Acts 9:26-38

²⁶After that Saul went to Jerusalem and tried to join with the people there that followed Jesus. But they didn’t believe that he followed Jesus too. They were afraid of him, so they kept away from him. They didn’t let him join with them.

²⁷But a Christian man called Barnabas listened to Saul and took him to the close followers of Jesus and told them Paul’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 afraid of them.”

²⁸Those church leaders in Jerusalem believed Barnabas, so Saul stayed there with them and let the Jerusalem people see him with them. He talked to everyone about Jesus and wasn’t afraid of anyone.

²⁹There 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 upset and tried to kill him.

³⁰The Christians heard about this, so they took Saul to the town called Caesarea and put him on a ship, and sent him back to his home town, called Tarsus.

³¹Then, at last, everything settled down and was quiet for the Christians in the churches in Judea, Galilee and Samaria countries. They respected their leader Jesus more, and they followed him more properly, and the Holy Spirit helped them feel strong, so that more people joined them and believed in Jesus.

³²After that, Peter went around visiting God’s people that lived in Judea country, and he went to the town called Lydda.

³³He met a man there called Aeneas. About 8 years before that time Aeneas got crippled. He couldn’t move, so he just lay in bed for 8 years till Peter came along.

³⁴Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ makes you better. Get up and roll up your mat.” Aeneas got better right then, and he stood up.

³⁵All the people in Lydda saw him, and the other people in that flat country called Sharon, they all saw him too, and a lot of them changed their ways and believed in Jesus.

³⁶There was a woman called Tabitha that lived in a town called Joppa. She was a follower of Jesus. (Her name in the Greek language was Dorcas.) She always did good things and helped poor people.

³⁷But she got sick and died. The Christian people washed her body and put it in a room upstairs in her house.

³⁸Joppa was near Lydda, and the people in Joppa that followed Jesus heard that Peter was in Lydda. So they sent 2 men to Lydda and they asked him, “Please come to Joppa with us right now.”