Henry Theodore Bergh Part 2… by Dixie Plata – NAD Pathfinder Historian
In the February article for Adventist Youth Ministries Museum (AYMM) Newsletter I mentioned that Pastor (Elder) Bergh had been asked, in 1948, to become the Youth Director for the Central California Conference.
Shortly after the Bergh’s arrival a parent, Mrs. Esry, called Henry and told him she was worried about her son, there were only two junior youth in the Sunnydale church at the time and she felt her son who was going to public school was wandering from the “path”. Pastor Bergh asked the conference committee if he would be able to start a club, similar to the Trailblazer Club he had started in the North Pacific Union years before. He was told “it will never work as we can’t even get enough Sabbath School leaders”. Elder Baker, the conference President, convinced the committee to let him go ahead and try. Pastor Bergh contacted his friend Pastor Miller Brockett in the Southern California Conference for the materials they were using for Pathfinder clubs at that time. He also learned that the Southeastern California Conference had a Pathfinder Club in Riverside, which began in 1946. (earlier clubs seem to have disbanded by then)
Pastor Bergh called Mrs. Esry and told her what was being done in Southern California and made some suggestions to her about starting a club in Sunnyvale. There were only two youth at that time, one girl and her boy and that was all. He suggested that they each invite a friend of their age to come to the first club meeting, so there would be four members. He also suggested what she might do for a program with crafts, marching, stories and games. She began the first Pathfinder club in Central California.” Henry also said he “recommended that when she had her first meeting with four present, she could ask each of those kids to invite one other, and she would have eight, and then stop at sixteen, unless she could recruit more staff.
“Just before Halloween, October 1948, she called and frantically told me that she was very worried about what the kids in Sunnyvale might be doing on Halloween eve, so she had told her Pathfinders to invite whomever they might like to have come on Halloween for a party. She said 150 are coming and she didn’t know what to do. I went to Sunnyvale, rented the Civic auditorium, and worked with her on a program. I asked some of my minister friends to help on the night of the party, and we were able to pull it off.” This club was a great success and though it began small it grew quickly
Pastor Bergh wrote that “We had regional associations organized in each of the seven regions of the Conference, so I first asked the committees in each region to appoint a Pathfinder coordinator for their region.” These were the first Pathfinder Coordinators of record and greatly helped to guide the fledging clubs in the Central California Conference.
Pastor Bergh continued “then I arranged rental of a film from the YMCA entitled Kids in Trouble. He advertised meetings in ever church where there was a church school. He invited adults only, and provided a film for the kids to look at while the adults met. He prepared a paper How to Start a Pathfinder Club to distribute at the meetings and the trip was very successful.” When he finished his itinerary he had organized 23 Pathfinder clubs.
Only God knew that it was time for the Pathfinder Club Ministry to become a driving force in Youth Ministry. Pastor (Elder) John H. Hancock had designed a Pathfinder emblem for the club he helped start in Southeastern Conference, in 1946, that was also being used in Southern California Conference where Lawrence Paulson was the director. Pastor Bergh was able to order these patches for the clubs so they had a patch to wear on their uniforms. The girls wore dark green dresses and the boys wore khaki pants and shirts with the colored scarf they had earned in school, blue for Friends and red for Companions. These were the same uniforms that many MV and JMV’s (Junior Missionary Volunteers) were wearing at the time.
Pastor Bergh wrote the Pathfinder Song in 1948, he said he thought the first time it was used in a public meeting was in Asilomar, California January of 1949.
The club directors followed the suggestions in the How To Start A Pathfinder Club paper and they were off and running. This was the spring of 1949. Later the brochure, How to Start a Pathfinder Club was expanded and printed by the General Conference. Over the 4th of July weekend Pastor Bergh had a Pathfinder Training Camp at Wawona, with about 125 persons. A.C. Nelson, J. R. Nelson, Clare Wolfsen, Ernest Booth and Henry Bergh were the instructors.
Pastor Bergh said “I had drawn what I thought would make a Pathfinder flag, and asked Hilda Jean Martin, coordinator for the Fresno Area (Region 6) Pathfinders, to sew it. She declared she was no seamstress, but volunteered to find someone to sew it. She asked Helen Hobbs, and Helen was the Betsy Ross of the Pathfinder flag. The General Conference later adopted the flag.”
“In l950 Elder Howard Crawford came to the Conference office and asked Pastor Bergh for ideas on how to help his young people. He had about fifteen on his rolls that were not very spiritual. Pastor Bergh suggested maybe they could hold an evangelistic meeting with the young people as the speakers. Pastor Bergh contacted Elder H.M.S. Richards senior, a friend, for permission to rework some of his sermons into a style the young people could use.
Pastor Bergh spoke at a Friday night meeting of the young people in Burlingame, and introduced the idea of the evangelistic meetings, and their format. They were excited and said they had been disappointed with ideas before that didn’t pan out. Did Pastor Bergh really plan to follow through? He said yes and they set a date for the meetings to begin with six weeks of meetings, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. Usually there were four or five speakers that memorized their script and practiced three times for each sermon. Some of the kids were great, and others scared to death. The format proved to be successful. They memorized, and preached and those kids were won for the Lord.
Elder Bergh planned similar meetings in Fresno, Shafter and Santa Cruz (with students from Monterey Bay Academy). The General Conference MV Department asked them to conduct one of their meetings, at their session in San Francisco in l954. Students of Monterey Bay Academy who had just finished their crusade spoke doing their best and the Lord certainly blessed their efforts.
At Camp Meeting in Soquel, California, the campground for the Central California Conference, Elder R. R. Bietz came to invite Pastor Bergh to serve as youth director in Southern California Conference with offices in Glendale. The Conference Committee of Southern had elected Pastor Bergh Youth Director. Pastor Bergh and his wife Miriam prayed diligently and felt the urging of the Lord in that direction, and not wanting to be a Jonah they told Elder Bietz they would accept the call. Pastor Bergh’s last event in Central at Wawona was a Pathfinder Training Camp over Labor Day weekend, l954.
The Bergh’s moved to Southern California Conference directly after that. Cedar Falls was the youth camp in the Southern California Conference, which is located somewhat on the slopes of Mt. San Gorgonio. The terrain is quite steep. All three years the Bergh’s were in Southern he hiked to the top of San Gorgonio. The camper cabins needed replaced so 28 new cabins were built in the woods.
Pastor Bergh started conference Pathfinder Leadership Training meetings monthly, choosing different campgrounds, helping directors know where they could go to camp. Don Palmer did the training, and Pastor Bergh led out in worships, etc. When time for the Pathfinder Camporee in Southern, Pastor Bergh suggested to Pastor Charles Martin, who was Youth Director in Southeastern California Conference at that time, that they join together and have a bi-conference Camporee. The Camporee was held at Sabino Canyon with 800 Pathfinders plus leadership. A great success.
January, l957 Pastor Bergh was asked to serve as Secretary-treasurer of the Arizona Conference. The Lord also led this move to Scottsdale. Within the first year Pastor Bergh had spoken in all the churches and held weeks of prayer at Thunderbird Academy and the school at Holbrook, Arizona.
Elder Laurence A. Skinner of the General Conference MV department asked Pastor Bergh to write a devotional book for Junior Youth. They accepted his suggestion for a name, and published the worship book in l963 as Upward Trails.
Pastor Bergh was next asked to be the hospital administrator for the community hospital in Hanford, California. The hospital of l4 beds would be turned over to the Conference with all its assets (and liabilities), equipment and medical staff if they would build a new hospital on another site. Pastor Bergh and his wife Miriam discussed the move and took the decision to the Lord in prayer. Feeling His leading they moved to begin the project.
The hospital was completed and ready for occupancy in l965. Thanks to the Lord’s leading it was a financial success. As Pastor Bergh said “We didn’t make huge sums of money, but we paid the mortgage, and upgraded as we needed, and served the patients well.”
The summer of 1969 Henry took the job of associate administrator at the St Helena Hospital and Health Center, Saint Helena, California. His next employment was in Trust Services which he enjoyed very much.
“When the Northern California Conference President Elder Helmuth Retzer learned of Pastor Bergh’s expertise in Real Estate, he had an action passed by the Conference Committee that no property in the conference, for whatever use, would be bought or sold until Pastor Bergh had seen the property and evaluated it. Thus, when a new Summer Camp was sought to replace Pinecrest, Henry was first on the ground of Leoni Meadows, and was secretary of the committee that was appointed to develop a master plan, and oversee construction. Pastor Bergh also handled the sale of Pinecrest to the Baptist church”
The Bergh’s retired in l980, to Fish Camp, near Yosemite, California having enjoyed the 40 years of Conference employment. In retirement he served as pastor of the Yosemite Valley Church for six summers.
The General Conference called for them to serve at the Servicemen’s’ Center in Seoul, Korea. At the local army base at Yongsan Pastor Bergh introduced himself to the chief chaplain for the Western Pacific area who was extremely helpful. He told Pastor Bergh he was acquainted with the Seventh-day Adventist Organization and that he had met Neil Wilson, and Clark Smith when he was stationed in Washington, D.C.
The Bergh’s had a very interesting life, serving the Lord, traveling for Him and enjoying God’s blessings for many years. In retirement the Bergh’s were able to travel and spend time with friends they had made through the years.
One huge thrill was the year they traveled to Brazil with Arnold and Dixie Plata to attend two Camporees. Pastor Bergh’s presence was a complete secret except to the Camporee Director. On opening evening a group of youth portrayed a skit about how the man, they called him pastor Berghgay, was given the words and music for the Pathfinder Song. Then Pastor Bergh was introduced to the crowd of 10,000. The youth and staff were as thrilled as the Bergh’s. On Sabbath morning just as church was to begin Arnold ushered Mariam and Dixie ushered Pastor Henry Bergh down the wide isle while the Pathfinder’s sang the Pathfinder song, in Portuguese and in Spanish at the same time, over and over. What a thrill for each of us.
When Henry Bergh died on 15 July 2011 we lost the last of our Pathfinder pioneers. Thousands have been blessed through the years by his ministry, and Arnold and I were blessed to be called one of his and Miriam’s friends.
