\u201cSo we started to pray, \u2018You created rain, and You can stop it,\u2019\u201d said Guna Rimane, the Seventh-day Adventist Church\u2019s Pathfinder director for Latvia.<\/p>\n She and other Pathfinder leaders prayed in the camporee office that the rain would stop before the 3 p.m. opening ceremony. The children were worried. Many were anxiously asking what would happen next.<\/p>\n Rimane\u2019s walkie-talkie squawked. It was a Pathfinder leader from the other side of the campground. He said he was praying with his team of marching Pathfinder drummers who were supposed to kick off the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n But the rain fell harder.<\/p>\n All the children listened as Rimane prayed over the loudspeaker. Then the drummers marched out into the rain and toward the marked-off centre of the camp where the ceremony would be held. Just as they stepped into the centre area, the rain abruptly stopped.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was two minutes before the opening ceremony,\u201d Rimane said. \u201cAnd it never rained again during the camporee.\u201d<\/p>\n The astonished children \u2014 and their parents \u2014 could talk of nothing else.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the kids, it was something else,\u201d Rimane said. \u201cWe had parents who were present and were saying, \u2018What is going on? God is so real.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n No one knows how many hearts were touched that rainy day. But church leaders said the story illustrates how God is using Pathfinders as a powerful witnessing tool in Latvia, a small Baltic country of 2 million people and only 4,000 Adventists.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Pathfinders are very good missionaries,\u201d said Vilnis Latgalis, president of the Adventist Church in Latvia. \u201cThey have a lot of passion.\u201d<\/p>\n 2 Answers to Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n Today, Latvia\u2019s Pathfinders learn survival skills like their counterparts worldwide but also engage in community outreach activities. They distribute ADRA-provided gifts to children from low-income families at concerts. They bake gingerbread cookies for neighbourhood children. They invite non-Adventist friends to become Pathfinders and to join them at the summer camporee, their most-anticipated event of the year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe camporee really unifies our club. It makes us like one,\u201d said Maija Paulina, 22, a leader of the Pathfinder club at Seventh-day Adventist Church No. 7 in Latvia\u2019s capital, Riga. \u201cSome children come and some don\u2019t during the school year. But they all come to the camporee, and you get to know each other so well. You can really see how God is leading because there are many answered prayers at camp.\u201d<\/p>\n The club saw a second prayer answered at the camporee. Every day, club leaders prayed that the children would have a memorable experience, Paulina said. On the last evening of the camporee, the club leaders invited the Pathfinders to share their impressions of the past week.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone really loved it, and we didn\u2019t expect that, especially for the children who were not from the church,\u201d Paulina said. \u201cThey asked questions about God. They were thinking about God. It was really amazing.\u201d Krists Circens, 12, said he first went to a Pathfinders meeting at his mother\u2019s suggestion two years ago but now is a member because he likes the other children and adult leaders.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are kind and they feel for other people,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you have an accident or feel bad, they will always help you and understand you.\u201d<\/p>\n Anna Reznikovs, a kind-faced girl with long, blond hair, said she liked learning from the club\u2019s young adult leaders. Her older brother, Konrads, 12, said he had enjoyed practicing survival skills at the camporee this summer. A non-Adventist friend joined the club at Konrads\u2019 invitation this past year, Paulina said.<\/p>\n 2 Life-Changing Stories<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHere the Pathfinders invite their friends and neighbours to join,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you are excited about something, you want others to join. We get many, many Pathfinders this way.\u201d<\/p>\n Latvia currently has about 300 Pathfinders and 150 Adventurers, she said. About 400 children attended last summer\u2019s camporee of 750 people in Salacgr\u012bva, located about 60 miles (100 kilometres) north of Riga.<\/p>\n Lives have been changed through the Pathfinders. Rimane told of a father who tried to stop his daughter, Krista, from attending her local Pathfinder club. He complained that the club was changing her behaviour. Pathfinder leaders began praying for Krista and her parents. When the camporee arrived two years ago, the father reluctantly allowed Krista to go if the mother drove her to and from Salacgr\u012bva.<\/p>\n But troubles with the mother\u2019s car forced the father to drive to the camp on a Sabbath afternoon. He saw uniformed Pathfinders bustling about Salacgr\u012bva as they hosted a health expo and engaged in other activities as part of a community outreach program.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he saw what was going on, he changed his mind,\u201d Rimane said. \u201cBoth parents ended up being baptized, and Krista was, too.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, camporee organizers were surprised to receive a phone call from the mother of a 17-year-old boy, Eralds, who had attended the camporee several years earlier.<\/p>\n \u201cWe sometimes invite people who are not Pathfinders, but only a few,\u201d Rimane said. \u201cHe was invited. Then we invited him to join the club afterward. He didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n The mother told Rimane that Eralds wanted to go to the camporee.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d Rimane asked. \u201cHe is already too old.\u201d<\/p>\n The mother said she had travelled abroad to work for several months and had returned to find that he son was a completely different person.<\/p>\n \u201cHe says he wants to be with God,\u201d she said. \u201cHe wants to leave his friends and find a new group of friends. He wants to go to the camp. He has good memories of what happened at the camp.\u201d<\/p>\n Eralds attended the camporee last July and was baptized there. Five to 10 people are baptized at every camporee.<\/p>\n Never underestimate the power of Pathfinders, Rimane said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe reviewed Eralds\u2019 case,\u201d Rimane said. \u201cHe had only attended a camporee once. But it left such an impression on him that when he reached this turning point in his life, he knew where to find friends and God.\u201d [ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n Editor’s note: Adventist Review news editor, Andrew McChesney, is currently traveling in Europe with Trans-European Division Communication director Victor Hulbert and reporting on Adventist work in the region. For a list of others stories, follow the links below. Stories first published in Adventist Review.<\/p>\n Stories of Faithfulness as Latvia celebrates 120 years of Adventism<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/images_news-2_Adventist-Latvia-Pathfinders-rain.jpg\")
<\/a>It looked likely that rain would spoil the weeklong camporee of 750 people for the first time in the camp\u2019s 19 years in Latvia.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>
Four Pathfinders from Paulina\u2019s club spoke enthusiastically about their love for one another and God.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>
Polish Youth gear up for release of Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge film<\/a>
Helping refugees \u2018as important as preaching the Second Coming\u2019<\/a>
I am ready to be a bear in Serbia<\/a>
Adventist lectures are bigger draw than theatre for some in Serbia<\/a>
Adventists, spurned by Serbia’s bookstores, set up shop near Orthodox church<\/a><\/p>\n
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