The Soldados do Rei Adventurer Club, of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cidade Dutra, in the southern zone of São Paulo (SP), celebrated 25 years of official organization and is recognized as the first Adventurer club in Brazil. The celebration took place on the Saturday before this publication, with the church sanctuary decorated to welcome families, former members, and guests.
According to Notícias Adventistas, the official portal of the Adventist Church in South America, the club's history began even before the Adventurer program formally existed in the country: it was born in 1986 as an informal group for young children and was only organized with an official structure in 1991, when the ministry's manual and materials arrived.
A milestone in the history of Adventurers in the country
Few clubs can point to a date and say: it started here. Soldados do Rei is one of them. In reaching 25 years of organization, the Cidade Dutra club celebrates not only its own history — it celebrates the starting point of a ministry that today gathers thousands of children in clubs spread across all of Brazil.
According to Notícias Adventistas, the club is regarded as the first Adventurer Club officially organized in the country. For those new to the movement, the distinction is worth noting: while Pathfinders serve children and teenagers from 10 to 15 years old, Adventurers is the program aimed at younger children, from 6 to 9 years old, always with strong participation from parents in the activities.
The 25-year celebration gathered the church community on a Saturday, a day of worship and of greater activity in Adventist congregations. The sanctuary was decorated for the occasion, and the date served both to recall the first steps and to recognize the work of those who kept the club active over two and a half decades.
1986: an informal group before the program existed
The club's history predates the very arrival of the Adventurer program in Brazil. According to Notícias Adventistas, it all began in 1986, out of one person's concern over a practical problem: Elizabete Cardoso, who collaborated with the Cidade Dutra Pathfinder Club, frequently heard the Pathfinders' parents ask what to do with their younger children, who were not yet old enough to join the club.
Instead of leaving the question unanswered, Elizabete decided to gather these children under 10 into a group of their own, with meetings and activities designed for that age range. The informal group was known at the time as "Desbravadores Mirins" ("Junior Pathfinders") — a homemade solution that, unbeknownst to anyone, was planting the seed of what would become the Adventurer Ministry in Brazil.
Years later, the founder summed up the meaning of that beginning to Notícias Adventistas: "I usually say that this idea arose in the heart of God, and He inspired the Adventurer Club to be born here in this church". Elizabete is remembered as a pioneer of the ministry in the country.
1991: the official organization and the program's manual
The group operated in an improvised way for a few years, until the Adventurer program gained worldwide recognition within the Adventist Church. With that, the first official materials arrived in Brazil — the club manual and the items that standardized the activity in any congregation.
It was then, in 1991, that Soldados do Rei was officially organized in Cidade Dutra, becoming the first Adventurer club in the country to operate within the ministry's formal structure. The arrival of the manual made it possible to align what was already being done there with the standard of the worldwide program, including its own classes, ideals, and visual identity.
The pledge that members still repeat today captures the club's spirit: "Because Jesus loves me, I will always do my best". Short and made for children, it sums up the program's goal — to form habits, character, and faith from an early age, always in language accessible to the age group.
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Bringing together 25 years of history in a single ceremony is, also, bringing together generations. The celebration mixed those who started the club with those who lead it today, in an encounter between memory and the present.
At the time of the celebration, the club was led by André Andrade. To the Church's official portal, the director highlighted the weight of taking on a work with such a history: "It is a privilege to continue the work of so many other directors who pass through here, it is a blessing". His words point to a hallmark of long-running clubs — the handing of the baton among volunteers who, over the years, keep the project going.
More than a birthday party, the date served as a moment of recognition. Seeing today's children wearing the uniform of the same club that existed before they were born is, for many Adventist families, concrete proof that investment in children's ministries spans generations.
What an Adventurer Club is
For the reader who knows the Pathfinders but has never followed the Adventurers closely, a quick map is worth it. The Adventurer Club is the Adventist Church's program aimed at children from 6 to 9 years old — the stage that precedes joining the Pathfinders, at age 10.
A central difference lies in the family's presence. In the Adventurers, parents actively take part in the activities, which makes the club a shared experience between the child and the guardians, and not just a children's schedule. The meetings work on values, nature, Bible stories, healthy habits, and group life, all adapted to the age range.
The program is divided into classes by age, with names of their own aimed at the little ones, and organizes the children into units, similar to what happens in the Pathfinders. Just like the latter, the Adventurers have investitures, moments when the child receives formal recognition for completing the requirements of their class — celebrations that reinforce the sense of achievement and belonging.
From a local idea to a national movement
What was born in Cidade Dutra has international roots. The Adventurer ministry arose in the United States, in the 1970s, as an attempt by the Adventist Church to create a specific program for children under 10, an age range that until then had no structure of its own. The program gradually took shape until it was officially recognized worldwide, in the early 1990s — the period in which it was also organized in Brazil.
That this worldwide recognition coincided with the organization of Soldados do Rei is no minor detail: it shows that Cidade Dutra was in step with what the Church was doing globally, and not behind it. The informal group of 1986 had already been responding, in practice, to the same need that the worldwide program sought to meet.
From the first club came many others. Over the years following the organization of Soldados do Rei, the Adventurer Ministry spread through the Adventist churches of Brazil and the rest of the South American Division — the administrative region that brings together the eight South American countries under the Adventist Church. Today, the program is present in thousands of congregations, and each of those communities owes something, in some way, to the step that Cidade Dutra took first.
That is the greater meaning of the 25 years of Soldados do Rei. More than celebrating a club's age, the date marks the moment when a simple answer to a question from concerned parents turned into a ministry that continues to welcome children across the entire country.