Investiture Achievement/Companion/Spiritual Discovery
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| Companion/Spiritual Discovery |
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Requirement 1a |
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Memorize the Old Testament books of the Bible and the five groups into which they are grouped. |
The Books of the Old Testament and the sections into which they are divided are as follows:
| Books of Moses | History | Poetry | Major Prophets | Minor Prophets |
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It is far easier to memorize these by song than by rote. There are many songs that go through the books of the Old Testament, and many of them can be found on Youtube. Listen to several and choose the one you like the best. Then teach it to your class, or add it to the songs you sing during your club's opening ceremonies. If your whole club sings the song at every meeting, by the end of the Pathfinder year, everyone in regular attendance will know the books of the Old Testament.
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Requirement 1b |
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Demonstrate your ability to find any Old Testament book. |
The first step in doing this is the know the order of the books and the section to which each belongs (see the previous requirements). Then if you open your Bible to the wrong section, it will be easy to flip forward or backwards through the pages until you get to the correct section.
A second tip is the know without having to think too hard if the book is before or after Psalms, which is right in the center of the Bible. Try opening your Bible to its center, and you should be looking at one of the Psalms. Now if you know that the book you are after is before Psalms, you know that it's in the first half of the Bible. Otherwise you know that it is in the latter half.
To get the Pathfinders to practice, have sword drills - you call out a text, and the first to find it indicates he or she has done so. Have them read the passage aloud to make sure they found it. Keep score, and offer a prize of some sort (it doesn't have to be much - kids at this age can be motivate by the simplest of prizes).
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Requirement 2 |
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Memorize a Bible text for the following subjects:
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Spiritual Discovery Requirement 2 is the same for Friend, Companion and Explorer. Each year Pathfinders should memorize a new verse not previously memorized for each topic. Your Pathfinders are not restricted to these suggested texts or the NKJV version of the Bible used on the printed sheet. Encourage them to pick texts and versions that they find most meaningful. Click here for a page with the complete text of these verses that you can print and hand out to your Pathfinders.
| Prayer | Doctrine | Behavior |
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| Salvation | Relationships | Promises/Praise |
| Great Passages | ||
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Do you know some other great verses? Click here to add them!
Techniques
There are several approaches to memorizing scripture.
- Erase the words
- Write the Bible verse on a white board and have everyone read it aloud together. Then erase a word and have them read it again, supplying the erased word. Continue erasing words and reading the verse aloud until all the words are gone. At this point, the entire class should know the verse.
- Hand write the verse
- Write the verses down several times by hand until you can do it from memory.
- In song
- Many passages of scripture have been set to music. Memorizing the lyrics to a song is a lot easier than memorizing raw text, and the memory will last for years. If the verse you are trying to memorize has already been set to music, switch to the version of the text that matches the song. If it has not been set to music, make up your own tune. Explore different translations of the text to see which one lends itself best to your song.
- Say it aloud
- Hearing it and saying it will reinforce it much better than just "thinking" it will.
- Say it with rhythm
- This is similar to the "in song" approach from above, but it is often easier to make up a rhythm than it is to make up a whole tune. Clap your hands and stomp your feet at various places in the verse if that helps. Turn it into a clapping game like "pat-a-cake" and learn it with a friend.
- Add action
- How many songs do you know that have motions associated with them? If you're making up hand claps and foot stomps, it will help even more if you add other actions such as casting a fishing line, or tracing the outline of a heart in the air.
- Make a rebus
- A rebus uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. For instance, the word "I" is represented with a graphic depiction of an eye. If you spend enough time coming up with a clever rebus for your verse, you will likely have memorized it by the time you are finished.
- Find structure in the verse
- Write the verse out so that it highlights the structure. Recall that Hebrew poetry works by repeating an idea using different words. Line them up! We also find structure in New Testament verses. For instance, 1 John 2:3 could be written like this:
Now by this
we know that
we know Him,
if we keep His commandments.
- This approach lines up the common words "we know" and helps the brain to organize the verse more effectively. It also lines up the third "we" with the first two, so that it's possible to memorize a shorthand for this verse - "we know, we know, we keep". This forms a skeleton upon which we can hang the rest of the words. Look for other structure as well, such as that the word following "we" always starts with a 'k' and has four letters.
- Use a Puzzlemaker Online
- to create written activities for scripture such as:
- Crosswords
- Wordles
- Fill in the blanks/Missing letters
- Blank out (Similar to Hangman)
- Scripture Scrambles
- Step On It
- Print out each word of a passage on paper, one word per page in large print. Lay the paper on the floor and step down on each page as you say the text. Remove words from time to time.
- Writers Block
- Write each word of a passage on blocks of wood, one word per block. Mix up the blocks and put the text back together. Two block sets of the same verse makes for an exciting game!
Do you know some approaches? Click here to add them!
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Requirement 3 |
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Participate in a skit on one of the following Old Testament characters:
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Below are some skits that you might consider using for this requirement. If you have written a skit of your own, please consider adding it to our collection.
- Ruth (puppet show)
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Requirement 4 |
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Research two early Adventist Pioneers (1844 to 1900) and present what you have learned. |
There are Wikipedia articles on several Adventist Pioneers which make good starting points:
Ellen G. White
- Ellen G. White at Wikipedia
- Brief biography from the White Estate
- There is a 6 volume biography of Ellen White that naturally includes a lot of details about her husband James White too.
- Elmshaven site - her last home
- Christian Experience and Teachings of Ellen G. White (autobiographical)
- Early Writings (autobiographical)
- Life Sketches (autobiographical)
- books about Ellen G. White
- Ellen G. White: Prophet of Destiny
James White
Joseph Bates
- Joseph Bates at Wikipedia and his autobiography
J. N. Andrews
Uriah Smith
Hiram Edson
Pioneers covered in Honors See the Adventist Heritage, God's Messenger and African American Adventist Heritage in the NAD honors for more information. Expanding on this requirement you can earn one of these honors.
Audio stories of the pioneers from the White Estate.
Also check various books on Adventist Heritage.
The presentation can be made during worship during a Pathfinder meeting, at vespers during a camping trip (see requirement 6 of Camping Skills II), as a children's story during a church service, or during Sabbath School.
Trail Companion 
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Requirement 5 |
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Complete Companion requirements. |
You must complete the requirements listed above this one on the current page.
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Requirement 6 |
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Learn about Ellen White’s first vision and discuss how God uses prophets to present His message to the church. |
Ellen G. White First Vision - On to Heaven
We all entered the cloud together, and were seven days ascending to the sea of glass, when Jesus brought the crowns and with His own right hand placed them on our heads. He gave us harps of gold and palms of victory. Here on the sea of glass the 144,000 stood in a perfect square. Some of them had very bright crowns, others not so bright. Some crowns appeared heavy with stars, while others had but few. All were perfectly satisfied with their crowns. And they were all clothed with a glorious white mantle from their shoulders to their feet. Angels were all about us as we marched over the sea of glass to the gate of the city. Jesus raised His mighty, glorious arm, laid hold of the pearly gate, swung it back on its glittering hinges, and said to us, "You have washed your robes in My blood, stood stiffly for My truth; enter in." We all marched in and felt that we had a perfect right in the city.
Here we saw the tree of life and the throne of God. Out of the throne came a pure river of water, and on either side of the river was the tree of life. On one side of the river was a trunk of a tree, and a trunk on the other side of the river, both of pure, transparent gold. At first I thought I saw two trees. I looked again, and saw that they were united at the top in one tree. So it was the tree of life on either side of the river of life. Its branches bowed to the place where we stood, and the fruit was glorious; it looked like gold mixed with silver.
We all went under the tree, and sat down to look at the glory of the place, when Brethren Fitch and Stockman, who had preached the gospel of the kingdom, and whom God had laid in the grave to save them, came up to us and asked us what we had passed through while they were sleeping. We tried to call up our greatest trials, but they looked so small compared with the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that surrounded us, that we could not speak them out, and we all cried out, "Alleluia! heaven is cheap enough!" and we touched our glorious harps and made heaven's arches ring.
After I came out of vision, everything seemed changed; a gloom was spread over all that I beheld. Oh, how dark this world looked to me! I wept when I found myself here, and felt homesick. I had seen a better world, and it had spoiled this for me.
I related this vision to the believers in Portland, who had full confidence that it was from God. They all believed that God had chosen this way, after the great disappointment in October, to comfort and strengthen His people. The Spirit of the Lord attended the testimony, and the solemnity of eternity rested upon us. An unspeakable awe filled me, that I, so young and feeble, should be chosen as the instrument by which God would give light to His people. While under the power of the Lord, I was filled with joy, seeming to be surrounded by holy angels in the glorious courts of heaven, where all is peace and gladness; and it was a sad and bitter change to wake up to the realities of mortal life.
(Christian Experience and Teachings of Ellen G. White, pp. 59-61)
Here is an account of the Narrow Way vision in a video.
Ellen was only 17 years old when she had her first vision... not much older than most Pathfinders.
Discussion: God has used prophets since near the beginning of time to reach his people. Often prophets are very close and connected to God. The first prophet was likely Enoch because he walked with God, but God took him. Many Bible characters were prophets or possessed the prophetic gift among other gifts (Joseph and David for example). Prophets (and apostles) wrote much of the Bible, but not all prophets named in the Bible got their own Bible book or even are quoted in the Bible (. God promised that in the last days that some would have the gift of prophecy, so it is not surprising that God choose Ellen White to minister to His church in the last days. Here is a good article on the Biblical foundations for Ellen White's gift.
