One of my favorite jokes ...

Once upon a time Pastor & Mrs. Johnsrud visited Italy on a tour of the historical sites from the life of St. Paul. Before the trip, they made arrangements through their denominational missions office to visit with an Italian pastor and his wife, Pastor & Mrs. Santangelo. Now the Johnsruds were from a very conservative church in the Midwest and very excited to see the sites from the life of their hero St. Paul. The Johnsruds had never traveled much and this was their first trip outside of the US. After enjoying the tour of Italy, the Johnsruds called upon the Santangelos where they were welcomed graciously. As they entered the home, the Santangelos brought them to the dining room where while Mr. & Mrs. Santangelo went to the kitchen to retrieve the feast that had been prepared for dinner. As they re-entered the room with the food, Pastor Santangelo could see something was wrong. Pastor Johnsrud had a ghastly look on his face. Pastor Santangelo quickly scanned the table and saw the problem. Wine. As was their custom, when they set the table for dinner they put out a large carafe of wine. They had insensitively forgotten that this might make the Johnsruds uncomfortable, as good evangelical pastors from the US would never drink wine. Pastor Santangelo quickly seized the moment and exclaimed, "You American pastors are absolutely astounding. Your spiritual power is amazing!" Pastor Johnsrud was taken aback and said, "What do you mean?" Pastor Santangelo replied, "When I put that carafe on the table before you arrived it was water! Now look at it!"