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Saul kept on making trouble for Christians
1-2 At that time, Saul was still making trouble for Jesus’s followers. He was telling them, “I’m going to hurt you and kill you.” He went to the big boss of the Jewish ceremonies and said, “I want to go to the city called Damascus and grab the followers of Jesus there. Will you write letters for me to take to the people in the Jewish meeting houses there? Tell them that you want me to grab anyone that belongs to that mob called the Jesus Way mob. I will grab those men and women, and tie them up, and I will bring them back to Jerusalem for you to punish them.” So that big boss wrote letters like that, and he gave them to Saul to take to Damascus.
Saul met Jesus
3 Then Saul got some men, and they went along the road to Damascus. As they got close to that city, suddenly a bright light from heaven shined down on Saul, and it shined all around him.
4 He fell down on to the ground, and he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul. Saul. Why are you making trouble for me and hurting me?”
5 Saul asked, “Who are you, boss?”
And that voice said, “I am Jesus. You are making trouble for me and hurting me.
6 But get up and go into the city. Somebody there will tell you what to do.”
7 The men that were with Saul were shocked. They heard that voice, but they couldn’t see anyone. They just stood there, they were so shocked that they couldn’t say anything.
8 Saul got up from the ground and opened his eyes, but he couldn’t see anything. He was blind. So the other men held his hand and took him into Damascus.
9 He was blind for 3 days, and he didn’t eat anything or drink anything in those 3 days.
10 There was a man called Ananias that lived in Damascus. He believed in Jesus. Ananias had something like a dream, but he was still awake. He heard Jesus say to him, “Ananias.”
And Ananias said, “Yes, sir, I’m here.”
11 And Jesus said to him, “I want you to get up and go to Straight Street. Go to the house that Judas lives in, and find a man there from the town called Tarsus. His name is Saul, and he is praying to me right now.
12 He had something like a dream, and he saw you, Ananias. And he saw you come and put your hands on him, to make him see again.”
13 But Ananias said, “But sir, people have told me about that man Saul. He’s a properly cheeky man. He hurt your people in Jerusalem, and he did a lot of bad things to them.
14 And the bosses of the Jewish ceremonies told him that he can grab all the people here that say they follow you, Jesus, and he can take them to jail. He came here now to do just that.”
15 But Jesus said to Ananias, “Don’t worry. Go to him anyway. You see, I picked that man to do my work. He will tell a lot of people about me. He will tell Jewish people about me. And he will tell people that are not Jews about me, even their biggest bosses too.
16 I will show him that some people will not like him talking about me, so they will give him big trouble and hurt him.”
17 So Ananias got up and went to the house that Judas lived in. He went inside, and he put his hands on Saul, and he said, “Saul, my friend, you saw Jesus on the road as you were coming here. Well, he has sent me so that you can see again, and the Holy Spirit will come into you and fill you.”
18 Then some things fell down from Saul’s eyes. They were like fish scales, or like finger nails. After that, Saul could see again. He got up, and the Christians there baptised him.
19 Then he ate some food, and he got strong again. Saul stayed in Damascus for a few days with the people that followed Jesus.
Saul told the people in Damascus about Jesus
20 As soon as Saul was strong again, he started talking to the Jewish people in their meeting houses. He told them, “Jesus is God’s son.”
21 All the Jews that heard him were really shocked. They said, “Wow, this man has really changed. He’s the man that really hurt the people in Jerusalem that followed Jesus. And he came here to grab the people here that say they follow Jesus. He was going to tie them up with chains and take them back to the bosses of our ceremonies in Jerusalem.”
22 But Saul told those people about Jesus. The Jewish people in Damascus argued with him, but he showed them that Jesus really is the man that God promised to send to save us, the man that is called the Christ. Saul got better and better at showing them he was right, and they couldn’t show that he was wrong. And they didn’t like it.
23-24 After that, some of those Jewish people talked with each other about killing Saul. There was a big wall around that city, and it had some gates in it. Every day and every night, they watched those gates. They thought they might see Saul going out of the city, and then they can catch him and kill him.
But somebody told Saul about them.
25 So the Christians there helped Saul get away. They got a big basket, and they took Saul to that big wall in the night. They went up to a window, high up in that wall. Then they tied ropes to the basket and put Saul in it, and then they put it through that window, and they let it go down to the ground outside the wall. Then Saul got out of the basket and ran away.
26 After that, Saul went to Jerusalem, and he tried to join the people there that followed Jesus. But they were frightened of him. They didn’t believe that he followed Jesus too. So they kept away from him. They didn’t want to let him join them.
27 But Barnabas, one of Jesus’s followers there, he listened to Saul and believed his story. So he took Saul to Jesus’s special workers, and he told them Saul’s story. He said, “On the way to Damascus, Saul saw our leader, Jesus, and Jesus talked to him. After that, Saul told the people in Damascus about Jesus. He wasn’t frightened of them.”
28 Those church leaders in Jerusalem believed Barnabas, so Saul stayed there with them, and he went around Jerusalem with them. He talked to everyone about Jesus and wasn’t frightened of anyone.
29 There were some Jewish people in Jerusalem that talked the Greek language. Saul told them to believe in Jesus, but they argued with him. Then they got angry and tried to kill him.
30 The Christians heard about this, so they took Saul to the town called Caesarea and put him on a ship, and they sent him back to his home town, called Tarsus.
31 Then, at last, everything settled down and was quiet for the Christians in the churches in Judea country, and in Galilee country, and in Samaria country, and they got stronger for Jesus. The Holy Spirit helped them to be strong, and they respected Jesus properly. And more people joined them and believed in Jesus.
Peter got Jesus to make a crippled man better
32 After that, Peter went around visiting God’s people that lived in Judea country, and he went to the town called Lydda.
33 He met a man there called Anias. About 8 years before that time, Anias got crippled. He couldn’t walk, so he always lay on his swag.
34 Peter said to him, “Anias, Jesus Christ makes you better. Get up and roll up your swag.” Right then Anias got better, and he stood up.
35 When the people in Lydda saw him, a lot of those people changed their ways and believed in Jesus. Lydda was in the country called Sharon, and the people there saw him, and a lot of them changed their ways and believed in Jesus too.
Peter got God to make a woman alive again
36 There was a Christian woman that lived in a town called Joppa. Her name was Tabitha. Her name in the Greek language was Dorcas. She always did good things and helped poor people.
37 But she got sick and died. The other Christians there washed her body, and they put it in a room upstairs in her house.
38 Joppa was near Lydda, and the Christians in Joppa heard that Peter was in Lydda. So they sent 2 men to Lydda, and those men asked Peter, “Please come to Joppa with us right now.”
39 So Peter went with those 2 men. After he got there, the Christians took him to her house, and then they went upstairs. The widows stood there with Peter, and they cried, and they showed him the shirts and other clothes that Dorcas made for them while she was still alive.
40 Peter told everyone to go outside. Then he got down on his knees, to show respect to God, and he prayed. Then he turned and looked at the body, and said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and she saw Peter, then she sat up.
41 Peter held out his hand for her and helped her to stand up. Then he called out to the widows and to all God’s people there, and he told them to come. Then he showed them that Tabitha was alive.
42 Those people that saw her alive, they started telling other people about it, and soon everybody in Joppa heard that story, and a lot of people believed in our leader Jesus.
43 Peter stayed in Joppa for a long time. He lived with a man called Simon. Simon was a leather worker.