One Way Mission was birth in Finland. It was the result of a desire in a few ordinary people to help their neighbors and spread the Gospel. The founding words of OWM were expressed in 1983 as the Friday for Christ campaign came into operation in Helsinki. After the mission expanded to many new areas of work in Finland and abroad the association took the name One Way Mission.
OWM is not a large institution operating by means of government or church funding. Instead, it is financed by individual people and sponsoring enterprises. Most of the staff work without pay and OWM aims to use its funds as comprehensively as possible for helping our neighbors. The work is done wholeheartedly and with a strong sense of it being one’s calling. At present, there are about one hundred paid workers. The majority are national workers operating on ten mission fields.
One Way Mission is an interdenominational organization strongly committed to Christ-centeredness in its teaching and work. One Way is an internationally known expression that refers to Christ. Jesus said: “I am the way”.
Tapani Suonto, Executive Director
The legal responsibility for One Way’s operation is borne by a board of directors that adheres to the associations Act of Finland. One Way’s board of directors consists of 4-6 individuals each of whom is required to have extensive experience in real work and accountability on One Way’s mission fields. Through the years, this has been one of the secrets for fellowship and mutual understanding .
The board of directors monitors the key areas of work and finances and is accountable for its operations to the provincial government, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, etc. The actual operative responsibility rests with the Executive Director and the Head of Operations alongside him. Moreover, each area of work has its own leaders and at OWM we have dozens. Each leader is supported by many other responsible workers who share the burden and carry out the operations.
On different mission fields, the work is directed by national leaders appointed for each country. They work very independently with their own management team. These so-called “country Executives” are in contact with a coordinator based in Finland who is responsible for their particular mission field. The coordinators respectively take care of the background work done in Finland, the team mission work, etc. and consult the senior management when necessary.
When major decisions concerning the work itself or finances are made on the mission field the board of directors and the Executive Director are involved in the decision making.