New Relationships

Some people have asked us about how we found this church, Kokubunji Baptist Church in Los Angeles.  Well, the Reader’s Digest version is that our home church in LA (EBCLA) sent their Missions Pastor, Rev. Sharon Koh, to Japan last winter to find a ministry that EBCLA could partner with.

Well, in the course of time Pastor Sharon and others discerned that SOLA was the ministry that God was leading us to support. However,  it was also at this time that God was working in our family’s calling as well.   So we approached the Pastor of Kokubunji Baptist Church about our family being a relational bridge between the two church communities in Japan and L.A. while serving with Asian Access.

We are not asking KBC for any support, but to learn from them as they continue their ministries through SOLA, and that we can partner with them going forward. 

( Geneva and Emi in Sunday school with a KBC teacher Megumi)

This past Sunday was Easter Sunday, the biggest Sunday in our Christian Faith. While there may be more traditions at Christmas, it is really Easter which signals why we have hope. Even with the brokenness of this world in war, poverty, death, pollution, and destruction that God’s love is bigger than that. The sacrifice of the cross and the empty tomb of Jesus’s resurrection prove that God is bigger than all that darkness.  This is why when we serve in Tohoku or in the worlds’ biggest city, we know that God is enough.

 (Yonai sensei and his wife Rieko after first service on Easter Sunday)

So we want to say Thank You to our new church for welcoming us into their community at KBC.  As they do that they also welcome all of our donors, not to just serve out of obligation but out of joy. Here’s a couple pics of our emerging friendships. Rieko serves the youth on Sundays, and was surprised to see Geneva leave her parents side and boldly play with new people in a new language.

Rieko-san said “She is very….. confident”

So desu ne (Yes indeed.) – but Geneva gives us some confidence to be bold in making new friendships too.

Gaijin Moment of the Day

On Friday, Ster’s cousin’s lovely wife Kerry Clark, came all the way out to the boonies to visit us from her job in central Tokyo’s Roppongi district.  It’s like a 90minute trek on a Friday night from Tokyo to Higashi-Tokorozawa (our temporary housing)

Mama Jo sent Geneva an Easter care package with Chocolate eggs, games, and an egg dying kit..  Sterling went to the store on Friday to get the eggs, and vinegar. After asking the clerk where the vinegar was in his elementary Japanese, he found the right section. Now there was a BIG bottle for like ¥1200 or the small one for ¥400. Of course living on a budget, went with the cheaper one.  So we are dying eggs with Kerry (aka Auntie Kerry to Geneva) and the eggs aren’t really changing colors.  We tried a couple different things, but Neva was losing a bit of interest. Sterling is used to working with acetic acid from work (i.e the chemistry form of vinegar) and is like this doesn’t really smell strong.

Kerry is a polished Japanese learner, and says let me see the bottle, and points out that Sterling bought sake instead of vinegar. D’OH! The joys of being illiterate.

The result is that only pink and purple really worked, so Geneva got her first Easter in Japan, but it’s up to her dad to learn how to read so we don’t continue cooking with mystery ingredients.

ENOUGH is ENOUGH!!

(Gaijin is the Japanese term for foreigner)

This past 6 months has been filled with changes all around. Can you imagine for a bit what Geneva is thinking? Well the fun part for us, is that since she is a talkative two-year old, we get to hear her thoughts pretty much unfiltered.  She’s been a trooper throughout the last 6 months going across the country, playing with new friends, only to have to say good-bye by the end of the night.  Geneva has jumped on planes, slept in new houses, and woken up in five different time zones.

Yet through it all, she seems to be handling all the change the best. Now I get people telling me how she is the most photogenic kid they know? or does she have her moments? And yes, she’s had her moments when she just doesn’t want to go.

We were heading out the door on a busy Sunday, and she had a busy Saturday the day before. We had another 45-50 min train ride ahead of us if we left at that minute right now.

However, it was just not going to happen. That day she was  Dee-oh-en-ee DONE!

So as I tried to get her out the door one last time, she screamed “I want to watch SUMO!!!” (she had seen it the day before on television, and we watched the spring Basho together the Sunday before).

It’s hard to argue with that logic. However, even as I came to the decision that enough is enough, and we canceled the meet-up, it’s awesome to see her grab onto something so different so soon.

***I think she’s gaming the system though as Geneva and Emi often watch the 15min NHK Drama each morning. She recognized the star of the drama on train advertisement the other day.***

(Emi and G enjoying 15min of NHK Drama in the morning)

“I’m Tony Mendez and I’m here to get you out of the country”

So living in SoCal, the OSCARS are a pretty big deal. The front page of the LA times talks about every category. There are Oscar parties, and pools. People cancel family obligations to watch (not me but others). Well this year, Best Movie went to “Argo” – the Ben Affleck movie about a CIA agent named Tony Mendez who amazingly got the trapped American’s out of revolutionary Tehran.

What was under-appreciated, was that best supporting staff went to Chandra Miller Fienen, my big sister, for the same  Tony Mendez role in our journey. On Feb 21^st  she flew into Burbank and declared, “I’m Tony Mendez and I’m here to get you out of the country.”

Chandra did all the little , big, huge, and behind the scenes things to get the four Milbino’s out of the country. (PS for those that don’t know we’re expecting Milbino #2 in September, praise GOD!) There’s a line from the movie “Listen to me and we’ll do this. Don’t listen and Boom! You’re dead.” This was GO-TIME for us.

She helped pack the last box to ship. She cleaned out the last of the condo on Sunday morning. Did some beauty touch-ups, took Geneva to the park, cleaned out our temporary fridge, made Geneva snacks, made Emi laugh and tear up from her loving care.  So not only did she receive best supporting cast- she definitely won BEST PANK – Professional Aunt No Kids.   There’s actually a lot more that she did but like Oscar speeches we don’t want to get the band playing us off the stage.

On our last night in Pasadena, my brother-in-law Mike Fienen, showed up to take one last pull of state-side uncle duty.  We had a great dinner in Pasadena with Dad Hibino, and had breakfast the next day.  We love you both, but thank you Chandra for your award-winning performance! We’re out of the country!!!!

So I’ll take with me the memories….

The people from our Gen X High School years will remember the slow sway to Boys II Men, and It’s So Hard to Say Good-bye.    While it is hard this isn't our sending sentiment… This adventure is going to be filled with JOY!

On our final day state-side, we were embraced by a fantastic Bon Voyage Team.  Some of my family, Emi’s Family, and our Faith Village from EBCLA joined us at the International Terminal to say good-bye and pray over us.

I was explaining this to a tweenaged son of our friends. Have you ever gotten something you totally don’t deserve? Well, this journey has been filled with that kind of grace. We don’t deserve people sending us off from the airport, we don’t deserve leaving with full support after 4.5 months of fund-raising. We don’t deserve any of this… and yet a full choir of friends and family were there to represent our sending squad.

Thank you to our churches who are supporting us.

Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles

Wintersberg Presbyterian Church

Japanese Presbyterian Church of Seattle

Lakeside Church of Chicago

Lake Edge UCC (Madison, WI)

Christ Church of Chicago

The church of the Oyama’s

And of course the many friends and family who have believed in us to go and serve God’s healing love in Japan. Thank  you to those who have prayed for us and pledged to partner with us in many ways. Your grace is what has us going to serve together

We had to rush through security because we lingered maybe a bit too long taking pictures and giving hugs. But as I turned the corner to see our friends waving us good-bye, Emi and I consciously didn’t look back because it’s not the hard good-bye that we are leaving – it’s taking with us the memories and love of our community.

We’ll miss you and off we GO!

Just so you’re not confused

In South Pasadena there is an intersection that literally has an 8ft Fork statue. It is that fork in the road.

As we passed through security, it felt like that big fork in our family’s journey. Yogi Berra is credited with a proverb “If you come to a fork in the road, take it!”

Well, after we recombobulated post-security, Geneva grabbed her little roller and wanted to pull it through the terminal.  She was taking off, no looking back for this little one. There have been times when I’ve felt guilty about taking her away from BFF’s, loving aunties, her access to Angry Birds, endless hugs, and super supporting grandparents.

But her confidence and Forward! Determination through LAX was awesome. I know this picture is a bit too blurry for my tastes. But it felt like a Pixar montage. I know that in her life I will always look back and realize how Geneva’s enthusiasm soothed our parental guilt.  It also made me realize just how much God loves us to send His child into this broken world to serve us.  Empathy with God is not something we should strive for because it will take us to some dangerous places… but understanding God’s love for us as a loving father made sense to me today. I hear God saying “Just so you’re not confused Sterling and Emi… "

When we arrived in Japan after our 11.5 hours of travel, we had to put ourselves back together. Emi did great on the flight, even though I know it was hard for her to have the morning sickness in a confined flight cabin. She’s tougher than she realizes.

It was finally time to go through immigration at Narita. We walked up to the counter, Sterling (check) Emi (check) and now Geneva… somehow her passport was labeled as a ‘missionary worker’ instead of a dependant. She had the same status as Emi and I. So just in-case we didn’t hear God the first time, he was making it known “Just so you’re not confused Sterling and Emi… Genenva’s role, your roles, and your family role are ALL combined. One is not greater than the other. One is not more important, they are combined and unified.”

“Just so you’re not confused Sterling and Emi and Geneva…”