Finding a club sounds simple until you try. Google shows a club's page that stopped updating in 2019, the Instagram has campout photos but no phone number, and nobody knows whether the neighbor's WhatsApp group still works. The good news: there is an official database, maintained by the Adventist Church itself, and it covers the eight countries of the South American Division.
On this page you'll find the four paths, in the right order: from the fastest (official portal and map) to the most reliable (calling the church and the Conference director). And at the end, a seven-question checklist to confirm the club is actually active before you bring your child on a Saturday afternoon.
If you're still deciding whether a club is right for your family, it's worth reading the right age for each club and how much enrollment costs first. Here we handle just one thing: finding the club.
What are the 4 paths to finding a club near you?
Each path gets you something different. The most common mistake is stopping at the first one: you find the address on the portal, show up outside the church on a Sunday, and there's nobody there. Use all four in order — put together, it takes less than half an hour.
| Path | What you get | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Official "Find a Club" portal (SAD) | The club's name, crest, address, meeting time, and founding year | Always the first step: it's the church's official database |
| 2. Desbravai's club map | A geographic view by state and city, with a page for each club | When you want to see what's around you without knowing any names |
| 3. The nearest Adventist church's secretary | The director's phone number, the real day and time, the date of the next enrollment | After finding the address — this is where you talk to a person |
| 4. Conference or Mission (Pathfinder director) | A list of the region's clubs and confirmation that the club is in good standing | When the club doesn't show up anywhere or nobody answers |
A word about the vocabulary, because it comes up constantly: a Conference or Mission (also called a "Field") is the Adventist Church's regional administrative office, the one responsible for dozens or hundreds of churches in an area. According to the official Pathfinder Ministries materials, the ministry's leader at the local Field and their team are responsible for every club in that geographic area. That's why the Field is the last resort when an online search hits a dead end.
How do you use the official "Find a Club" portal?
The portal is at clubes.adventistas.org. The old address, adventistas.org/pt/desbravadores/encontre-um-clube/, redirects there — if you saved the old link, it still works. It launched on February 1, 2016, in Portuguese and Spanish, and covers the eight countries of the South American Division: Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
The process is a cascading search, and each choice filters the next:
- Country → choose Brazil.
- State → the list appears after the country.
- City → the portal shows only the cities with a registered club. If yours isn't listed, that's already a sign: there's probably no registered club there.
- Club → the last field lists the clubs in that city.
There's also an alternate free-text search by name ("Or"), useful when you've already heard the club's name — something like "Royal Eagles" — but don't know where it meets.
What shows up on each club's profile: the crest, the full address with postal code, the meeting day and time, the founding year, the region the club belongs to, and its star rating over the past few years. There are also buttons that drop the address straight into Google Maps and Waze — geographic coordinates have been part of the listing since the portal launched.
And what doesn't show up — and this matters: in the profiles we checked, the portal doesn't publish the club's phone number, email, or the director's name, and it doesn't display an "active/inactive" badge either. In other words, it answers where the club meets, not whether it's actually meeting this Saturday. Only a phone call answers that second question.
The data comes from the SGC (Club Management System), the South American Division's official platform, running since January 26, 2015. It's kept up to date by the club's own leadership, with oversight from the Conference/Mission. Every page on the portal carries a "Data updated on" stamp — when we checked for this article, that stamp read 2026-07-21. It's always worth checking that date before trusting what's on screen.
What about the Desbravai map — when does it actually help?
The Desbravai club map is our own database, built from public data, and it's useful for something the official portal's cascading search doesn't do well: scanning the map to see what's around you. When you don't know any names and aren't even sure of the right city (think of a metro area, where the nearest club might be in the next municipality over), the map solves it faster. As of a 2026-07-21 check, it listed 14,257 clubs, organized across Brazil's 27 states. One note, so nobody compares apples to oranges: this number isn't bigger or better than the official portal's — the two databases have different scope and criteria. The portal counts Pathfinder clubs across the Division's eight countries; our database is a discovery layer built from public data in Brazil. A different number doesn't mean more clubs in your city.
Now the honest part, and it's short: Desbravai doesn't replace the official system, and it doesn't try to. Member enrollment, medical forms, parental authorization, treasury, and annual insurance are all handled in the SGC, and only in the SGC. That's where a Pathfinder officially exists for the Adventist Church — including for coverage during activities and events. No map, no community site, and no spreadsheet fills that role. If a club tells you it "registered" your child outside the SGC, that isn't a registration.
In practice: use the map to discover, use the official portal to verify the address, and use the church's phone number to close the loop. The SGC isn't for you, it's for the leadership — but it's good to know it exists, because your child's insurance number comes from it.
Read alsoDo you have to be Adventist to be a Pathfinder?The online search turned up nothing. Now what?
Three causes explain almost every "I couldn't find anything" case: the club exists but its listing is outdated; the club is in a neighboring city and you only filtered your own; or there really isn't a club there. In all three cases, the fix is the same — talk to a person.
Step 1 — the nearest Adventist church's secretary. Every Adventist church has a secretary's office, and almost all have office hours. The right question is direct: "Does this church have a Pathfinder Club? If not, which is the nearest church that does, and who do I talk to?" Church secretaries usually know this off the top of their head, because the club uses the fellowship hall on weekends.
Step 2 — the district pastor. One pastor serves several churches (a district). According to the official materials, it's their job to oversee the church's activities and support the clubs in their district. They're the person who knows which club in the region is up and running and which one has stalled.
Step 3 — the Conference/Mission Pathfinder director. This is the office responsible for every club in the geographic area. The recommended official route is to call the Conference/Mission and set up, through the Pathfinder Ministries secretary, a conversation with the director — or request a visit from the regional/district coordinator. To find out which Conference your city belongs to, the Find a Club portal itself helps: navigation is organized by Union and then by Conference/Mission.
And if there's no club at all in your city? That's not the end of the road. Clubs get started because someone reached out to the Field's Pathfinder director and the district pastor and brought together people willing to help. It's a long path, but a real one — the official step-by-step is in how to start a Pathfinder Club.
How do you confirm a club is actually active?
This is the step most people skip. A club can be listed on the portal and not have met in two years — a listing doesn't disappear on its own. Before you enroll, confirm these seven points, ideally by phone or in person:
- Someone answers. A phone call to the church or the director, answered by an actual person. An email nobody replies to doesn't count.
- The club states the day and time without hesitation. "Saturday at 2pm" is the answer of an active club. "We're reorganizing right now" deserves a follow-up question.
- There's a named director. Ask for the director's name and confirm it with the church secretary.
- There's a calendar for the year. An active club has a schedule: meetings, a hike, a regional camporee, an investiture at year's end.
- The club talks about insurance and medical forms. If they ask for a medical form and mention SGC registration, that's a strong sign of a club in good standing. If nobody brings it up, ask directly.
- Social media with recent activity. Not proof by itself, but a post from three weeks ago beats a nice-looking site that's been frozen since 2021.
- The star rating is recent. Check the official portal to see whether the club scored in the past two years.
On that last point, it's worth understanding what the star actually measures. Clubs are rated from 1 to 5 stars based on how well they keep the club's organization current in the SGC, on a scale of up to 1,000 points across 15 criteria (rules updated on January 1, 2024). The heaviest-weighted criteria are annual insurance and the Field ranking (150 points each) and the class card (100). Medical forms, treasury, activity calendar, up-to-date records, and how often the secretary logs into the system also count.
| SGC score | Rating |
|---|---|
| Above 800 points | 5 stars |
| 500 to 799 points | 4 stars |
| 300 to 499 points | 3 stars |
| 150 to 299 points | 2 stars |
| 0 to 149 points | 1 star |
Read the star for what it is: a measure of administrative organization, not of how much the leaders care about the kids. The portal itself says the goal isn't competition between clubs, but for each club to pursue excellence in its organization. A 3-star club can be wonderful; a club with a brand-new star from last year is, at minimum, a club that's actively working the system — which already answers your question about whether it's active.
What's the best time to look — and can you join mid-year?
A club's calendar follows the Brazilian school year. In practice, enrollment peaks between late January and March, when clubs resume activities, hold their "enrollment day," form their units, and set the year's program. To be honest about it: this is a custom, observed in clubs' own announcements and calendars, not a published Division rule. If you're reading this in January or February, you've caught the best possible window.
The official Pathfinder Ministries materials guide clubs to announce enrollment well in advance, on a timeline that helps you know where to look:
| When | What the club does | Where you'll see it |
|---|---|---|
| 4 weeks before | Announcements in the local church bulletin | Printed bulletin and service announcements |
| 3 weeks before | Written invitations, posters, posts on the site and social media | Instagram and the church bulletin board |
| 2 weeks before | A program featuring visiting Pathfinders | Saturday's program at church |
| 1 week before | A meeting with parents and guardians | A direct invitation — this is when to show up |
And outside that window? In practice, most clubs take new members year-round, because nobody wants to turn away a child who wants to join. But there's a second layer here: this varies by club and by Conference. It's the club's leadership that decides, within the guidance of the Field's Pathfinder director. Some close enrollment close to big events, like a camporee, because headcounts and insurance have already been locked in. The honest answer is: ask the club, not the internet.
One age detail so the trip isn't wasted: Pathfinder Club serves ages 10 to 15. If your child is between 6 and 9, their program is the Adventurer Club, which meets at the same church and usually opens enrollment around the same time.
What to ask (and bring) on your first visit
You found the club, talked to the director, and set a Saturday to show up. Bring these questions with you — they cover 90% of the questions that come up later:
- What's the monthly fee, and what does it cover? Uniforms, scarves, and trips are usually billed separately. See the details in cost and enrollment.
- Does my child need to be Adventist? The official answer is no — the club welcomes children of any faith. There are some nuances to that, covered in do you need to be Adventist.
- How does the insurance work? Ask them to confirm the enrollment will be logged in the SGC with the annual insurance.
- What documents do you ask for? Generally the child's ID, a medical form, and a signed authorization from a guardian — the exact format can vary by Field.
- Who are my child's unit counselors? Ask to meet the adult who'll be with them every week.
- What's the calendar for the year? Ask about camping trips and the estimated cost of each.
On the first Saturday, the most useful thing is to arrive a little early and stay. You'll see the drill, the formation, the ceremony — and you'll quickly get a feel for whether that club has the energy you want for your child. For a detailed look at what to expect, see what a first day at the club looks like.