A new missionary recruit went to Venezuela for the first
time. He was struggling with the language and didn't
understand a whole lot of what was going on. Intending
to visit one of the local churches, he got lost, but
eventually got back on track and found the place. Having
arrived late, the church was already packed. The only
pew left was the one on the front row.
So as not to make a fool of himself, he decided to pick
someone out of the crowd to imitate. He chose to follow
the man sitting next to him on the front pew. As they
sang, the man clapped his hands, so the missionary
recruit clapped too. When the man stood up to pray, the
missionary recruit stood up too. When the man sat down,
he sat down.
During the preaching, the recruit didn't understand a
thing. He just sat there and tried to look just like
that man in the front pew.
Then he perceived that the preacher was giving announce-
ments. People clapped, so he looked to see if the man
was clapping. He was, and so the recruit clapped too.
Then the preacher said some words that he still didn't
understand and he saw the man next to him stand up. So
he stood up too. Suddenly a hush fell over the entire
congregation. A few people gasped. He looked around and
saw that nobody else was standing. So he sat down.
After the service ended, the preacher stood at the door
shaking the hands of those who were leaving. When the
missionary recruit stretched out his hand to greet the
preacher, the preacher said, in English: "I take it
you don't speak Spanish."
The missionary recruit replied: "No I don't. It's that
obvious, huh?"
"Well yes," said the preacher, "I announced that the
Acosta family had a newborn baby boy and would the
proud father please stand up."
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
