World Pathfinder Day 2026 in Bangladesh brought about 1,300 Adventurers and Pathfinders to the Seventh-day Adventist Maranatha Seminary (SAMS) on Sabbath, September 19, 2026. The sermon came from Sohn IlDo, youth ministries director of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD), the Seventh-day Adventist Church region whose territory includes South Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Bangladesh, among other countries. In Mongolia, the church marked the day with a three-day mini-camporee. The NSD and Adventist News Network (ANN) released the figures in early October.
What happened at World Pathfinder Day 2026 in Bangladesh?
According to the NSD, about 1,300 Adventurers and Pathfinders came together at SAMS (Seventh-day Adventist Maranatha Seminary, its official English name) for the 76th World Pathfinder Day. The division gave no breakdown by club and did not say where the groups traveled from.
Sohn IlDo, whom ANN calls Kevin Sohn, made the trip to Bangladesh for the occasion and preached at the gathering. Back home, he said the faith of the country's Pathfinders had left him encouraged.
Their commitment inspired me to dream even greater dreams for God's Kingdom.Sohn IlDo (Kevin Sohn), NSD youth ministries director, quoted by Adventist News Network, 2026
What was the message of the "Speak, Lord" theme in Bangladesh?
The 2026 world theme was "Speak, Lord," taken from the answer Eli taught young Samuel: "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening" (1 Samuel 3:9, NIV). As the NSD reads it, listening is only step one: the theme asks Pathfinders to answer when God calls and to carry that answer into everyday life.
In Bangladesh, Sohn IlDo built his sermon around the Bible story itself. Samuel grew up at a time when "the word of the Lord was rare" (1 Samuel 3:1, NIV), and still he learned to recognize who was calling him. The closing appeal, according to the summary the division released, was for each Pathfinder to do as the boy did and grow in service to God.
Dates, materials and program ideas are in our guide to World Pathfinder Day 2026 and the "Speak, Lord" theme.
How many Pathfinders are there in Bangladesh?
The story includes two numbers worth keeping apart. According to ANN, Bangladesh has about 3,000 Pathfinders nationwide, and fewer than 1% of its people are Christian. The roughly 1,300 at SAMS, reported by the NSD, were the crowd at a single event, and they include Adventurers, from the club for younger children.
The 2022 census gives the exact size of that minority. Preliminary figures from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), published by the newspaper The Business Standard, put Christians at 0.30% of the population and Muslims at 91.04%.
| Where | What was reported | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Bangladesh, SAMS | About 1,300 Adventurers and Pathfinders on Sept. 19, 2026 | NSD |
| Bangladesh, nationwide | About 3,000 Pathfinders; Christians are under 1% of the population | ANN |
| Bangladesh, 2022 census | Christians: 0.30% of the population; Muslims: 91.04% (preliminary data) | BBS, via The Business Standard |
| Mongolia | 3-day mini-camporee with about 150 Pathfinders and leaders | NSD |
| South Korea, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Japan | Special Sabbath programs and service projects in local communities | NSD |
Sources: Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD) and Adventist News Network (ANN), October 2026; Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), 2022 census, via The Business Standard.
Read alsoWorld Pathfinder Day brings a new club to MinskHow was World Pathfinder Day celebrated in Mongolia?
In Mongolia, the celebration took the shape of a campout. Church leaders in the country organized a three-day mini-camporee, and about 150 Pathfinders and leaders took part, according to the NSD. The division framed the event as part of a push to give the club fresh energy: there was time to talk through where the ministry is headed, along with a mixed program built to draw in younger members and keep them involved. The exact location and dates were not released.
A camporee is often the high point of a club's year, and in Mongolia the compact version served as a bet on reviving the ministry. The Adventist presence in the country reaches beyond Pathfinders, as our report on 30 years of ADRA Mongolia shows.
Why is Bangladesh part of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division?
Seeing Bangladesh, in South Asia, in the same division as South Korea and Japan may seem odd, and the change is recent. On October 9, 2023, at Annual Council, the General Conference Executive Committee moved Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, until then in the Southern Asia-Pacific Division, and Nepal, previously in the Southern Asia Division, into the NSD. According to ANN, the vote was 202 in favor and 8 against.
The reason given was mission. Since 2019, the NSD had been left with Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Taiwan, and with no territory in the so-called 10/40 Window, the focus of its mission plan. In 2026, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka also celebrated World Pathfinder Day, with Sabbath programs and service in their communities, as Bangladesh did, according to the NSD.
What does this story mean for your club?
For the second year running, the division's youth director spent World Pathfinder Day in Bangladesh. In 2025, according to ANN, the preacher was the director at the time, Choi HoYoung, at Monosapara Adventist Seminary and School (MASS), which set aside a full week for service activities with more than 400 students. In 2026 the celebration moved to another school and the reported crowd reached about 1,300, in a country where the club is growing inside a small Christian minority.
World Pathfinder Day 2026 had many faces, such as mangrove planting in Kiribati, the celebration in Paraguay and the festivities in Belarus and Russia. At your next Unit meeting, share one of these stories and talk about what it would be like to be a Pathfinder in a place where hardly anyone has heard of the club.