Philip (one of the newly appointed seven) makes his way over to Samaria. There he starts preaching the good word about Jesus, healing people, and exorcising demons and all kinds of evil spirits. Everyone in the area is pretty impressed. He runs into a guy in Samaria named Simon the magician. Simon is kind of a big deal in Samaria. He goes around town doing all kinds of magic. Even Simon is impressed by the wonders Philip is able to produce, so he decides to be baptized and start following Jesus too. Not for the right reasons though. The apostles hear about the headway Philip is making in Samaria, so they send in Peter and John to help out.
Peter and John pray for the Samarians who converted to receive the Holy Spirit. They put their hands on them and they have the Spirit. Hallelujah! Simon is pretty darn impressed by this, too. He comes up to Peter and offers to pay him if he can give him a share of that Holy Spirit summoning power. Peter tells him that you can't buy yourself into God's good graces! Simon seems pretty frightened and he asks the apostles to pray for him. After they stay in Samaria for a while spreading the good news, Peter and John head back to Jerusalem.
Philip Helps A Eunuch (Eunuch means celibate, or otherwise not inclined to marry and procreate). Meanwhile, an angel of the Lord tells Philip that he should take a trip south. On his way, he meets this eunuch who serves as the minister of finance to Ethiopia's Queen Candace. The eunuch is on his way home from Jerusalem, when Philip comes across him and sees that he's reading Isaiah. That's a book Philip knows about. The eunuch invites Philip to travel with him and explain. He just so happens to be going over Isaiah 53:7-8. Isaiah says that someone will suffer and die, Luckily, Philip knows the answer—it's Jesus! Philip tells him the truth and about the gospel, the eunuch is convinced and decides to be baptized in a river right there on the road. Philip does the baptizing, but when the eunuch comes up out of the water, Philip is gone. Turns out the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away and sent him to Azotus and Caesarea to keep right on preaching the word.
Meanwhile, Saul is still hard at work persecuting Christians. He is obsessed with getting rid of the Christians. He's on his way to Damascus to find even more Christians he can throw in jail, when he sees a light suddenly flash from Heaven. Saul falls on the ground and hears a voice—"Saul, why do you persecute me?" Saul asks the voice to be more specific. "It's me, Jesus" the voice tells him. The voice of Jesus tells Saul to keep heading towards the city and that he'll let him know what to do. Saul gets up and he's blind. He's traveling with a couple other guys,they are confused because they too heard a voice from Heaven. They help him into Damascus, but it's three days before Saul can see anything again. There just so happens to be a follower of Jesus named Ananias living in Damascus. Ananias has a vision where God tells him to go find Saul and restore his sight. Ananias is a bit skeptical, though. Because this is the same Saul that has been rounding up Christians left and right? He is ok, God tells him. He's gonna bring my message to the Gentiles. And he's gonna suffer quite a bit, too. So Ananias goes and heals Saul and "something like scales fell from his eyes." After that, Saul is baptized and eats a little and then starts to feel better
Once he feels better, Saul rushes out into the synagogues and starts talking up Jesus. The people are pretty astonished. Didn't Saul come to town to arrest Christians? Now he's become one? Naturally, after Saul's been preaching for a while and convincing lots of people, the religious authorities hatch a plot to kill him. The disciples find out about it, though, and sneak Saul out of town at night by lowering him down the wall outside the city in a basket. Saul makes his way to Jerusalem to meet up with his fellow disciples, but they're a little bit skeptical. Barnabas vouches for him in front of the apostles, which puts them a little more at ease. You know what really puts them at ease though? Sending Saul home to Tarsus to do some preaching there instead. Peter's Doing Stuff Too, You Know Peter's also having his own adventures all over the country. He heals a man who's been paralyzed and converts lots of other people in the process. When he hears that a disciple named Tabitha (her Greek name is Dorcas) has died in Joppa he rushes there and brings her back to life.
In Caesarea, there's a guy named Cornelius who's a Roman centurion. (A Centurion was a professional officer of the Roman army that commanded large groups of men) He's a Gentile, but he observes Jewish customs and prayers. Basically he's living the Jewish life, but hasn't made things official. One day, while Cornelius is praying, an angel of God appears and tells him to send some men to Joppa to pick up Peter. Cornelius is a little weary, but he sends two of his slaves and a soldier right away.
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