Not quite the same story, but I got married in Oct 2006 to my Canadian wife.

We actually did it on a beach in Maui, but on return to the UK she was denied entry. Apparently we discovered that if a UK resident marries outside of the UK then you have to apply for a visa beforehand (as opposed to marring in the UK, where visa can be applied for later).

The short story is, after a month and an £800 phone bill she was able to get her visa and settle. But it wasn’t a great start to newly-wed life, cost a bomb and disrupted just about everything, all the time deepening my cynicism and resentment towards the government (I guess we should really blame 9/11 for changing everything).

Although I am sorry for your situation and that of all Americans who experience similar. It seems as though this is the result of your governments foreign policy. A number of countries have decided that if America is going to treat their citizens like criminals, then they will do the same.

Let’s hope when Bush goes, so will the war on terror with him.

Alex,

My situation wasn’t about me not being able to cross the border, or to be eligible to work there, so much as they didn’t think I was the right person for the job.

That’s a rough story though. I hope everything has turned out well since then.

I see. Well, I’m obviously not as clued up on American/Canadian relations, but I understood that Americans now have to present passports when crossing the border into Canada.. would they have then given you a work visa, or is this not the case?

It would have been a streamlined process because the church would have been able to say that I have particular skills and they couldn’t find someone to do the job as well in Canada.

And crossing to and from Canada isn’t that difficult for citizens. You just show some state/provincial or federal ID and they search the car a little.

Hey, Charles–sorry to hear your news. Been there, done that—still doing that, as you well know.

As we’ve progressed through this difficult chapter of our life, Rebecca and I have kept our sanity, and our faith, by reminding each other that God has something better for us. True, sometimes we don’t believe it–but that’s why God gave us each other, for the stronger one (usually her) to lift up the weaker one (usually me).

I have interviewed with two churches, aced professional job interviews in Tulsa, and absolutely nothing has come out of them. I’m still working at a tire shop and being a bivocational minister. And I still don’t like it.

Yet I seek to learn the lessons that God is wanting me to learn, and I pray that he would stop teaching me those lessons so much! I prayed the Prayer of St Ignatius, “Take all my freedom, my libery, my will…I surrender it all…” and God took me seriously.

I’m right there with you, right now, so don’t take “God has a purpose” as some kind of soporific from someone who really doesn’t know what you’re going through. Only in my best hours, on my best days, can I believe that God has a purpose for me. Mine is not a cliched or nebulous response to your struggle–hell, I’m ordained, and I question my calling.

God has a purpose. God has lessons he wants us to learn. No, that’s not what I want to hear either. I want school to be over and the holidays to begin. May I learn the lessons that he wants me to learn, in order to become the person he wants me to be.

(sent you an email earlier this week, explaining my recent months–talk to you soon)

That’s a bummer Charles.