Most Senior Master Guide in Area 8 - MG Pearl Walker
| Pathfinders is wonderful training for children and young people. I started about 65 years ago when I was a girl in a small church in Cornwall. The only other children in the church were my brother and sister who were five years older than me. It wasn’t called Adventurers or Pathfinders in those days. The younger children were Junior Missionary Volunteers (JMV) and the older children – Helper, Friend and Companion. When we were invested we had different coloured neckerchiefs. |
I believe it was green for Helpers, blue for Friends and red for Companions. We did not do any Honours at that time, but I enjoyed the coursework which I did on my own with my parents’ encouragement. The Pastor (who lived in Plymouth, about 30 miles away) ticked off the course card whenever he visited our home. The courses consisted mainly of learning Bible stories, passages of Scripture and identifying wild flowers, trees, animals and stars.
Many years later I completed the Master Guide course, and for a while I ran the Pathfinder Club in Newport (South Wales). Camping was not a requirement of the course then, but we still had fun. One day I took about ten Pathfinders on a walk through the fields using the ordinance survey map to show us the public footpaths. However, one farmer was not pleased to see us, and came out shouting and brandishing a shotgun. I tried to explain what we were doing, but as he was in no mood to listen, and just pointed the gun at us, I decided we had better get off his land!
Pathfinders encourages children and young people to develop useful skills, appreciate God’s creation, value God’s Word, and enjoy fun and companionship while training to serve the Lord.
MG Pearl Walker
December 2013
