Level 4
Lesson 24: Dorcas the Kind Helper

Dorcas lived in a beautiful town by the seaside. Every morning when she opened the door of her little white house she could see the ships sailing by on the shiny blue waters.

Beyond the cluster of white houses lay gardens planted with orange trees. How lovely the trees were in springtime, when they were covered with sweet-scented white flowers. In autumn the golden oranges hung on them like lighted lanterns.

Dorcas was very happy when she walked among the orange trees, but when she walked through the streets of the town she often felt sad. What a lot of poor little children there seemed to be running about the streets. Some of them had hardly any clothes at all, and looked so hungry. Some had just little ragged coats, others were crippled or lame.

One day, when Dorcas was returning from a walk through the orange gardens, a lovely thought came into her heart. "I know Jesus would be sad to see His little ones cold and hungry. If I can do something to help them, I shall be helping Him."

Dorcas hurried to the market place, and bought some soft cloth and then went home to her house by the sea. She was soon busy making little coats and tunics, and in a few days she had made quite a lot. She felt very happy as she called the ragged children around her, and gave them each a little garment.

"Thank you Dorcas," they cried. "Thank you." And they ran home to tell their mothers.

Day after day Dorcas worked busily, and soon everyone in the little town heard how kind and good she was.

But one day she did not feel well enough to sew. She lay all day on her mat bed and when her friends came in to see her they looked sad, and said to each other, "Dorcas is very ill. What can we do?"

"Let us send for Peter," said one of the friends. "Jesus has given him power to heal the sick. Perhaps he will come and make Dorcas well again."

Dorcas grew worse, and by the time friends had found Peter she lay quite still and pale. Some of the children and their mothers who came to ask how she was were told that she was dead.

At last Dorcas’s friends came hurrying along bringing Peter. He climbed the steps to the upper room where Dorcas lay, and turning to the weeping friends, he asked them to go away for a while.

Peter went into the room, and kneeling at the side of Dorcas, he prayed to God. Then he said gently to her, "Dorcas, arise."

At once she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. Peter, taking her by the hand, lifted her up from her mat bed. Then he called her friends to come in.

How happy they were to see Dorcas well and smiling again. The children shouted for joy when they saw her coming down the steps outside the house, and the mothers smiled and said, "God has helped Peter to make Dorcas well again."