A Funny Story

This past Sunday our lack of language understanding caught up with us. We have been attending the same Spanish church for the past three Sundays - even though we have understood almost nothing of what has gone on. Well, we did know that the pastor was preaching about deacons, but that was about the extent of it. We also heard him say, "...La palabra al Dios" every once in a while which means "the word of God." At the end of the service, everyone began standing up one at a time, but not in unison. We didn't know what the pastor was asking the congregation to do, so we remained seated, until someone behind us said, "You probably should stand up!" When everyone had been dismissed, the associate pastor's wife came up to us, and said in English, "Would you like for me to explain what happened?" Of course, we said, "yes!" Three men had been presented as deacons the previous week. The pastor had asked that if anyone in the congregation did not agree with the lives of these men, they should remain seated; and for everyone else to stand. Of course, it became obvious that we had no idea what was being said; so the pastor had said to the congregation in Spanish, "Apparently this family doesn't understand Spanish, so we won't count them!" Needless to say, we were a little embarrassed by our lack of understanding.