Acts 16 (written by Luke)

So this isn't like the coloring pages from Sunday school at all! In Sunday school, Paul and sombody else are in prison. They sing praise and worship songs, there's an earthquake, the wall cracks so there's a big escape route, and before they leave, they tell the gaurd about Jesus.
Here's what actually happens: Paul and Silas are out preaching and they're being heckled by a demon-possessed girl. The girl happens to be racking up quite a little bank account with her little demon by telling the future. Unfortunately for her, she's basically a slave, and all the money goes to her owners. When Paul gets really fed up with her heckling, he spins around, looks her in the face, and casts out the demon. She may be just fine with all that, but her owners get pretty ticked off - I'm sure you can see why. The owners drag Paul and Silas to the police and tell them that Paul and Silas have been breaking the Roman law and tradition. With no further explanation, the police immediately give them a severe and naked beating and imprison them...no trial. That's illegal! They tell the gaurd to be sure Paul and Silas don't get away, so the gaurd decides the best thing to do is to stick them in the inner chamber, deep in the prison.
NOW, we get part of the Sunday school page: Paul and Silas start singing hymns, but they are also praying. What sticks out to me is that the Bible says the other prisoners were listening! Not exactly what you'd expect from a bunch of thugs off the street. Must have been an interesting night for the jailer, who's used to hearing screaming, complaints, moaning, and probably crying. Tonight: a duet of "Great is Thy Faithfulness" with individual prayer time between verses!
The earthquake comes, but there's no hole in the wall. Instead, the doors fling open. They don't break off the hinges from the quake - they "suddendly fly open." This was God. The shackles were not broken off of Paul and Silas; listen to this: "everybody's chains became loose"!!!! Became loose?!?! Became loose?!?! EVERYONE'S chains just BECOME LOOSE! And the doors have flown open! The jailer knows Someone big is involved and the jailer is in His way. He takes out his sword, and Paul stops him. "No one is leaving! Chill out!" The jailer takes a look around and finds all the prisoners there. (I have no idea how Paul and Silas convinced everyone to stay, but if I were another prisoner, I would have pushed them out of the way to leave through the flung-open door!) The jailer is probably messed up in his head, trying to take it all in. He gets saved, and apparently goes and gets his family (really, how much good is he anyway? The prisoners are all free and the door is wide open. If they want to leave, they're leaving). They get saved, and everyone has a sleep-over at the jail! The next morning the jailer gets word to let Paul and Silas go. They refuse! They said, "No way! We're Roman citizens, and they beat us and imprisoned us without a fair trial, and now they want us to pretend like it never happened and just go away? Tell them we're not leaving without making a fuss!" Oops! The police hadn't checked out the story or even asked them for their I.D.! Then...read it for yourself - Acts 16:39 is where it picks up.