Jan McDougall, the first woman to hold the position of chief operations officer for the Union Rescue Mission in the organization’s 107-year history, has dedicated her life to her missionary work. In fact, she was born for it.
McDougall was 2 years old when she traveled by troop ship to with her missionary parents to South Africa, where they settled in Zulu territory. She spoke Zulu before she spoke English.
“When I was 5 years old, my father built a hospital, literally in the middle of nowhere, and I found myself acting as translator for visiting doctors,” McDougall said. Her father was the administrator of the hospital and her mother taught school. “I became very enmeshed in the culture and language there,” she said.
Leaving her parents in Africa, McDougall returned to the United States at age 16 to finish her schooling, eventually obtaining certification as a licensed vocational nurse. She met her husband while in school in Illinois at the Wheaton Academy. His parents were also missionaries he had lived a similar existence in Northern Africa.
McDougall and her husband returned to Africa in 1970 and stayed for 12 years. The family returned to the United States in 1982, and McDougall went to work for the Union Rescue Mission, a non-denominational Christian ministry serving the poor and homeless. There, she created housing and recovery programs that have served as a model for organizations doing similar work.
“For all that we saw and experienced (in Africa), nothing prepared me for the depravity I saw on skid row, the depths people had gone to,” she said. “I think it really opened my eyes to how far a human being can go when they have just about given up.”
As COO, McDougall, 55, is responsible for overseeing all of the mission’s operations, which include sheltering and feeding the poor and homeless as well as recovery programs for the addicted.
One of the group’s biggest events of the year will take place Thanksgiving Day, when part of San Julian Street in downtown L.A. will be blocked off for a feast in which about 5,000 homeless people will be served turkey dinners.
Karen Teitelman
