Every start of the year the church pauses for ten days to pray together. It is not the usual devotion, the one each person does alone in the morning, nor the whole-year Bible reading plan. It is an event, with a date on the calendar, a defined theme and a booklet of messages that changes every year: the Ten Days of Prayer.
For the club, the practical question is always the same: how do you fit this into the Pathfinders' routine without turning it into just another boring obligation? Where does the so-called sermon guide (the project's official script of sermons and devotionals) come in? And the fasting day — do children and teens really fast?
This article separates what is official church rule, what each club decides on its own and the principle behind it all. Data verified on 07/22/2026 from the official sources listed at the end.
So what exactly are the Ten Days of Prayer?
They are ten straight days when the church comes together to pray intentionally, asking for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on people, families and the mission. It is a worldwide initiative of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, with materials prepared by the Ministerial Association of the General Conference and an edition of its own for South America, coordinated here by the Women's Ministries of the South American Division (SAD).
It is worth setting this apart from two things that look alike but are not the same. Personal devotion is your daily conversation with God, all year long, with no end date. The Bible year is a reading plan that runs across the twelve months. The Ten Days of Prayer are different from both: an event, short, with a marked beginning and end, a theme for the year and a ready-made script for each day. It is a spiritual effort together, not a loose habit.
The logic is simple and easy to explain to a Pathfinder: ten days of concentrated crying out, and then the church tries to keep that dependence on God in daily life. It starts strong, together, so the flame does not go out when the event ends.
When is it in 2026 — and why does the date change?
In the South American Division, in 2026 the Ten Days of Prayer run from February 19 to 28, with the theme "The Holy Spirit and the Time of the End." Each day has a message and a prayer focus in the official material.
Here is the most important warning in this article, and that is why it comes right away: the date and the theme change every year. What holds for 2026 does not hold for 2027. There is even a suggested worldwide edition for January and the South American edition with its own calendar — which is why the dates going around in WhatsApp groups tend to get mixed up. Before marking anything on the club calendar, confirm the current year on the official portal (links at the end). Never copy last year's date from memory.
A detail that helps planning: the year's material only comes out in full a few weeks beforehand. If you are building the club calendar in January, leave the Ten Days marked as a block and fine-tune the script once the year's sermon guide is published.
The sermon guide and the Teen version: what material does the club use?
The sermon guide is the heart of the project: an official booklet with a message for each of the ten days, Bible texts, preaching suggestions and prayer scripts. It is published for free, in PDF, on the church's downloads portal, along with a large package of material.
The good news for the club is that there is not just one material. There are versions by age group, which solves the problem of speaking to a 10-year-old child and a 15-year-old teen at the same time:
| Audience | Material | How the club uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Adults / leadership | Sermon guide and devotional magazine | Basis for the sermons and for preparing the leaders |
| Teens | Teen magazine — the "Ten Days of Crying Out" | Language and challenges designed for the age of the older Pathfinders and youth leadership |
| Children | Children's version (Kids) | Short devotionals and activities for the younger units |
Beyond the booklets, the package usually includes support videos, the official song of the year, posters and banners for promotion, and even an audiobook. Many people also follow it through the church app, in the "Time to Pray" initiative. For the club, the tip is to pick one version as the through line (usually the Teen one, the "Ten Days of Crying Out," for the Pathfinders) and use the rest as a complement, without drowning everyone in paper.
An honest caveat: the exact names of the magazines and the list of materials can vary from one year to the next. In 2026 the teen version appears as "Ten Days of Crying Out"; confirm the title and what is available on the year's page before printing anything.
Read alsoHow to pray: the types of prayer and how to teach them in the clubHow the fasting day works — and do children fast?
The project traditionally has a fasting moment tied to one of the Sabbaths in the period — the official proposal speaks of 10 hours of fasting, with a special program of communion with God. The year's material brings videos and its own script for that day. Confirm the exact date in the year's sermon guide, because the marked day can vary.
Now, the question every counselor asks: what about the children? Here you need good judgment, and this is a principle of care, not a rule anyone will hold you to. Prolonged food fasting is not advised for children, and teens only with supervision and always with parental approval and attention to health. No 10-year-old needs to go the whole day without eating to take part well in the Ten Days of Prayer.
The path many clubs follow is to adapt the idea of the fast to the age: a fast from screens and social media, giving up a favorite snack, trading phone time for prayer time. The concept of fasting — giving up something to seek God with more focus — stays fully intact, with no risk at all to a minor's health. Arrange this with the families beforehand, never as a surprise on the day.
How does the club fit the devotionals into daily life?
Here is the part the church does not define for you: the format. The sermon guide gives the content; the club decides how to serve it. Some arrangements that work well with Pathfinders:
- Meeting opening: if the club meeting falls within the ten days, use the day's devotional as the opening, with a different Pathfinder leading each time.
- Phone group: one audio or short card per day in the club group, with that day's prayer request. Simple to keep up and reaches those who do not come to church every day.
- By unit: each unit takes responsibility for one of the ten days, prepares and presents it. It spreads the leading role and teaches leadership.
- In homes: small groups that take turns hosting the family for an evening. It builds bonds and involves the parents.
There is no "right" format imposed from above. There is what fits the reality of your club — a big city with traffic, a rural area, meetings only on Sundays. The good judgment of the counselor is worth more than any ready-made script here.
A suggestion from someone who has led it: do not try to turn the ten days into ten in-person meetings. No one sustains that pace, and you burn out the club. Mix it — some days in person, others through the group, and the fasting Sabbath as the high point. Better ten light, real days than three intense days followed by silence.
The three layers: policy, club decision and principle
Much of the confusion about the Ten Days of Prayer disappears when you separate what is fixed from what is a choice. There are three layers:
| Layer | What it is | Who defines it |
|---|---|---|
| Official rule | The project exists, has dates and a theme for the year, an official sermon guide, versions by age and a proposed fasting day | Seventh-day Adventist Church (General Conference and the SAD edition) |
| Practice that varies | Timing, format of the devotionals, which units lead, how minors take part in the fast | Club leadership with the chaplain or spiritual counselor, within the local church calendar |
| Educational principle | Why it is worth setting aside ten days to pray together at the Pathfinders' age | Spiritual formation — the value behind the activity |
The practical rule fits in one sentence: the date, the theme and the material come from the church; how you organize it belongs to the club. Do not ask the Conference for permission to choose the timing of your devotional — that is your decision. And do not invent your own dates for the event — that belongs to the church.
If the club is part of a local church or district program during the ten days, align the calendar with the pastor or the responsible elder, so you do not schedule a meeting on top of the church's prayer service. It is coordination, not a request for authorization.
Why does this matter for the Pathfinder?
It could be just one more event on the club's packed calendar. It is not — and the reason is formative before it is spiritual.
Intercessory prayer, the kind where you pray for others and not only for yourself, is one of the hardest things to teach a child and a teen. You do not teach it with a sermon. You teach it by doing, ten days in a row, with a concrete reason each day: today we pray for the family, tomorrow for the friends who do not know Jesus, then for school. The event gives structure to a habit that on its own almost never forms at that age.
There is also the effect of belonging to something bigger. When the Pathfinder understands that, on those same days, millions of Adventists around the world are praying for the same thing, their faith stops being a private matter and becomes part of a body. That leaves a mark.
And there is the aftermath. The best result of the Ten Days of Prayer is not the ten days — it is the Pathfinder who, in March, keeps setting aside time to pray because they discovered, in February, that they can. The event is the spark; personal devotion all year long is the flame that stays.