Fifty-five Pathfinders and their leaders from around Upper Columbia Conference traveled to All Nations Center Church for the last week of March 2025 to experience a Teen Pathfinder Mission Adventure.
ANC is a small congregation that reaches out to the diverse population living on the Yakama Reservation. Pathfinder teens and their leaders provided amazing support to the church and community, serving in a variety of ways with cheerful attitudes.
When asked why they chose to spend spring break in Wapato, Washington, many Pathfinders said, “I want to serve others.”
Throughout the week, Pathfinders were divided into six teams with adult leaders. Several teams spent time working around the church. Some were tasked with painting inside and outside the church. Other young people were involved in landscaping activities, such as weeding and laying ground cover on the church grounds.
Other teams went out into the surrounding community to serve. Activities in the community included helping nine elderly Native American families in the Satus area to clean up their yards and surrounding land, painting two rural fire stations in nearby Sawyer and Brownstown, washing vehicles at a nearby nursing home, picking up trash and painting over graffiti in Wapato, helping the Toppenish Cultural Center library fill more than 60 extra-large bags with leaves and pine needles from raking their grounds, as well as cleaning the baseball diamond at Toppenish Native American School.
In addition to committing their spring break to serving others and paying for their trip, these teens also committed to having less than two hours a day with their phones. As the week progressed, Pathfinders made new friends and found other ways to spend time away from their phones. One evening, they were so involved with their new friends and activities like volleyball, singing and games that they forgot to pick up their cell phones!
The Pathfinders were led by an amazing group of 26 leaders. Susan, one of the hard-working cooks, has been cooking for Pathfinder clubs for more than 20 years. Before coming to Wapato, she planned and prepared special recipes such as veggie meatballs and gluten steaks at home. Leaders accompanied their teams on projects and taught the teens many skills from gardening to painting.
Every day, the group met for morning and evening worship in the ANC sanctuary. The evening speaker for the week was Jake Wilkinson, pastor, who led the group on a journey of discovering God’s amazing promises.
On Sabbath, ANC was privileged to hear Pathfinders share their gifts of music as they led the congregation in song. A special video was shared that included testimonies from the teens and samples of the Pathfinders serving the church and community at the different work sites. This video and other information about TPMA can be found at ucctpma.org
Six young people shared how the week of ministry had impacted their lives. One young man shared his experience helping a Native American family cut trees and clean their yard. He shared Prov. 25:11, “The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered,” as a testimony of how this experience had made him feel blessed in serving this family in their time of need.
Another young lady shared Heb. 10:24: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.” She talked about how God revealed this to her as different people in the community expressed how grateful they were for her team painting over graffiti.
On Sabbath afternoon, the six teams — dressed in their new purple TPMA shirts — divided Wapato into six areas. Altogether, they distributed 576 copies of The Great Controversy and a free health magazine in both English and Spanish.
A survey was also included in the packet asking how the church could be of service to the community. From the survey, 27 people showed interest in Bible study. Each person contacted by Pathfinders was open to receiving prayer.
The ANC congregation is very thankful for the work these young people and their leaders accomplished in a week. This TPMA trip — totaling more than 2,800 man-hours — has helped build community trust and inspired those who live in Wapato to reach out in new ways to connect with the people who live on the Yakama Reservation.
Teen volunteers give the ANC entrance a facelift.
The church exterior gets a well-needed fresh coat of paint.
Teenagers clean up the grounds of Toppenish Cultural Center.
Pathfinders work to landscape All Nations Center.
A Pathfinder gives the church sign a fresh coat of paint.
Teens renew landscaping.
