Community Seventh-Day Adventist Church
History Behind The Song
Here's the story behind the song...
Date: Thu, 08 Apr 1999 20:29:28
From: Henry T. Bergh
To: Willie Oliver
Here is a belated story to you of the Pathfinder song.
Pathfinders were just getting started in l949, but we did have a flag,
uniform, emblem, and other insignia. It seemed to me that we needed a
song, so I encouraged John Hancock, who was a song writer, to write one
for us. Each time I would ask him he would reply, "You write it." I
didn't believe I could, for I am not a musician. But God gave me a song.
On a Sabbath in the fall of l949 I was driving to Monterey Peninsula
church for a Sabbath appointment, and thinking about needing a song. I
had written poetry, and I began to think of a poem for the song, "Oh, we
are the Pathfinders strong. The servants of God are we. Faithful as we
march along, in kindness, truth, and purity. A message to give to the
world. A truth that will set us free. King Jesus the Saviour's coming
back for you and me." I stopped the car, took a sheet from my Bible, and
wrote it down, just as it still is today. As I drove on, God put a tune
in my head, to go with the song. I sang it through, pulled over to the
side of the road again, took another sheet of paper from my Bible, and
drew five lines on the paper, then put dots on the lines where I thought
the music went.
My wife, Miriam is a musician, and when I got home that evening I asked
her to play the dots. We adjusted them to the correct places, and she
added the harmony. We sent the song to our friend Wayne Hooper, the
Voice of Prophecy musician, and he wrote, "Publish it. It's a great
song."
We introduced it at Central California Conference Pathfinder training
seminar in January, l950, and they voted to adopt it as their song. Now
it has been translated around the world. To God be the glory for a truly
great song.
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