Imagine discovering an important truth by reading the Bible and deciding to live by it, even without knowing whether anyone else in the entire world agrees with you. That is exactly what happened to Guilherme Stein Jr., a young man from an immigrant family who lived in the countryside of São Paulo at the end of the 19th century.
Before the Adventist Church arrived in Brazil in an organized way, with pastors and missionaries, Guilherme was already keeping the Sabbath. He did not copy it from anyone. He read, studied, and decided. Years later, when the message finally arrived through a book and through colporteurs, he was the first Brazilian to be baptized, in 1895.
His life is one of the most beautiful stories for you, Pathfinder, to understand where the faith you learn at the Club comes from. And also to learn to study for yourself, without swallowing everything whole.
Who was this young man from Campinas?
Guilherme Stein Jr. was born on November 13, 1871, in the city of Campinas, in the countryside of São Paulo. He was the son of immigrants: people who came from Switzerland and Germany to start a new life in Brazil. In those days, many European families settled here and formed colonies, with their own language, their customs, and their books brought from far away.
Guilherme grew up in that environment. He worked as a toolmaker, meaning he knew how to make and repair tools with his own hands. He was a careful, curious, and hardworking young man. Over the course of his life, he came to communicate in Portuguese, German, and English, which would later be very useful in the work of the church.
Keep one thing in mind: he was not a pastor, nor a missionary, nor the son of a famous leader. He was an ordinary young man, with an ordinary job. That matters to you. God did not choose someone important to be the first. He chose someone willing to study and to obey. You can be that kind of person too in your Club.
A forgotten book in a house: how the message arrived
The story takes an interesting turn. Years before Guilherme was converted, Adventist colporteurs (people who sold books door to door) passed through the Piracicaba region. One of them, probably the colporteur Augustus B. Stauffer, sold a copy of the book Der Grosse Kampf, which in English is called The Great Controversy, to the grandmother of the young woman who would become Guilherme's wife.
Notice the detail: the book was sold in German. That only worked because the family was from an immigrant colony and read in that language. A seed was planted and stayed there, quietly, waiting. No one imagined what that book would do years later.
When the book reached Guilherme's hands, he dove into the reading. He devoured those pages that spoke of the history of the church, of the struggle between good and evil, and of the great truths of the Bible. It was one of the pushes that confirmed the path he had already been discovering on his own. If you want to understand this book that marked so many people, take a look at The Great Controversy for young people.
He kept the Sabbath by reading the Bible, without imitating anyone
Here is the heart of the story. Even before meeting any Adventist, Guilherme, studying the Bible, understood that the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, is the day of rest that God set apart. And he did something brave: he began to keep the Sabbath out of conviction, without knowing whether there was anyone else in the world who believed in it.
Think about how big that is. There was no group, no church nearby, no friend to say "come with me." Just him, the Bible, and the decision to obey what he read. Jesus had invited people to do exactly this: "You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me" (John 5:39, NIV). Guilherme took that invitation seriously.
The Bible praises people like that. In Berea, there was a group that became famous for not swallowing anything without checking: "they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true" (Acts 17:11, NIV). Guilherme was a Brazilian Berean. If you want to understand why Adventists keep the Sabbath, see The Sabbath: why we keep it.
Read alsoJohn Nevins AndrewsThe 1895 baptism: the church arrives and finds someone already waiting
In the early 1890s, the Adventist message began to truly organize in Brazil, brought by colporteurs and, later, by pastors sent from abroad. One of them was Frank Henry Westphal, the first ordained Adventist pastor to work in South America.
When Guilherme received more guidance and study about the faith, he was ready. In April 1895, he was baptized by immersion in the waters of the Piracicaba River by Pastor Frank Westphal. With that, he entered history as the first Brazilian baptized in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It was beautiful to see: the official church arrived and found a Brazilian who was already living that faith from the heart.
An honest note is worth making, in Berean fashion: around the same time, other people in Brazil, such as Guilherme Belz and neighbors, also began keeping the Sabbath without knowing any Adventist. That is why historians usually say, carefully, that Stein Jr. was the first Brazilian baptized as an Adventist. Good historians do not exaggerate, and we learn from them.
What he did afterward: from the toolmaker's bench to the gospel
After his baptism, Guilherme's life changed course. His family became so involved that, soon afterward, the first Sabbath School in Brazil was organized in the city of Indaiatuba, connected to the new converts of that group. That was where, in the country, that gathering for Bible study you know every Sabbath morning began.
Guilherme did not stop. He left the toolmaker's job and became a colporteur, selling books door to door, the same way the books once reached him. He then helped open pioneer Adventist schools and worked in the publishing ministry, helping to produce the first Adventist magazines in Portuguese. He himself became one of the first Brazilian workers of the church.
Guilherme Stein Jr. died on October 5, 1957, at a very old age. From a forgotten book in a house to an entire life dedicated to spreading the message: this is the story of a man who started small and left a huge mark. All because, one day, he decided to take seriously what he read in the Bible.
What Guilherme teaches you to do in the Club
The first lesson is direct: study for yourself. Guilherme did not wait for someone to chew everything up for him. You have the Bible, you have the Counselor, you have the Unit. At the next meeting, when a doubt about a belief comes up, do not just sit and listen. Ask, open the text, check. Being a Berean is that: believing for real because you examined it, not because someone told you to.
The second lesson is about courage. Keeping the Sabbath was strange and lonely for him. Maybe you will also go through situations where doing the right thing seems to leave you alone: a test on a Sabbath at school, a friend who mocks your faith, an invitation you need to decline. Guilherme shows that you can be faithful even without an audience. God sees.
The third lesson is about sowing. That colporteur who sold the book never knew it would produce the first baptized Adventist in Brazil. When you invite a friend to the Club, hand out a leaflet, or do a service project, you are planting seeds that may grow years later. You do not need to see the result today for it to be worth it.
Be a Berean with the dates and facts too
Old stories tend to pick up different versions over time. Someone tells it, another repeats it, and along the way a date changes or a place gets swapped. That is why, when you present Guilherme's life to your Unit, it is worth checking first. He was born in Campinas, not in Piracicaba; Piracicaba is where he was baptized. The baptism was in 1895, not in the 1880s. Details like these matter.
This fits perfectly with the example Guilherme himself left. He did not accept anything without checking the source. Do the same. When preparing an assignment, look for reliable sources, such as the Adventist Encyclopedia and Casa Publicadora Brasileira, instead of repeating the first text you come across. If a piece of information does not match or you could not find where to confirm it, it is better to leave it out than to make it up.
Telling the story with honesty is a form of respect, toward God and toward the people who actually lived. Guilherme Stein Jr. deserves to be remembered with the right facts. And you, by learning to research properly, gain a skill for your whole life: separating what is true from what is just rumor.