16. In the past, God let all the nations do what they wanted.
17. Yet he did things to prove he is real: He shows kindness to you. He gives you rain from heaven and crops at the right times. He gives you food and fills your hearts with joy.”
18. Even with these words, they were barely able to keep the crowd from offering sacrifices to them.
19. Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium. They persuaded the people to turn against Paul. And so they threw stones at Paul and dragged him out of town. They thought that they had killed him.
20. But the followers gathered around him, and he got up and went back into the town. The next day, he and Barnabas left and went to the city of Derbe.
21. Paul and Barnabas told the Good News in Derbe and many became followers. Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch.
22. In those cities they made the followers of Jesus stronger. They helped them to stay in the faith. They said, “We must suffer many things to enter God’s kingdom.”
23. They chose elders for each church, by praying and giving up eating. These elders were men who had trusted the Lord. So Paul and Barnabas put them in the Lord’s care.
24. Then they went through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia.
25. They preached the message in Perga, and then they went down to Attalia.
26. And from there they sailed away to Antioch. This is where the believers had put them into God’s care and had sent them out to do this work. And now they had finished the work.
27. When they arrived in Antioch, they gathered the church together. Paul and Barnabas told them all about what God had done with them. They told how God had made it possible for the non-Jews to believe!
28. And they stayed there a long time with the followers.