Great Planning and a Few Angels Help Kick Off Believe the Promise Camporee

Story by V. Michelle Bernard

Activities at the “Believe the Promise” International Pathfinder Camporee kicked off today in Gillette, Wy. Some 60,000 Pathfinders and staff from around the world, including about 6,600 campers from the Columbia Union Conference,descended on the CAM-PLEX campus, held at this new location for the first time ever. 

Arabella Maniquis, a Pathfinder from the Potomac Conference’ Beltsville (Md.) church’s Ammendale campus, says she is looking forward to meeting up with friends from other countries, and feels she will “probably … be a lot closer to Christ after the event”—a weeklong event packed with  on- and off-campus events, including camping, pin-trading, a rodeo, parades, drill competitions, a vintage car display, opportunities to earn honors and more. 

“It’s definitely bigger here [than OshKosh],” says Emile Rodriques, a Pathfinder from Potomac Conference’s Washington Brazilian church in College Park, Md.—noting the last camporee, in 2019, held in OshKosh, Wis had., about 55,000 attendees. 

Christy Taylor, director of the Glassboro Braves club from Allegheny East Conference’s First Church of Glassboro, says planning for this camporee was harder. “The last camporee we had was prior to the COVID-19 [pandemic], and we didn’t have inflation,” she said, also noting how much farther they had to travel—some 1,800 miles in a bus. Beyond the extra planning and potential hailstorm facing the campground this evening, Taylor says clubs just must be prepared for anything.  

But some things just can’t be planned—such as vehicles breaking down.  

Prior to reaching the campus, Potomac Conference’s Buena Vista club from the Shenandoah Valley was traveling down a dirt road to see a dinosaur dig in Wall, S.D., when their rental vehicle’s tire blew out completely. The club didn’t have the necessary tools to change it, says staff member Shawn Lohr. Little did Lohr know, his daughter, Seraphine (pictured above), was praying for an angel to come by and help. Three to four minutes later, an oil worker drove by with the correct equipment to fix the tire. As the kind stranger drove away, Seraphine told her dad she had prayed for an angel—an answered prayer. 

The Potomac Conference’s Washington Brazilian club also experienced an “angel’s visit” when their bus’ battery melted down at 3 a.m. in South Dakota. Rodrigues says they waited about five hours until someone stopped  to get the battery working again, just long enough to make it to a rest stop and load into a new bus.  

Potomac Conference’s PASDAC Warriors from the Pennsylvania Avenue church in Capitol Heights, Md., also encountered bus issues: two flat tires and a radiator problem. 

The Pathfinders “were getting a little discouraged, thinking they would never make it,” said Michael McDowell, a counselor from the club. “But it was truly a test of faith. Do we believe God?” he asked the group. Thanks to the help of a fellow Sabbath-keeper who stopped to help with a tire, and then a conveniently located repair show to help with the second flat,   the group made it to the camporee.  

Beside the vehicle problems, McDowell says the Pathfinders are now enjoying a whole new kind of scenery: the West.  

Prior to the camporee,  many clubs took the opportunity to see popular spots like Mount Rushmore National Memorial, the Devils Tower National Monument and the Badlands National Park.  

Beyond the extra planning and severe weather that resulted in a thunderstorm warning with 70 miles per hour winds, canceled the Tuesday evening meeting, Taylor says clubs just have to be prepared for anything and “ be open-minded to know that we’re all coming together for the purpose of drawing closer to God and worshipping and fellowshipping all together. … It’s a once in a lifetime experience, because some of these young people may not come in another five years, so just be open-minded. And knowing that we’re all here for that purpose … it’s going to be all right.”