Cornelius was a very important soldier, a Centurion; he was in charge of a lot of men in the Roman Army. Cornelius was a good man who helped people, he gave money to people who were poor, and made sure that people who were sick were cared for.
Peter would not have expected Cornelius to want to pray to God, but Cornelius did, and one day as he was praying God sent an angel to speak to him. The angel told Cornelius to find Peter, and to invite him to come and talk to them about God.
Cornelius did as the angel said, and sent some of his servants to find Peter.
But there was a problem, Peter didn't understand that God wanted the whole world to know the good news about Jesus, he thought the message was only for the people who came from Israel like him.
God needed to speak to Peter about this so that Peter would go to Cornelius house. God did this in a very clever and unusual way.
Peter loved his food, it was almost lunch time and he was hungry, he had worked hard all morning and as he waited for his lunch he fell asleep and began dreaming about his favourite food. Half way through the dream he heard Jesus voice, and saw a strange banquet spread before him. In the banquet were all sorts of foods that Peter thought he could not eat, according to his religion God had forbidden them, but here was Jesus telling him he could eat them.
Peter started to object, but in his dream Jesus just smiled, and said;
"It's OK Peter, you can eat them, things that you thought were forbidden are no longer forbidden, I am doing something new."
Just then Peter woke up, he yawned and stretched and got ready for lunch, and as he was beginning to eat there was a knock at the door. Cornelius's servants had found him, and they gave him their master's invitation.
Before his dream Peter would have said no, but suddenly he understood that Jesus words had been about more than food, and that Jesus was getting him ready for Cornelius's invitation.
Peter went with Cornelius's servants and when he got to Cornelius's house he began to share the good news about Jesus with everyone there. As Peter spoke something amazing happened. God the Holy Spirit came. It was just like it had been on the day when Peter and his friends were waiting and praying together, as the people listened to Jesus story the began to feel the love of God filling them up, starting at their toes and filling them right up until they began to dance and sing and shout for joy.
From that day on Peter told Jesus story to everyone he met, and Gods love spread from person to person and place to place as those who heard it told it to others in turn.
