Acts 6:3-8

³So, friends, you pick 7 of your own men to do that job. They can give the widows money and food. You have to pick men that other people say are good men. They have to be men that God’s Holy Spirit controls properly, and they have to be men that always think properly. We will make those men bosses of that work. They will give money and food to the widows.

⁴And we will keep on praying and teaching God’s word.”

⁵All the Christians agreed with those 12 men. So they picked a man called Stephen. He was a man that God’s Holy Spirit controlled properly. And they picked some other men called Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas. (Nicolas came from a town called Antioch. He was not born a Jew but he turned to God and started to follow the Jewish ceremonies, and after that he believed in Jesus.)

⁶They brought those 7 men to the 12 close followers of Jesus, and those 12 men prayed for God to help those 7 men, and they put their hands on their heads to show that they were giving those 7 men that job.

⁷At that time the Christians kept telling God’s word to more people, and a lot more people in Jerusalem believed in Jesus. A lot of the men that looked after the Jewish ceremonies also believed in Jesus.

⁸God helped Stephen to be good to everybody, and he gave Stephen the power to do great things to show people that God was great.