About 14,000 people gathered in Lima, Peru, between February 5 and 9, 2025, for the IV Amados, Generación de Cristo Camporee, organized by the South Peru Union (UPS). The gathering brought together 365 Pathfinder Clubs from different regions of the country and is considered, according to Notícias Adventistas, the largest Spanish-speaking Pathfinder camp.
The event's spiritual high point was a mega-baptism held during Saturday's programming, when 469 people were baptized. Over the five days, the goal announced by the organization was to form Pathfinders aware of God's love and willing to share the message of Christ with more people.
What the Amados Camporee was
A camporee is the biggest gathering on the Pathfinders' calendar: a camp that brings together several clubs at the same time, usually for a few days, with spiritual programming, outdoor activities, competitions and ceremonies. In Peru, the 2025 edition took that format to the scale of thousands of tents pitched in Lima.
According to Notícias Adventistas, the official portal of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America, the IV Amados, Generación de Cristo Camporee gathered around 14,000 participants from different regions of the country. In all, there were 365 Pathfinder Clubs — in Peru, Pathfinders are called conquistadores — camped in the same place between February 5 and 9.
The gathering's theme, Amados, Generación de Cristo, set the tone for the programming, which, according to the organization, was aimed at reminding each participant of God's love and at encouraging the new generations to live with purpose and to bear witness to their faith.
Who organized it and where it took place
The camporee was held by the South Peru Union (UPS), one of the Adventist Church's regional administrations responsible for the southern region of Peru. A union brings together several local conferences and missions and coordinates large events like this one, which a single club could hardly organize on its own.
The programming featured the presence of Pastor Udolcy Zukowski, leader of the Pathfinder Ministry of the South American Division — the body that brings together the countries of South America and coordinates the clubs' work throughout the territory. The South American Division is the same structure that organizes the Pathfinder program in Brazil, which helps explain why an event in Peru directly interests the Brazilian Pathfinder: the two realities share the same continental leadership and much of the same calendar and classes.
The choice of Lima, Peru's capital and largest city, also made it easier to handle the logistics of hosting clubs coming from regions far apart from one another, in a country marked by great distances between the coast, the highlands and the Amazon.
Bringing 365 clubs together in one place takes months of preparation: transportation, food, security, water, restrooms and programming that can speak at the same time to ten-year-old children and to teenagers about to take on leadership roles. It is that behind-the-scenes effort that supports the figures released by the organization.
Read also'Valientes' Camporee sets record in EcuadorThe mega-baptism of 469 people
The moment most highlighted by the organization was the mega-baptism held on Saturday, the day of worship for the Adventist Church. In all, 469 people were baptized during the camporee, according to Notícias Adventistas.
Baptism is, for Adventists, a public decision of faith, made by immersion and by personal choice. At large-scale events such as camporees, it is common for young people who had been studying the Bible throughout the year to make that decision before the whole gathered community — which turns the ceremony into one of the most moving moments of the meeting.
Preparation for that moment began long before the tents were pitched. Back in January, the UPS promoted the Bible course Amados, de 28 maneras, which presents the 28 fundamental beliefs of the Adventist Church in illustrated comic-book format. According to Notícias Adventistas, more than 13,000 children and teenagers signed up for the course, offered in in-person and virtual formats as part of the path toward the camporee.
A space designed for children with autism
Among the gathering's novelties, the organization highlighted the creation of the Espacio de la Calma, presented as the first environment of its kind set up at a large-scale event in Peru to serve children with autism and other special conditions.
The space was implemented through a partnership between the Adventist Church, the South Peru Union and the Adventist Network for Support to the Autistic Family (RAAFA), with trained volunteers — among them psychologists, teachers, occupational therapists, educational psychologists, nutritionists, physical therapists and doctors, according to Notícias Adventistas.
Lia Teresa Meléndez, a member of RAAFA, described the service point as a place prepared "for the care of children with special conditions, in a duly equipped environment," as Notícias Adventistas reported. The initiative gives a concrete sign of welcome to families who do not always find the structure to take part in events with thousands of people.
Why this matters to the Brazilian Pathfinder
By being pointed to as the largest Spanish-speaking Pathfinder camp, the Amados Camporee gives a sense of the size the movement has reached in South America — and Peru is only one part of that whole. In Brazil, the large national camporees also gather tens of thousands of participants, which shows that the Lima phenomenon is not an isolated case, but part of the same continent of growing clubs.
Since Brazil and Peru are under the same South American Division, many of the references seen at the Peruvian camporee are familiar to the Brazilian Pathfinder: the same continental leadership, the logic of age-based classes, the marching and drill competitions, the seminars and the valuing of baptism as a personal decision. The language of the programming and the local name change — conquistadores instead of Pathfinders — but the spirit is the same.
For those who take part in a club in Brazil, following events like this one helps to understand that the class card, the tent and the scarf are part of a movement that crosses borders and gathers, in a single weekend, thousands of young people around the same purpose.