The Pathfinder Club, or simply Pathfinders, is a department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA), which works specifically with the cultural, social and religious education of children and teens. Boys and Girls 10 years and up are members of the club all over the world. Though similar in many respects to Scouting, Pathfinders have a stronger Spiritual emphasis on all their activities. the Pathfinder Club has been an official component of the Seventh-Day Adventist church's youth ministry since 1950. Currently, the program is overseen globally by director Andrés J. Peralta. An estimated 38% of Adventist youth aged 18 and under "Are members of Pathfinders or a similar church-sponsored youth group", according to a 2002 worldwide survey of local church leaders. History The first step towards the organization of the Pathfinders Club within the Adventist Church in 1907 when the Department of Youth Missionary Volunteer ( Volunteer Missionary Society ) was established under the leadership of Pastor Milton Early Kern. In 1909 are the first organized societies Missionary Volunteer Youth (MVY), and in 1914 developed the first lessons to be MVJ's, that would be the precursor of the progressive classes Pathfinder. In 1911 the nascent form of the Pathfinder club was founded in Takoma Park, Maryland. Three clubs were formed in Takoma Park in 1911, they were: "Scouts Missions", "Woodland Clan & Pals" and "Takoma Indians". They were characterized by only accepting registration for boys. In 1919 Arthur Spalding founded the club "Scouts Missionaries", in Madison County, Tennessee. Spalding studied the organization, made compatible with the spiritual goals of the Adventist Church (a feature that was not initially adopted by clubs from Takoma Park), rules and created the outline of the movement. The "Scouts Missionaries" developed the fundamental ideals for the current club of pathfinders. In 1929 for the first time the name "pathfinder" was used on a schedule of juvenile SDA activities. The Association of Southern California promotes a camp for Youth Missionary Volunteers, and entitles the camp "Pathfinder". The same Association (Southern California) in 1946 unilaterally formalizes and sponsors the program, with its first prototype recognized club being tested in Riverside, California. Alongside the experience in California, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in 1950, formalizes a program the club, and adopts a uniform, a flag (ade by Hellen Hobbs and Henry Theodore Bergh in 1948) and a hymn (composed in 1949 by Henry Theodore Bergh) for the official