More than 4,500 Pathfinders camped at Buperta Park, in Cibubur, East Jakarta, between June 26 and July 2, 2023, for Indonesia's 3rd Pathfinder Camporee. According to the Adventist News Network (adventist.news) and the Adventist Review, two official channels of the Adventist Church, it was the first and largest gathering of its kind held in the country since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The camporee was organized jointly by the two Unions that administer Adventist work in the archipelago: the West Indonesia Union Mission (WIUM) and the East Indonesia Union Conference (EIUC). Some participants traveled long distances — from remote regions such as Papua — to reach the capital.
The country's largest gathering since the pandemic
For nearly the entire week, the Buperta camping park, in Cibubur, turned into a city of tents. According to the Adventist News Network, more than 4,500 people gathered there from June 26 to July 2, 2023, for Indonesia's 3rd Pathfinder Camporee — a figure that made the event a milestone for the country's Adventist youth.
Its significance went beyond size. As the Church's official outlets reported, it was the first major national camporee held in Indonesia after the years of restrictions imposed by COVID-19. For many Pathfinders and leaders, it was the reunion of a generation that had spent much of its childhood and adolescence without camping as a group.
Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago, with thousands of islands spread across a distance equivalent to that of the Brazilian coast. That is why bringing together participants from points as distant as Papua — in the far east of the country — required weeks of travel and logistics involving the two local Adventist Unions.
Two Unions, one camp
The camporee was held jointly by the West Indonesia Union Mission (WIUM) and the East Indonesia Union Conference (EIUC), according to the Adventist News Network. Unions are the administrative level of the Adventist Church that brings together several Conferences and Missions from the same region — in the Brazilian case, the equivalent of the eight Unions that make up the South American Division (SAD).
Indonesia belongs to the Southern Asia-Pacific Division (SSD), a region of the world Church different from ours. Even so, the structure of the Pathfinder club is the same one the Brazilian Pathfinder knows: units, counselors, honors and progressive classes, within a ministry that exists in more than 150 countries.
Bringing two Unions together in a single camp is a weighty decision. It multiplies the number of Pathfinders, but it also requires aligning calendars, transportation, food and programming among teams that normally work separately. The result, reported by the official channels, was one of the largest gatherings ever seen by the Indonesian Pathfinder movement.
"Niscala" and Badi the rhinoceros
The event's theme was the word "Niscala", which, according to the official promotion, carries the meaning of "calm" and "steady" — a choice that resonated with the idea of stability after the difficult years of the pandemic.
As its mascot, the camporee adopted the Javan rhinoceros, nicknamed "Badi", a symbol of strength and resilience. The Javan rhinoceros is one of the most endangered species on the planet and survives almost exclusively in a reserve in the west of the island of Java, in Indonesia itself — which gave the mascot a local meaning, tied to the country's nature.
The visual identity built around a native animal follows a tradition common to large camporees: in Brazil and South America, regional events also tend to adopt mascots and themes that bring the Pathfinder closer to the culture and wildlife of where they live.
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The program was extensive. According to the Adventist News Network and the Adventist Review, participants earned honors (the so-called "Pathfinder Honors"), took city tours and got involved in community service projects — a hallmark of the Pathfinder movement anywhere in the world.
One of the highlights was the Pathfinder Olympics, nicknamed "Pathlympics" by the organizers. The sports and skills events brought together units from across the archipelago in a competition that, more than crowning winners, served to bring together Pathfinders who had never met before.
For the Brazilian Pathfinder reader, the logic is familiar: a camporee is precisely that large-scale campout in which clubs come together to camp, meet requirements, compete in a healthy way and live out their faith in community. The event's name, in fact, comes from joining the English words camp and jamboree (a large gathering).
Baptisms and investitures on Sabbath
The spiritual heart of the camporee was reserved for Saturday, the Adventists' day of religious observance. According to the Adventist News Network, the program included the baptism of new believers, a moment of fellowship that united those present as "one body of faith" and the class investiture ceremonies.
The investiture is the ceremony in which the Pathfinder, after meeting all the requirements of a class, officially receives the corresponding scarf, badge or certificate. It is the public recognition of months of study, fieldwork and team life — and one of the most anticipated moments of any camporee.
By bringing baptism, fellowship and investiture together in the same program, the Indonesian gathering followed the model the Pathfinder movement practices worldwide: outdoor adventure walking alongside the decision of faith. It is the same combination the Brazilian Pathfinder recognizes in the great SAD camporees.
Why a camporee in Asia matters to the Brazilian Pathfinder
At first glance, a campout in Jakarta may seem far removed from the reality of someone who is a Pathfinder in Belém, Curitiba or Asunción. But the story shows something worth keeping in mind: the same uniform, the same classes and the same honors bring together children and young people in radically different cultural contexts.
While South America holds its own regional and Union camporees, with tens of thousands of participants, Indonesia was celebrating the return of large gatherings with more than 4,500 Pathfinders. The figures and landscapes are different, but the ideal is the same — what the club's Manual sums up as forming children and young people in service to God and to their neighbor.
Events like the Indonesian camporee help remind us that the Pathfinder movement is a global network. When a Brazilian club goes camping, it is part of a movement that, at the same time, was putting up thousands of tents on the other side of the planet.