This month marks two years since I returned to the United States. In 2004,
I had decided to go to Canada. Shortly after arriving I had been asked to
help out with the local Pathfinder Club. By the time 12 years had passed, I had been a
counselor, instructor, secretary, an assistant director, an executive
director, council member, and area coordinator. Pathfinders had been my
life and spiritual anchor.

It was hard leaving friends, family, and my Pathfinder Club behind. But I
felt like God was calling me back to the USA. Within just a few days of
returning I received a message from the Editor of Guide Magazine.
“Rolf, God is asking me to have you write.” I told her that I wasn’t a
great writer but that if God was telling her to call me, I would write and
she would need to edit.

I had left everything. I had stepped out of everything I had into
nothingness. I was single, unemployed, and in a way homeless. (I was
sleeping in brother’s basement.) I wasn’t sure if God wanted me to wander
the earth or do something else. The weight of the choices I had made laid
heavy on my soul. And there it was, the call, God had not forgotten me at
all.

Do you ever feel like the earth is pulling you down? If you feel like God
is too far away. If you feel like everything is hopeless. Remember this.
When you shoot a slingshot you have to pull down hard on the sling. But as
you release it, all that energy that was moving the stone away from the
target now launches the stone at an amazing speed towards the intended
target. The same is true with all that negative energy and stress in your
life. Once you hand it over to God, He can launch you towards positive
goals.

Pathfinder Pledge and Law:

By the grace of God, I will be pure, and kind, and true. I will keep the
Pathfinder Law. I will be a servant of God and a friend to man.

The Law is for me to:

Keep the morning watch

Do my honest part

Care for my body,

Keep a level eye

Be courteous and obedient

Walk softly in the sanctuary,

Keep a song in my heart,

Go on God’s errand.