About 8,000 Pathfinders camped together at Rancho Sotolar, in Linares, in the state of Nuevo León (Mexico), for the Protagonistas de la Historia camporee, held in April 2026. It was the first in-person camporee of the North Mexican Union (UMN) in 23 years, according to Noticias UMN, the region's official news portal.
According to the same source, the gathering brought together 235 clubs from 14 states in the north of the country, plus a club from Mexico City and visitors from other regions. At the closing ceremony, 130 Pathfinders were baptized, along with youth and adults who also made the same decision.
What happened in Linares
Over a few days in April 2026, Rancho Sotolar, in Linares, turned into a small city of tents. According to Noticias UMN, about 8,000 people took part in the Protagonistas de la Historia camporee, promoted by the Pathfinder Ministry of the North Mexican Union.
According to the organizers, 235 clubs attended from 14 states in northern Mexico — Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Colima, Durango, Jalisco, Nayarit, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas. Joining them were a club from Mexico City and visitors from other regions of the country.
The event's theme, Noticias UMN reported, was inspired by the seven churches of Revelation, with the idea that every Pathfinder is called to be a "protagonist of history" in faith. The program combined camping activities, devotional moments and presentations throughout the days.
Why 23 years is a milestone
The most striking figure is not just the size of the crowd, but the gap: the UMN had not held an in-person camporee of this scale in 23 years, according to Noticias UMN. For many of the Pathfinders present, it was the first time they had experienced a regional gathering of this size.
A camporee is the largest type of gathering of the Pathfinder Clubs: it brings together, in a single campsite, dozens or hundreds of clubs for days of outdoor activities, competitions, honors, ceremonies and worship services. There are camporees at the club, region, conference, union and even division level — this one, organized by a union, brings together clubs from an entire country or a large part of it.
The North Mexican Union is one of the administrative regions of the Adventist Church that make up the Inter-American Division (IAD), the church's worldwide branch covering Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. It is the same structure under which, in South America, Brazilian Pathfinders fall within the South American Division (SAD). Reviving an in-person camporee after more than two decades, in this context, represents the reorganization of a tradition across an entire region.
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The spiritual highlight, according to Noticias UMN, came at the closing: 130 Pathfinders were baptized, along with youth and adults who also chose baptism on the same occasion.
In the Pathfinder Clubs, moments like these are usually the culmination of months of Bible study and mentoring within each club. The camporee works as the point of convergence: it gathers those who arrived prepared from home and provides the setting for the public decision.
On the meaning of the event, Noticias UMN attributed to Pr. Luis Orozco, youth director of the UMN, the message that, "when God writes the story, no effort is in vain." The official coverage also cited the participation of Pr. José Antonio Pagán, who encouraged the Pathfinders to value reading the Bible and to be faithful and strong.
What the North Mexican Union is
To the Brazilian reader, the name may sound distant, but the logic is the same as here. The North Mexican Union groups the Adventist conferences and missions of the northern half of Mexico — the region that supplies the 14 states represented at the camporee.
In the church's organization, clubs are arranged in layers: each club belongs to a region/district, which answers to a conference or mission (the local "field"), which in turn is part of a union, linked to a worldwide division. Gathering 235 clubs in a single campsite means, in practice, mobilizing that entire chain of coordination.
It is this reach that helps explain the figure of 8,000 campers: it is not the sum of a few neighboring clubs, but the gathering of Pathfinders who crossed several states to reach Linares.
A snapshot of the movement in Inter-America
The Mexican camporee adds to a series of large Pathfinder gatherings recorded in different regions in recent years. Each division organizes its own events, with distinct themes and schedules, but the basic format — camp, learn, compete and celebrate faith — repeats from one country to another.
For Brazilian families and Pathfinders, events like the one in Linares help show that the Pathfinder Club is an international movement. The uniform, the honors and the class structure have local variations, but the core experience of a camporee is recognizable anywhere in the world.
The full coverage, with photos and testimonies, was published by Noticias UMN, on the official portal of the North Mexican Union, listed in the sources below.