Border Crossing

Since I don't have a visa yet to live here I have to leave the country every three months in order to be considered a visitor. I will start the visa process in September, but my first three months came up the other day, so I had to cross the border. Now, this isn't a big deal considering in live in Česky Těšín, which is the Czech side of a border town on the Czech-Polish border, but getting to the border wasn't my problem...

Mel drove me to the border and told me to just walk across through one building, cross the street, and then come back on the other side and that will be enough. I was a little nervous, because I don't know what they are going to think when they see me walk across the border and then come right back. I'm thinking that this could hurt my visa chances if I get caught. So I go through the building and the guy asks me where I'm going (I've told this story to multiple people who live in Česky Těšín and they say they have never been asked this question). So I tell him I'm just going into town. He says, "Today is a holiday and the stores are closed." I now start to get a little flustered, because I'm not prepared to answer questions. I stutter and say, "OK," he stamps my passport and then lets me through. Then the Polish guy looks at my passport, flips through it, stamps it and lets me go through. I proceed to the nearest door, because I want to get out of there as quick as possible, and the guys both yell out and point to a back door...more attention being drawn to me.

I should also note that I am wearing a brown sweatshirt that says OREGON on it, with a brown trucker hat cocked to the side, and brown Vans...my sweatshirt might as well have said FOREIGNER on it...

So I head out the back door walk down the side walk, cross the street and then hang another left and start heading toward the border again. I have no idea if the guys can see me in the other building but I felt like a flashing neon sign was attached to me (or maybe one of those neon cowboys with the moving arm pointing at me).

So I approach the other border guards (they are outside checking motorists) and hand him my passport hoping for a quick escape...no such luck. He looks at me and asks where I'm coming from (again I'm not expecting a question, especially that one, because I figured, hey, I'm walking from Poland, he should be able to figure out where I'm coming from). So, I stumble though the fact that I was in Czech, but then I came over to Poland and now I am going back. He tells me to speak slower. I tell him again. He looks at me oddly and says, "So you were in Poland for one minute?" Apparently the flashing neon cowboy pointed me out on my way over the first time. I say, "Yes." He says, "Hold on," and takes my passport to some building.

By now I'm a little freaked. I'm wondering if he's going to let me back in the Czech and even if he does if he is going to direct me to the bus station to send my butt back to the states...as I'm pondering how I'm going to tell my supporters that all of their money is being divided between the other missionaries in the Czech and wondering if Mountain Valley Church still looking for a youth pastor, a police car pulls up. Now my mind really starts going. I start thinking of the benefits of living back in the states and how God is sovereign and how He must want me back there. The cops pass without a word and the border guard comes out. He then asks me where in the Czech I am living. I technically can't be living anywhere, because I don't have a Visa, so I tell him I'm staying in this town. He then hands me my passport and sends me on my way.

I have no idea what all the hassle was about. I don't know if I'm now footnoted in the Passport computer as the "Sketchy American Border Crosser", but I am really hoping that this doesn't affect my visa application. Lucka, my friend who will be helping with the visa process, says it'll be no big deal, but we'll see. I also leave the country on Wednesday for vacation, so it'll be interesting to see if my vacation is a permanent one back to the states...