OneWay volunteers offer work experience to advance Kingdom
Schular Scudamore enjoyed a long and successful career in information technology, both as a technician and as a teacher. But after he retired and worked part-time for 10 years, Scudamore realized that he wanted to use his talents to serve the Kingdom of God.
“Retirement is not the finish line,” Scudamore often says. “Serving with the Kingdom is not age-related, it's just that retired people have more time that they can invest.”
Scudamore is one of many who serve with OneWay as a volunteer. Since OneWay was founded, we have relied on volunteers to fuel the work of reaching people.
“In every major piece of OneWay, you’ll always find evidence of people who volunteered,” says founder Michael Thompson. “Volunteers, at various levels, have been involved in every component of OneWay.”
Volunteer service has always been essential to OneWay. Faithful partners helped dream and cast vision in the early days, and they have continued to pour their time and talents into the ministry.
Scudamore joined OneWay as a volunteer in the fall of 2022. A friend who volunteered with OneWay referred him to Chris Ruge, OneWay’s prayercast director. Ruge told Scudamore about OneWay’s need for an IT technician, and Scudamore was eager to help.
“By me being able to take some of that burden from [Ruge], he can focus on ministry, and I can just use the gifts that I have,” Scudamore said.
When he isn’t working on OneWay’s Wi-Fi systems, you can find him performing odd jobs around the OneWay building. He enjoys lunch times and having the opportunity to interact and create relationships with the staff and interns.
“It's been a great encouragement to me to see so many young people involved,” Scudamore said. “And at OneWay, they're committing their lives to helping for the Great Commission.”
Scudamore is joined by many other OneWay volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. Volunteers help write thank you notes, maintain the OneWay building and surrounding property and serve in many professional capacities, including with the finance team, the communications team, development, video production and more.
Scudamore is passionate about getting more people to volunteer with OneWay, especially those who have retired from full-time work. Numbers 8 allowed retired priests to continue helping in the Temple, and Psalm 71:18 encourages the elderly to declare the power of God to the next generation, Scudamore explained:
“The Lord gives us spiritual gifts and abilities to do various activities that can be useful within the church or organizations like OneWay who further the gospel. The benefits that come to the volunteer are building relationships with the people within the ministry.”
 | Are you looking for a way to volunteer in missions? We would love to talk more about how you might be able to use your gifts and talents to reach people as part of the OneWay team. Explore ways to serve and contact us to let us know you'd like to get involved!  |