Since its inception in Jamaica in the 1940s, the youth arm of the Seventh-day Adventist church, the Pathfinder Club, says it has taken close to 35,000 youth off the streets, saving them from a life of crime and training them instead for service to God, to country and to man.

The statistics were revealed yesterday at the Braeton Seventh-day Adventist church during a service to mark World Pathfinder Day, which is celebrated within Adventist circles on the second Saturday of September each year.

Youth director at the West Indies Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Pastor Charles Blythe, in delivering the main address, said: “Ask the police in Jamaica and they will tell you our boys and girls are contributing to the peace, not the crime rate in this nation. Ask the prime minister, the Honourable Portia Simpson Miller, and she will tell you how greatly she admires this group of young soldiers of the Lord.”

He said he was proud to be part of the youth organisation which was making such an indelible impact on society. “I am proud to be identified with the most powerful army in the world – the youth of the Seventh-day Adventist church,” he said.

“I do believe that we can make a change in Jamaica,” Blythe told the Sunday Observer in a post-sermon interview. “My philosophy is that we are making a difference… and the reason is that we are rightly connected. We have taken at least 35,000 young people off the streets and that is the unofficial figure because I don’t have the information on me.”

Speaking about the impact the group, which is open to non-Adventist youth, and which has sister organisations the world over, has had on others, the pastor cited examples from as far away as Thailand.

“Three years ago, we went to Thailand and the entire nation was touched by our young people doing voluntary service,” he said. “We’re talking about a country that is 95 per cent Buddhist. We made such an impact there that the governor put on a function in our honour [before we left].”

The contribution of the church organisation toward nation building has also been identified by the Jamaican government which, through the National Centre for Youth Development, earlier this year donated a sum of $300,000 for the continued development of the group. The contribution is part of an annual subvention to uniformed groups across the island such as the Girl Guides and Boy Scouts, but this was the first year a Pathfinder club was receiving the award.

The reason for this, according to Blythe, was that “we [Pathfinders] are one of the biggest [of the uniformed groups] – numerically speaking – and because of the impact we have been having on the society”.

As part of their training and development, Adventist youth, a broad term that encapsulates Adventurers (ages 6-9), Pathfinders (ages 10-15) and Senior Youth Leaders (ages 16-30), are encouraged to engage in a number of activities geared towards physical, social, mental and spiritual development.

They include outreach activities such as disaster relief and community beautification projects, as well as personal development and survival training such as social graces, first-aid, knot-tying, and camping. Their drilling and marching training have also been called upon as Pathfinders sometimes participate in national parades and other civic functions including the march passes at King’s House on National Heroes’ Day.

In keeping with their outreach and volunteer portfolio, and as they extend a helping hand to the needy, the Pathfinders plan to go to Taiwan next year where “people from all over the world will make an impact”.

Statistics from the US-based General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists reveal that approximately two million of its worldwide membership of more than 14 million are Pathfinders.