Pathfinder clubs from Poland and Ukraine held a summer camp together that brought around 200 teenagers and their instructors to the Waszeta Recreation Center, near the town of Olsztynek, in the Mazury region of northern Poland. Many of the participants were Ukrainians who had come to live in Poland as refugees after the 2022 Russian invasion.
Under the theme "Chronicles of the Last Battle", the gathering ended with 18 Ukrainian teenagers baptized. The information was released by the Trans-European Division of the Adventist Church and published by Adventist World and Adventist News Network on September 15, 2022.
The idea was simple and, at the same time, delicate: the Polish Pathfinders opened the doors of their own camp to their Ukrainian peers who had left everything behind. What was meant to be just another week in the field became a reunion point between two neighboring countries separated by war.
Two countries, one shared camp
The camp took place at the Waszeta Recreation Center, near Olsztynek, in the Mazury lake region, one of the most sought-after areas of Poland for outdoor activities. It was there that the Pathfinder clubs brought around 200 teenagers and their instructors, according to the Trans-European Division.
The makeup of the group is what sets this story apart from an ordinary camp. Part of the participants were Ukrainian teenagers who, since the start of the war, had been living in Poland as refugees. The Polish Pathfinders decided not to organize their summer gathering separately: they opened their own program to the new friends who had just arrived in the country.
For the Pathfinder reader elsewhere in the world, it is worth explaining the structure. The Trans-European Division is one of the thirteen administrative divisions of the Adventist Church worldwide and covers much of northern Europe, including Poland. Ukraine belongs to another division, but geographic proximity and the flow of refugees brought both sides of the Pathfinder movement together in one field.
"Chronicles of the Last Battle": the theme of the gathering
Every week of an Adventist camp usually revolves around a spiritual theme, and this one was no different. The one chosen was "Chronicles of the Last Battle", aimed at deepening the teenagers' faith and presenting Jesus as the answer to conflict and sin, the Trans-European Division reported.
The choice of subject speaks directly to the moment. On one side, teenagers who had left their homes because of a real war; on the other, a program that spoke of hope and of an outcome greater than any human battle. According to Adventist World, the idea was to offer the young people not only activities, but meaning.
Anyone who has taken part in a camp recognizes the format: worship services, moments of reflection, and Bible classes alternating with the field activities throughout the days. The difference here is that much of the audience arrived carrying the weight of having lost their routine, their school and, in many cases, the daily company of the parent who stayed in Ukraine.
A safe place between the lake and the woods
Beyond the spiritual side, the camp offered a schedule full of activities. According to the Trans-European Division, there were about twenty options throughout the week, including swimming, kayaking and stand-up paddling on the lake, as well as field games, crafts, camping skills, soccer, volleyball, table tennis and a rope course.
According to the organizers, what stood out most was not the list of games itself, but what it represented: above all, the Ukrainian young people were given a safe place. For a few days, teenagers who had come from months of uncertainty could simply be teenagers — swim, paddle, play ball and sleep without the noise of war in the background.
This is a point that often goes unnoticed by those looking from the outside. In situations of forced displacement, seemingly ordinary activities have a therapeutic effect. Giving a refugee teenager back their routine, schedule and fun is also a form of care, and it was in that environment that the week moved toward the camp's most powerful moment.
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The high point came at the closing: 18 Ukrainian teenagers gave their lives to Jesus through baptism, the Trans-European Division and Adventist World reported. For some of these young people, it was the first decision of faith made far from home, in another country and in the middle of the war that had pushed them there.
In Pathfinder vocabulary, baptism is a personal and voluntary decision, made by someone who understands the step they are taking — not an automatic class requirement nor something imposed by the club. That is why the number is not merely a statistic: they are 18 individual choices, made by teenagers who were living through one of the hardest periods of their own lives.
The scene sums up the stated goal of the theme "Chronicles of the Last Battle": to present, in the midst of a concrete conflict, a hope that the organizers described as greater than any battle. According to Adventist News Network, the outcome was celebrated by the leaders of the two countries as the most significant fruit of the week.
Who did what: Poles and Ukrainians side by side
The division of tasks helps explain the partnership. According to the Trans-European Division, the Ukrainian team was responsible for running the program, while the Poles took care of all the logistics — the structure, the accommodation and the support that made the camp possible.
Support came from several fronts. According to the same source, the gathering was sustained by the Polish Union of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the local districts and the Polish Child Aid Foundation, known by its Polish name Fundacja Pociecha. It was this combination that funded the arrival and stay of the refugee teenagers.
At the closing, one of the Pathfinder leaders from Ukraine, Antonina Kozak, publicly thanked the hosts. In a statement reproduced by the Trans-European Division, she said: "Thank you for showing true Christianity. Thank you, Polish Union and Fundacja Pociecha." Her words sum up the tone of the event: gratitude on one side, welcome on the other.
The backdrop: war, refugees and Poland
To grasp the scale of the gesture, one must recall the context of 2022. After the Russian invasion that began in February of that year, millions of Ukrainians crossed the border in search of shelter, and Poland — a neighboring country — was the main destination of that flow. Polish cities took in entire families, and churches of various denominations mobilized to house and feed those arriving.
Within the Adventist Church, the response ranged from welcoming people in temples and homes to initiatives like this camp. The Pathfinder Club, present in both countries, became a natural bridge: Ukrainian children and teenagers who already attended clubs back home found, in Poland, a similar space to start over.
It is worth noting an honest limitation of this report. The sources consulted confirm the location, the number of participants, the theme and the 18 baptisms, but they do not detail the hometown of each teenager nor how many of the 200 present were Ukrainian and how many Polish. Where the official documents do not provide the figure, this text prefers not to estimate.
What this story says to the Pathfinder
From the other side of the world, the episode works as a mirror for any club. The Pathfinder ideal speaks of serving others and of friendship, and here the two principles came off the page in a way that is hard to forget: a club opened its own camp to those who had lost theirs.
It was not an action of a great international structure, but of local leaders who decided to join forces. The Poles provided the logistics; the Ukrainians, the program. Together they turned a summer week into a reunion point for teenagers marked by war — and, for 18 of them, into a moment of spiritual decision.
It is the kind of news that helps one understand the reach of the movement. From Brazil to Poland, from Ukraine to Africa, the same scarf and the same ideal appear in radically different contexts. When history bears down, a Pathfinder club rarely stands by with its arms crossed — and that, perhaps, is the most lasting lesson of Waszeta.