1 Then Paul and Silas went to the town called Derbi, and then to the town called Listra. A Christian man called Timothy lived in Listra. Timothy’s mother was a Jew, and she believed in Jesus too, but Timothy’s father was a Greek. 2 All the Christians there in Listra said that Timothy was a good man, and all the Christians in the town nearby, called Iconium, they said that too. 3 But the Jewish people in those places knew that Timothy’s father was Greek, and they knew that the Greek people don’t do a young man operation on their boys, like the Jewish people do. Paul wanted Timothy to go around with him to a lot of places, and he wanted the Jewish mob in every place to be happy with Timothy, so he got them to do a young man operation on Timothy.

4 Then Paul, Silas and Timothy went through that country, and in every town they told the Christians about the things that the leaders in Jerusalem talked about, and they told them all to do everything that those leaders said in their letter. 5 So the people in the churches in those places, they trusted Jesus more strongly, and every day more people joined them and trusted in Jesus too.

6 Paul and his friends wanted to tell the message about Jesus to the people in the country called Asia, but the Holy Spirit told them, “No, don’t go there.” So they went through the countries called Frigia and Galatia. 7 Then they got to the country called Misia, and they tried to go on into the next country, called Bithinia. But again the Holy Spirit said, “No, don’t go there.” 8 So they went past Misia and got to the town called Troas.

9 They stayed in Troas, and that night, Paul had something like a dream, but he was not asleep, he was still awake. He saw a man from Macedonia country. That man was standing there, and he was saying to Paul, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

10 I, Luke, joined with Paul and Silas there at Troas. After Paul saw that Macedonian man, we knew that God wanted us to tell the good news to the people in Macedonia, and we got ready to go there.

11 We got on a ship and went straight to the town called Samothrace, and the next day we got to the town called Niapolis. 12 We left the ship there, and we went by road to the town called Philippi, and we stayed there for a few days. Philippi was the main town in that part of Macedonia, and a lot of Roman people lived there.

13 On the next Saturday, we went outside the town to a place near the river. We thought we might see some Jewish people meeting there to pray. Some women were there, and we sat down and talked with them. 14 One woman was from the town called Thiatira, and her name was Lydia. Her job was to sell purple cloth. She was a woman that respected God. Jesus helped her to listen carefully to the things Paul talked about, and she believed in Jesus. 15 Then we baptised Lydia and her family. After that, Lydia asked us to come and stay at her house. She said, “You mob know that I really believe in our leader Jesus now, so please come and stay at my house.” She kept on asking us until we agreed, so we stayed at her house.

16 On another day, we started to go to a place where people meet together and pray to God. There was a young woman on that road that had a bad spirit in her. That spirit showed her things that were going to happen to people later on. Some men made this young woman work for them with no pay. People used to pay a lot of money to her bosses, and then she told those people things that will happen to them later.

17 That young woman saw Paul and the rest of us going on that road, and she followed us, and she kept on shouting, “These men serve the God that is the greatest of all gods. They can tell you what to do so that God will save you and not punish you.”

18 She kept on doing that for a lot of days. In the end Paul got angry. He turned around to the young woman and said to that bad spirit, “My boss, Jesus Christ, says, ‘Get out of her.’ ” Then the bad spirit came out of that young woman.

19 Her bosses saw this happen, and they thought, “This is bad for us. Now she can’t tell anybody what will happen to them, and she will not get us any more money.” And her bosses were angry with Paul and Silas. They grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them to the Roman judges in the middle of that town.

20 Her bosses said to the judges, “These men are making a lot of trouble for everyone in our town. They are Jews, 21 and they are telling people to do things that our Roman law says are wrong.”

22 A lot of other people there joined that woman’s bosses and started blaming Paul and Silas. Then the judges told their soldiers, “Rip the shirts off Paul and Silas, and hit them with sticks.”

23 So the soldiers hit Paul and Silas really hard with sticks, and then they put them in the jail. They told the boss over that jail, “Make sure Paul and Silas don’t get away.” 24 So the jail boss put them in a little room that was right in the middle of that jail. He made them sit down on the ground, and then he locked their ankles between 2 big bits of wood, so that Paul and Silas couldn’t move their legs.

25 Later, in the middle of the night, Paul and Silas were praying out loud to God and saying that he is really good, and they were singing songs to God. The other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a very big earthquake. It shook the jail, and even the cement underneath it, and all the doors of the jail swung open, and all the chains fell off the arms and legs of all the prisoners.

27 The jail boss woke up and saw that the doors of the jail were open, and he thought, “All those prisoners ran away. I’m in big trouble now.” So he got his big knife, and he was going to kill himself.

28 But Paul saw the jail boss and shouted to him, “Don’t hurt yourself. We are all here.”

29 The jail boss told somebody to bring some lights, then he ran into the jail and got down in front of Paul and Silas, to show them respect. He was so frightened that he was shaking. 30 Then he took Paul and Silas out of the jail, and he asked them, “Sirs, what can I do so that God will save me?”

31 They said, “Believe in Jesus, our leader, and God will save you. And he will do the same for your family too.”

32 Then Paul and Silas told the jail boss and his family all about Jesus, and they all believed in Jesus. 33 Then, while it was still night time, the jail boss washed the sores on their backs, and Paul and Silas baptised the jail boss and his family. 34 Then the jail boss took Paul and Silas into his house, and he gave them some food to eat. And the jail boss and his family were all really happy because they believed in God.

35 The next morning, the judges said to some policemen, “Go and tell the jail boss, ‘You can let those 2 prisoners go now.’ ” Then the policemen went to the jail boss and told him that message.

36 So the jail boss told Paul, “The judges have sent a message telling me to let you and Silas go free. So you can go quietly out of the jail now.”

37 But Paul said to the policemen, “No. Yesterday those judges didn’t take us to court to find out if we did anything wrong, or not. They just told men to hit us in front of the crowd. Then they put us in jail. But that is against the Roman law, because we are Romans. You see, even though we are Jews, we are Romans too. Our names are on the list of all the Roman people. So those judges broke the Roman law yesterday. And now they want to send us away while nobody is looking. No way. Those judges have to come to us and tell us that they are sorry, and they have to take us out of this jail themselves.”

38 So the policemen went and told the judges everything Paul said. As soon as those judges heard that Paul and Silas were not just Jews, but they were Romans too, they got frightened. Those judges knew they broke the Roman law. 39 So the judges came and talked easy to Paul and Silas. They said, “We are sorry about what happened yesterday.” Then they took Paul and Silas out of that jail, and they kept on asking Paul and Silas to leave that town soon.

40 After that, Paul and Silas left the jail and went to Lydia’s house. They met with her and with the other Christians there, and they told them to keep on trusting our leader Jesus. Then Paul and Silas left Philippi.