Outdoor Leadership Honor

The Outdoor Leadership honor changes a Pathfinder's place at camp. You already know how to pitch a tent and build a fire; now the job is to look after a group far from home, teach what you know and see ahead to what could go wrong.

The full requirements of the Outdoor Leadership honor are in the catalog (code AR-057, under the name Field Leadership) and are summarized here, with no answer key. The earlier steps are covered in the guides to Camping Skills I, II, III and IV and Camp Craft. The official sources were checked on October 6, 2026.

🧭What is the Outdoor Leadership honor and who needs it?

The Outdoor Leadership honor has the code AR-057, belongs to the Recreational Activities area and has a difficulty level of 2, according to the catalog. The official timeline of the South American Division (SAD) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church records its arrival in 1986, together with the advanced version.

It is required by item 9 of Guide of Exploration, the advanced Guide class, according to the official SAD page; the Guide class starts at age 15. On that same page, the regular Guide card does not mention the honor: it appears only in the advanced class. Check with your instructor which version of the card your Conference or Mission uses.

Requirement 1 asks for two of six outdoor honors, and four of them already appear on SAD class cards.

SAD class cards on adventistas.org (in Portuguese), checked on October 6, 2026.

📋What are the Outdoor Leadership honor requirements?

There are seven requirements, summarized from the Desbravai catalog, with no answers. Numbers 3 and 7 can only be completed in front of a group of Pathfinders, so agree with the club leadership on which club outing they will happen.

Summary of the Desbravai catalog, code AR-057.

📖How did outdoor life shape Moses, David, Elijah, John the Baptist and Jesus?

Requirement 2 calls for study in the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, the name Adventists give to the writings of Ellen G. White. All five lived decisive seasons outdoors: tending flocks, in the desert or praying in lonely places.

About Jesus, Luke records: “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16, NIV). The Guide class already asks for a reading of chapter 7 of The Desire of Ages, on Jesus' childhood and the study of nature, which makes a good starting point.

Bible: New International Version (NIV). Ellen G. White: chapters and pages of the standard English editions on egwwritings.org, checked on October 6, 2026.

🌿How do you teach camp safety and care for nature to a group of Pathfinders?

Requirement 3 is about teaching, and the outdoors teaches better than a classroom. The Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual (South American Division, 2020) advises against teaching one honor to the whole club at once; one per Unit is ideal. Show the tree with dead branches and the riverbank on site before you explain the rule, and ask each Pathfinder to repeat it in their own words.

Fire deserves a serious talk. In Brazil, under Article 41 of the Environmental Crimes Law (Law No. 9,605/1998), starting a fire in a forest or other vegetation carries two to four years of imprisonment and a fine; without intent, six months to one year of detention and a fine. The Leave No Trace principles are covered in the guide to low-impact camping.

Administrative Manual (SAD, 2020), section 4.9.3; Leave No Trace, principle 3; booklet of the Minas Gerais Military Fire Department (CBMMG).

🤝What are the qualities of a good Pathfinder leader?

For requirement 4, the source is the Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual (SAD, 2020): section 2.9 lists the behaviors expected of a leader and eight qualities of a good Christian leader, which together add up to more than ten. Read them with your instructor and put together your own list.

Outdoors, some of them weigh more. The manual asks the leader to love nature and enjoy the outdoors, because the best classroom for this age group is found at camps and on hikes. It asks for control over your emotions, since one outburst of temper can destroy in seconds what took months to build. And it calls having a backup plan, for when the preferred path is blocked, creativity.

In the desert, Jethro watched Moses hear the people's cases alone from morning till evening and warned him: “you cannot handle it alone” (Exodus 18:18, NIV). His advice was to divide the people into groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens, each with a capable leader, the same logic as a Unit with its Counselor.

🧭What should you do if you get lost in the woods, and how do you overcome fear?

Requirement 5 starts with fear, which makes people wander off with no sense of direction. The ecotourism booklet of the Minas Gerais Military Fire Department, in Brazil, says that staying calm is the best way out of a risky situation and advises calling for help slowly, so you can hear a reply, and dialing 193, Brazil's fire department number. The STOP method is in the guide to wilderness survival.

To teach children, one well-known reference is the American program Hug-a-Tree and Survive. According to the San Diego Mountain Rescue Team, it was created in response to a 1981 search: a boy became separated from his family on a mountain near San Diego, California, and was found four days later, dead of hypothermia, near a tree.

There are four rules: tell a trusted adult where you are going and when you will be back; if you get lost, stay by a fixed point, such as a tree; stay dry and warm; make noise, preferably with a whistle. And the child learns that nobody will be angry with them. Teach this at the meeting before the campout.

CBMMG; Lions Bay Search and Rescue; San Diego Mountain Rescue Team; Teletime (December 16, 2024, in Portuguese), on the Anatel announcement.

☔What activities work on Sabbath and on rainy days at camp?

Requirement 6 asks for four secular activities and four Sabbath activities, with rain in mind too. For Sabbath, the yardstick is the Administrative Manual: among other things, it rules out instruction that is not spiritual, sports and exhausting hikes, and suggests what brings the group closer to the Creator, such as Bible stories and games involving nature.

The manual's two full lists, with what has to be ready on Friday, are in the guide on how to organize a campout. Use that guide as a starting point and plan your eight activities with your instructor.

For rain, write down a plan B, with a covered place and a short version of each activity. The secular ones, such as knot workshops, belong to the other days of camp.

🚑How do you build an emergency plan and teach an honor outdoors?

Requirement 7 has two parts. The first is teaching a group Camping Skills I, II, III or IV, Camp Craft, or Fire Building and Camp Cookery. The Administrative Manual asks that the plan for each honor set out the instructor, requirements, number of lessons, materials, teaching method and evaluation.

The second is emergency help: knowing where the nearest hospital and police station are or, in a park, the ranger headquarters. The manual places this check in the site visit, along with emergency routes and cell signal, which it says may be the best emergency equipment of all. Write everything on a card that stays with the club leadership.

The next step is the Outdoor Leadership - Advanced honor (AR-058, level 3). Before that, review the full requirements of the Outdoor Leadership honor in the catalog.

Based on the Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual (SAD, 2020), section 4.9.3.