When a group of children gets together on a Saturday afternoon to learn how to tie a knot, pitch a tent, or care for nature, few imagine that this gathering is part of a movement that crossed continents. The story of how the Pathfinders arrived in Brazil begins far from here — and took just over a decade to cross the world.
The worldwide origin
The seed of the movement lies in the youth work of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, officially organized in 1907 under the name Missionary Volunteer. For decades, churches scattered across the United States experimented with camps and outdoor activities for young people, but a single model that united everything into one program was still missing.
That model was born in 1946. Pastor John H. Hancock, then youth director of the Southeastern California Conference, organized in Riverside the first Pathfinder Club sponsored by a conference. He was also the one who designed the famous triangular emblem, which still identifies the movement worldwide today.
"In 1950, the idea that began in California was adopted by the General Conference and became an official program of the church on a worldwide scale."Historical Origin of the Pathfinders — Seventh-day Adventist Church
From there, growth was rapid. With a manual, uniform, progressive classes, and standardized honors, the Pathfinder Club began spreading beyond the United States.
South America falls into step
The first South American club was organized on April 4, 1955, at the Miraflores church, in Lima, Peru. Leading it was Nercida de Ruiz, regarded as the region's first director, alongside her husband, Armando Ruiz, and a group of pioneering volunteers.
The Peruvian example paved the way. In the years that followed, the movement reached Chile (1956), Argentina, and Uruguay — and knocked on Brazil's door.
The arrival in Brazil
In the late 1950s, Pastor Jairo T. Araújo, youth leader of the South American Division — then headquartered in Uruguay —, prepared a small manual teaching how to organize a Pathfinder Club. It was the push that had been missing.
At the end of 1958, Pastor Cláudio Chagas Belz received a package of materials about the movement from the United States. Around the same time, missionary Henry Feyerabend, of Canadian origin, arrived in the country, bringing with him the experience of the North American clubs.
The first Brazilian clubs
It was in 1959 that everything came together. Brazil's first clubs emerged in Santa Catarina and Sao Paulo. In Santa Catarina, missionary Henry Feyerabend helped found several clubs in the region — and from there came the one remembered as the first in the country:
From the first club to the country's largest youth movement
What began with handfuls of children in the countryside of Santa Catarina never stopped growing. Decades later, Brazil would become the country with the largest number of Pathfinders in the world. One milestone of that strength was the 1st South American Division Camporee, held from December 28, 1983, to January 4, 1984, in Foz do Iguaçu, organized by Pastor Cláudio Belz — the very same man who, years earlier, had opened that package from the United States.
Today, every scarf tied around a Pathfinder's neck carries that legacy: that of a movement that teaches faith, service, and love for nature — and that, in Brazil, began with little more than a manual, a package of materials, and the will of a few people to make a difference.