Acts 16

₁Paul also went back to the towns of Derbe and Lystra. In Lystra there was a believer whose name was Timothy. His mother was a Jew and a believer and his father was a Greek. ₂The believers in Lystra and Iconium said good things about Timothy. ₃Paul wanted Timothy to go with him, so Paul circumcised him because of the Jews that lived in those towns. All the Jews knew that Timothy's father was a Greek. ₄Paul and his friends went to a lot of towns and they told the believers what the apostles and elders in Jerusalem had decided and they told the believers to do what they said. ₅Paul and his friends encouraged the believers in the congregations to become stronger believers and every day more and more people started to believe in Christ.

₆Paul and his friends wanted to go to the province of Asia, but the Holy_Spirit stopped them. Therefore they went to the province of Phrygia and Galatia and they preached there. ₇When they came into the province of Mysia, they tried to go to the province of Bithynia, but the Spirit_of_Jesus stopped them again. ₈Then they went through Mysia and then they came to the town of Troas. ₉That night the Lord gave Paul a vision. It was like a dream. He saw a man from the province of Macedonia. He was standing there and he begged Paul and asked him: ‘Please come over the sea to Macedonia and help us.’

₁₀After Paul had seen this vision, we immediately got ready to sail to Macedonia because we believed that God had called us to preach the Good_News to those people.

₁₁We sailed from the town of Troas and we went to the Island of Samothrace. The next day we were in the town of Neapolis. ₁₂From there we walked to the town of Philippi, in the first part of the province of Macedonia, where the Romans ruled, and we stayed in Philippi for a few days. ₁₃On the Sabbath day we went outside the town to a place by the river. We looked for a place where the Jews came together to pray and we sat down and started to talk to the women who came there. ₁₄One of the women who listened to us was Lydia. She was from the city of Thyatira and she sold expensive purple material. She was not a Jew, but she worshipped the Lord. The Lord opened her heart and she accepted the message that Paul preached. ₁₅She and all the people in her family were baptised. Then she invited us and said: ‘If you think I really believe in the Lord, then please come to my house and stay there.’

She asked us again and again until we said yes and we went to her home.

₁₆One day when we were going to the place where the Jews always went to pray, a slave girl came to us. She had an evil_spirit in her that gave her the power to say what would happen in the future. People paid to listen to her and she got a lot of money for her owners. ₁₇This slave girl followed Paul and our other friends and she continued to shout and say: ‘These men are servants of the Most High God. They tell you how God can save you.’

₁₈The slave girl followed us and she shouted this for many days and then Paul became angry. He turned to the girl and said to the evil_spirit: ‘I am telling you to get out of this woman. I say it with the power which Jesus gives me.’

The evil_spirit immediately went out of her. ₁₉The owners of the girl saw that they would no longer get money from this girl. They were angry and they grabbed Paul and Silas and they pulled them into the court, where the leaders of the town were. ₂₀The owners told the judge and the leaders: ‘These men are Jews and they are making problems in our town. ₂₁They tell us to do things, but we are Romans. The things they say are wrong for us, and we should not do them.’

₂₂A lot of people came with the owners of the girl and they attacked Paul and Silas. The Roman leaders said they must take Paul and Silas' clothes off and the soldiers must beat them with sticks. ₂₃After the soldiers had beaten Paul and Silas, they put them in jail and they told the guard to lock the doors carefully. ₂₄Then the guard put Paul and Silas in a room deep inside the jail. He put their feet in blocks of wood. ₂₅In the middle of the night Paul and Silas were praying and singing songs to praise God. The other prisoners were listening to them. ₂₆Suddenly there was a strong earthquake. The ground and the jail trembled. Immediately all the doors of the jail opened and all the chains of the prisoners fell off. ₂₇When the guard woke up and saw that the doors of the jail were open, he took out his sword. He wanted to kill himself because he thought that all the prisoners had run away. ₂₈But Paul shouted_very_loudly and said to him: ‘Do not kill yourself. All of us are here.’

₂₉The guard asked someone to bring a light and he ran into the room where Paul and Silas were. He trembled and knelt down on the ground in front of Paul and Silas' feet. ₃₀He took them outside and he asked them: ‘Sirs, what must I do so that God can save me?’

₃₁They said to him: ‘You must believe in Jesus and God will save you and your family.’

₃₂Paul and Silas told the guard and all the people in his family about the message of the Lord. ₃₃It was late at night and the guard took them and he washed their wounds and sores. Immediately Paul baptised the guard and all the people in his family. ₃₄The guard took them to his house and he gave them food to eat. He and his family were very happy because he now believed in God. ₃₅The next morning the Roman leaders sent soldiers to the guard and told him to let Paul and Silas out of jail. ₃₆The guard said to Paul: ‘The Roman leaders said that I must let you go free. Come out and go with peace in your hearts.’

₃₇But Paul said to the soldier: ‘We are Roman_citizens and the Roman leaders told the soldiers to beat us where everyone could see it and they put us in jail. But they did not first take us to a court to judge us. Now they want us to go out of jail and they want no one to know about it. No, they can not do that. Those Roman leaders must come here to this jail themselves and they must let us out.’

₃₈When the soldiers told the Roman leaders that Paul and Silas were Roman_citizens, they became afraid. ₃₉The Roman leaders came to the jail and told Paul and Silas that they were very sorry for what they had done. Then they walked with them and asked them to go out of their town. ₄₀Paul and Silas walked away from the jail and they went to Lydia's house. There they saw the believers and they encouraged them. Then Paul and Silas went away from the town of Philippi.