Daniel and Sandi McDougall

This week we pray for Daniel & Sandi McDougall who minister to international students at UVic leading them to discover Jesus through the Word of God, and preparing them to serve God wherever He leads them.   

Here are some items for which we join them in thanking God and some additional items for our prayers.

Praise

1. An increased camaraderie with local congregations and Christian campus ministries has heartened both campus ministry AND congregational life.
2. Alongside Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, we’ve recently expanded into our local Camosun College campus that focuses on marketplace skills (eg. nursing, culinary science, office management).

Challenges

1. Many fully-registered UVic students aren’t able to ‘live local’ because of cost and availability, so we’re experiencing a hybrid version of ministry, i.e. in-person and virtual-but-nonetheless-real via Zoom and Google-Meet over many time-zones.
2. Covid’s isolation and relational ‘splinteredness’ have challenged us to be mindful of those who are falling through the cracks and how we set our spiritual and social radar to detect and nurture them. Sadly, the student suicide rate (not only at UVic) is high and often under our very noses.
3. For our local staff, volunteers and supporters (many of whom face their own debilitating challenges), please pray that we would learn Jesus’ loving but cautionary lessons of ‘yes’ and ‘no’, leaning into his wisdom as we forge ahead.
4. Please pray for the recruitment and mentoring of recent grads as volunteers.