I live near a set of apartments that are in English called "Yuppie International Condos." This particular of condos, however, is not part of the story. It's only to point out that in China (and in most of Asia), mistranslations just happen...every day. You get used to them after a while and eventually beging to think the bad translations are actually more accurate representations!
I didn't expect to see this phenomenon in church though. During the song service this morning at my local church, the overhead projector should have displayed the following:
"How great is my God, sing with me..."
However, what we actually got was:
"How great is my god, sigh with me..."
Such an exhortation of faith can not be ignored! Iimagine how pleased God must be at his greatness being sighed to. If I recall, the last time that happened, fire came out of the sky and people turned to stone. I think God has a sense of humor and in this case, he started laughing so hard he couldn't actually hear anyone's prayers.
In order to get his attention back, the next song on our list made a small change to the original lyrics of:
"Yes Yes Lord, Amen!"
Into the far more appropriate:
"Yes Yes Lord, Ahem!"
I'm not sure if it quite worked, but at least no one turned to stone! So with that, say a few "Hail Mao-ies" and may "Peas be with you. Ahem!"