For us, 2009 proved to be an eventful year. We were able to take our vacation in June in the states this past year which was an exciting time for us as well as a good point of transition for our move to Joinville, Santa Catarina. We moved to Joinville in July 2009 and have spent a wonderful time getting to know the city and the people in the region.

Our current job assignment is planting churches in the northern region of Santa Catarina. We have been visiting the various cities in our region and below is a recap of those visits and what God has been doing in each of them.

Joinville is a city of over 500,000 inhabitants with only 6 Baptist churches which together have about 600 members. Of these 6 churches, we have found only 2 thus far that have sound doctrine. We asked you to begin praying for a “man of peace” in this city. A new pastor moved into town around the same time that we did. He heard about Stan and what he was interested in doing to reach the city and he came looking for him. He showed up at our gate one morning and wanted to begin sharing with Stan the vision God had laid on his heart. God began showing him that he would never reach Joinville by continuing to “do” church the way it had always been done. This pastor, Valter, has committed himself to helping begin a house church network in Joinville that will touch the whole world. He and Stan have joined together to teach the existing church how to lead evangelistic Bible studies that will hopefully be house churches one day. Stan began a study series with the church on the Book of Acts to show them what the word “church” really meant in the New Testament. In December, the first training session for evangelistic Bible studies was completed and 9 couples have committed to opening their homes in 2010 for evangelistic Bible studies. One of the things Stan and Valter have been praying about is how to reach the lost in the city when everyone lives behind walls and gates. One way of course is for the evangelistic Bible studies to reach into each person‘s circle of influence. In other words they begin with their lost friends and family. God also answered that prayer in another way. Four schools asked our team to begin ministering to the families connected with the school. This new project will begin in February when school begins again which will give our team access to 3,000 families.

Prayer Requests for the Work in Joinville

1. Pray for Valter and his family. He and his wife have three children. Pray that they will remain obedient to God’s call on their lives and that God will surround them with a veil of protection as they labor for God.
2. Pray for the nine couples who have agreed to open their homes in 2010 to begin evangelistic Bible studies. Pray for the people who will participate and that they will have ears to hear the truth of God’s saving grace.
3. Pray for the church, Aliança, as they continue to learn what church should really be and that they will commit to following God no matter where He leads them in reaching their city for Christ.
4. Pray for the new project beginning in February. Sometimes it is hard to be patient and allow God to open the doors. Pray that our team will be patient as we get to know the families.

São Bento do Sul
We were invited to visit with Pastor Airto to get to know him and his family and the work they do with Igreja Batista de Paz. He too believes that his city will never be reached for Christ if they continue to “do” church the way they have always done it. This church is one of the strongest Baptist churches in northern Santa Catarina and has a very strong ministry to married couples. They began family groups a few years ago where the church is meeting in various homes during the week. They also teach sessions for married couples to reinforce godly relationships and godly obedience. A huge problem in Brazil, even among Christians, is extramarital affairs. Stan has offered to help in any way he can. The pastor is still getting to know Stan so the process is slow. Stan is providing him with his study materials on the Book of Acts to reinforce the idea that we need to take a serious look at what the Bible says about “church.” Pastor Airto has tentatively invited Stan to meet and discuss evangelism, discipleship and small group ministry.

Prayer Requests for São Bento do Sul1.  Pray for Pastor Airto and his family as they move in the direction that God would have them move in reaching São Bento do Sul for Christ. 
2.  Pray for the families that they work with that they will commit themselves to godly marriages.
3.  Pray that a relationship of trust will be developed between Stan and Pastor Airto so that they can partner together in reaching Northern Santa Catarina.

We recently were able to take a trip up into the mountains of Santa Catarina. We were amazed at the beauty and diversity that met us. Many of the cities in this mountain region have Ukrainian Orthodox churches that still hold services in the Ukrainian language. Not only did we find Ukrainians but also Austrians, Germans, Italians and Polish, just to name a few.

We ended our trip in the city of Porto União. We were invited to visit the local Baptist church there. We had a wonderful two days visiting with the church and the pastor. As Stan began to share with the pastor his vision for house churches/simple churches that are culturally relevant and his desire to see people truly discipled, the pastor’s eyes lit up. Pastor Vilmar had already been thinking through and praying through what it would really take to reach Porto União for Christ. Pastor Vilmar said, “The way we “do” church will never reach a city which is technically more culturally European and not Brazilian. It simply is not culturally applicable.”  Stan explained the evangelistic Bible study set and Vilmar explained that he was already using a similar set that he had developed. He had just come from a meeting with the pastors of their Baptist Association who had come to the conclusion on that very day that they needed a better way to equip workers because “church” as they were doing it was not producing equipped followers of Christ. He asked Stan to share his ministry with the church that evening.  Stan shared about evangelistic home Bible studies, simple church, the Acts studies, and his commitment to equipping the saints to plant churches that truly reach the culture. Several people already want to know when they can begin training because they also want to reach their city for Christ. Because it takes us 4 hours one way to get to Porto União, Stan is working with the pastor hopefully to begin monthly weekend trainings early in 2010.

As we were leaving that evening, a young man pulled Stan aside and asked when Stan could begin training him to do this work. The young man is a professional soccer player. He has a burden to reach other soccer players but has had a very difficult time doing so because he said they refuse to step their foot inside a church building. He loved the idea of evangelistic Bible studies designed to reach them in a culturally applicable way and also felt it was the answer he had been looking for because it is something he could reproduce anywhere rather than tying anything to a local church.

Prayer Requests for the Northern Mountains of Santa Catarina (Porto União)

1. God has burdened our hearts for the various people groups we have encountered. Our pray request is that God will open the door to reaching the various people groups living in Santa Catarina.
2. Pray for the training sessions that will begin in 2010 as we train people to lead evangelistic Bible studies that will hopefully transform into simple churches.
3. Pray for Pastor Vilmar as he leads his church to commit to reaching their region for Christ. It is a difficult door to walk through because many times it is just easier to remain where we are comfortable rather than changing the way we do things for the cause of Christ.
4. Pray for China Man, as the professional soccer player is known, that He will continue to follow God’s leading in reaching other soccer players for Christ.

Prayer Requests for the Meadors1. Pray for Stan as he continues to finalize the first series of evangelistic Bible studies and begins working in more depth on the second series. Pray that God will use the people around us to show him where the studies need to be adjusted to reach people in a culturally applicable manner.
2. Pray for the Acts study that continues in one church and hopefully will begin in two other churches in our region in 2010.
3. Pray that we will remain strong and focused as a family and that God will protect us.
4. Pray that we will allow God to lead in all things and remain faithful to his calling. Sometimes it is easy to allow our agenda to get in the way. God has a plan and we need to remember that even when it doesn’t look like we thought it would.
5. Pray that God will begin a house church network in Northern Santa Catarina in 2010.
6. Pray that God will continue to draw Ariana to Himself. She is asking many questions.

Words can never express how much you mean to us and how grateful we are for your prayers, love and support. Thank you for giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering this year. If you haven’t had time to do so yet, please make sure you do. Your gift to Lottie Moon keeps us on the field each year. There is so much work yet to be done and God definitely isn’t finished using us here in Brazil.  Your faithful giving will only not only allow Brazil but the world to hear of God’s saving grace.

We pray that God will bless each of you in this new year. We are excited about what God has in store for 2010.

Blessings,

Stan, Wendy and Ariana Meador