strong> On the other end of things from the big gatherings for worship are the personal conversations that PK and I are honored to have with individuals that seek us out. Whether it\u2019s a chat over coffee or something heavier shared in the confidential privacy of our office spaces, we are always willing to find a time to meet. We have experience with talking with people in times of vocational discernment, failure or grieving. We\u2019re also interested in your stories of celebration and accomplishment \u2013 so you don\u2019t have to be in some kind of trouble to book time with us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make an appointment with Pastor Kate<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make an appointment with Pastor Jim<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastor James A. Wetzstein<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Pastor Katherine Museus Dabay<\/a>\u00a0serve as university pastors for Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions during the regular school year.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Pastor Jim (PJ): If you\u2019re new to campus this fall, we\u2019re looking forward to welcoming you in person at the Chapel of the Resurrection. If you\u2019re returning \u2013 as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-james-a-wetzstein","category-csl-newsletter-devotionals"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"dev@eridesign.com","author_link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/author\/deveridesign-com\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/ValpoCampus2-Resized-300x192.webp","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["James A. Wetzstein<\/a>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/a>"],"unlinked":["James A. Wetzstein<\/span>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 10 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on August 17, 2022","modified":"Updated on January 2, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on August 17, 2022 8:16 pm","modified":"Updated on January 2, 2026 7:49 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12086,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions\/12086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}