Stephanie Mauney 2/8/26 Stephanie Mauney 2/8/26

A New Year in a New Place

As we end 2025 and turn the corner into 2026, I (Stephanie) am feeling somewhat sentimental and reflective. The Mauney family life in December 2025 looked a lot different than life for the Mauney family in December 2025. The past year held so much change.

I took a step of faith back in February 2025 and started a new job. And not just a new job, but, honestly, a new way of life. I stepped into a part-time consulting role allowing me to remove JoAnna from childcare and stay home with me as well as having June’s school schedule reduced. When June finished pre-school, I had my first summer with two kids at home full-time. In August, I began June’s homeschooling journey, which I never would have imagined even attempting.

I went from a corporate career woman managing my home by outsourcing to a full-time mother, cook, cleaner, and part-time employee. It has been a transition that felt difficult to adapt to at times, but it was one that made my heart incredibly full.

All the while this change in family dynamic occurred, we were preparing and planning for our relocation to South Korea.

Amidst the changes in our lives, one I am most thankful for is the change in my own heart. This year has been one of incredible spiritual growth for me.

God has used these many transitions to prune me and produce fruit I have been praying for over several years. I have become more patient and engaged with my children. I have become a less bitter wife. I have been freed from anxiety over change and travel that I have battled for over a decade. I am in awe of the way God is writing my story. It’s truly a testament to His faithfulness and providence in our lives when we hand over our ‘yes’ to Him!

As we near entering our fifth month in Pyeongtaek, I have certainly found myself folding back into old ways. Pressures of a new role in the church, culture shock, and pushing myself to be an excellent teacher, mom, cook, cleaner, remote employee, and spouse only add to my temptation to rely on my own strength. It’s sadly ironic how I often look to myself in times of need rather than the only strength and peace that endures, Jesus!

For 2026, I am hoping to choose Christ daily. To choose His peace when I feel my heart becoming discontented. I choose to dwell in the goodness of the journey He has our family on. I am certainly unqualified and unworthy of the path, but with the Savior of the world walking by my side, I can be the light to the dark world around me.

Please join us in praying:

Pray for our year to be filled with faithfulness. Pray as we continue to lead our church community here. Pray we adapt to a new culture and learn the ways of living here. Pray for us to learn Korean! Pray that we would have deep rooted, life-giving friendships. Pray that we would be good stewards of our money, time, and gifting. Pray that our girls would come to know salvation through Jesus. Pray that our marriage is an example of the Christ and his bride.

Stephanie Mauney 1/7/26 Stephanie Mauney 1/7/26

Our First Korean Healthcare Experience

This week our family was hit with a minor stomach bug. It all began on Sunday with Joanna. By Monday, she was still lethargic and had thrown up, so we decided to take her to a local pediatrician.

When we arrived, we signed in at the front desk. Stephanie had to use a translator app since none of the staff spoke English, but the process was surprisingly simple. By the time I finished parking the car (which is its own adventure in Korea), Stephanie and Jojo were already seated in the lobby waiting.

The lobby itself was bustling and busy. There were at least fifteen people waiting to be seen, and I was certain we were in for a long wait.

But about ten minutes later, we were called back. We were immediately ushered into an exam room with both the nurse and the doctor. Five minutes after that, we were checking out and heading next door to the pharmacy to pick up Joanna’s prescription. From start to finish, we spent less than thirty minutes at the doctor’s office. At the pharmacy next door we handed our prescription to the pharmacist and were out the door with medicine in hand in less than 5 minutes.

As if that weren’t impressive enough, then came the cost.

We do not yet have insurance in Korea. For foreign workers, national health insurance doesn’t become active until six months after arrival, so we were fully expecting a hefty bill. Instead, the total out-of-pocket cost for the visit—without insurance—was 33,000 Korean won. That’s roughly $22 USD.

When we began exploring our call to international ministry, we prayed and asked God to provide a place with good healthcare. Moving our family overseas meant trusting the Lord not only with ministry, but with the everyday realities of life—especially the health of our children. Sitting in that doctor’s office, watching how quickly and kindly Joanna was cared for, we were reminded that God had already gone before us. We are deeply thankful that He answered that prayer.

Small moments like this continue to reassure us that the Lord is faithfully providing for our family as we serve here, even in ways we didn’t fully anticipate.

Pray for us. Joanna has recovered but only after passing the bug to June and myself (James). Stephanie with her extraordinary mom powers has fought off the germs successfully so far.

Stephanie Mauney 12/22/25 Stephanie Mauney 12/22/25

How to Move Across the World

James and I (Stephanie) have been married 10 years as of October 3. Since beginning our union as baby 22 year old we have moved 6 times across the NC region. In our early moves, this meant recruiting our friends to bring their muscle and kindly load up a U-Haul for the lucrative payment of chick-fil-a breakfast biscuits and pizza. Once we purchased our first home we felt it was time to level up and hire professional movers. After experiencing that luxury, there was no going back to the days of old. Our next 3 moves we experienced the bliss of watching all of our items loaded and unloaded while we watched from afar. We even gave a packing service a try once - which I would not recommend by the way. After so many more we felt like somewhat of experts at relocating, but we were sorely mistaken. Our move to Korea was an undertaking way beyond our expertise.

We faced our biggest logistical challenge yet- navigating a move of two adults, two children, and ten years of accumulated stuff across 7,132 miles (11,477 km)

1️⃣ REDUCE. The first step to a move this daunting is to reduce. And I’m talking reduce on a massive level. We resolved to move only 40 boxes and our luggage (~8 large suitcases plus allowed carry on’s)

This meant we needed to go through every cabinet, every drawer, and nook and cranny to sort through our belongings.

Initially we sorted things into three categories

Trash

Donate or Sell

Keep

I was truly shocked and ashamed at the amount of junk we had amassed. And for those who don’t know me- I am notorious for being on the extreme side of organization. I would probably put myself in whatever category we identify as opposite of hoarder. STILL so much had accumulated. This has been a true lesson in consumerism, a reminder that we can truly live on incredibly less than what we tell ourselves. My hope moving forward is that we will think more deeply about our purchases, but time will tell if this lesson sticks.

2️⃣ REMOVE. After the initial sort, we held a massive garage sale that stretched the whole length across our garage and driveway. This was a lot of work and included James and I waking up around 5am to set up for those early morning arrivals. We are so thankful for the extra support we received from friends before and after the sale!

3️⃣ REORGANIZE. Following the sale there was still much to do. This included going through every drawer, cabinet, and nook and cranny at least a couple more times. We dove into the deep dark pit of Facebook marketplace to pass our items on to their next owner. We left items by the streets. We completed 5 or more truckloads of trips to Goodwill.

We had a dear friend offer to store a few tubs and sentimental items for us which was a blessing and an answer to prayer.

4️⃣RE-ORIENT. Once we completed the assessment of what was actually coming with us to Korea, we were able to pack our suitcases. We had 10 suitcases, 4 carry-on bags, two backpacks, a stroller, a two seater wagon, and two kids 🤪. It was quite the undertaking, and we certainly received our fair share of odd looks from bystanders to our chaos crew.

Our items (which ended up being 42 boxes)were picked up via FedEx for shipment to Korea two days before departure and safely arrived about two weeks after our arrival. With the exception of some heartbreaking items getting broken —- some sentimental china such—- everything was in good condition and all was accounted for.

2.5 months into our Korean residency, we are thankful to have now sold our house back in Concord and feel comfortably settled into our new home. We both hope to be here for quite some time and not think about moving anytime soon.

Stephanie Mauney 10/25/25 Stephanie Mauney 10/25/25

Day 12 Update

Hello all,

We just wanted to send out a short update. We arrived in Korea on Monday, October 13th! We have settled into our apartment and have slowly begun to unpack. If you follow our instagram or facebook accounts you have seen some of the fun activities we have been able to do in our first few days of living in. Korea. We wanted to share some praises and prayer requests.

Praise: One of our biggest prayer requests was for our girls to have heart for Korea and to make some core friends quickly. We are so excited to share that they love Korea and have met some of the sweetest friends already.
Praise: All of our luggage and boxes made it to Korea safely minus a couple broken mugs and plates.
Prayer Request: James preaches his first sermon as the English Pastor of SCBC on Sunday. The church has been working through the book of Colossians and his sermon will be on Colossians 3:17-4:1.
Prayer Request: Pray that we will all begin to find a routine and rhythm as the girls begin to do some homeschooling and as Stephanie prepares to resume her job in the next couple of weeks.
Prayer Request: For God to bring lost English speakers in Korea to our church and into our lives. We have met several non church affiliated English speakers already including a college student named Hannah who lives in our apartment complex.

Stephanie Mauney 8/21/25 Stephanie Mauney 8/21/25

Kimchi, Coffee, and Calling | Our 12 Days in Korea

Kimchi, Coffee, and Calling | Our 12 days in Korea

On May 22nd, James and I embarked on our first international trip together! We have each visited a few countries outside of the US, but never together. In fact, we had never even flown with each other.

This trip was just the two of us. In order to….1) save money, 2) focus on the decisions at hand, and 3) not force our young children into about 40 hours of travel within a short period, we made the choice for this preview trip to be just James and I. This was a hard decision to make. As the trip approached, I (Stephanie) was feeling pretty anxious about being away from them that long.

That being said, we had our closest friends step up to the plate to watch them for us. They are the type of friends that are truly family. The girls know them well, and we have vacationed together with their family for years. Needless to say, my worries were relieved when each and every time we video called the girls, they were enthralled in their visit with friends and had little interest in anything we had to share.

Back to May 22nd, we embarked on our 6am flight from Myrtle Beach airport to Atlanta for a short layover and on to Incheon (a sweet and short 15 hours!) The desk agents were kind enough to give us bulkhead seating after we asked for anything with additional leg room for 6’8” James.

Upon arrival, we were picked up by members of the church at Incheon airport and driven straight (after a nice airport Korean snack of course) to our accommodation we would be at for the first half of the trip. Some missionaries on furlough kindly opened up their apartment for us to use for the first few nights of the trip.

After settling in, we went to wander the streets, likely looking like clueless foreigners, and try to figure out the Korean navigation app (Naver) enough to grab a dinner. We hear from behind us, “is that the Mauneys?” We were spotted by a church member and immediately invited back to their home for dinner. What a blessing.

Looking back, this was just the beginning of what would be a week full of hospitality, kindness, and a strong sense of community.

Throughout our time in Pyeongtaek, our days were mostly spent meeting up with new friends, coffee dates, and lots of wandering around.

My (Steph) overall impressions while we were there were:

incredibly clean and safe
very advanced (technology wise)
trash sorting is going to be a cultural hurdle for us
we really need to learn the language to fully immerse into society
the people of SCBC are going to quickly become our family
we must learn how to navigate public transportation when we return
i want to adjust my palate to enjoy the different types of food if I can

Lastly, I was SO humbled. During our visit to the Korean church Friday prayer service (where James preached with the help of our wonderful translator Sam!) I was sitting teary-eyed in complete and utter awe of God’s calling on our life. I felt completely and wholly unqualified and unworthy sitting listening to the songs sung and prayers cried out to God in Korean while we sang and prayed in English— a physical representation of the nations. I am so thankful this wonderful adventure would be part of my time on earth. The fact that God would allow me this experience to be a part of the global church is hard for me to understand. I can only point to His faithfulness. He is worthy of any plan he calls our family to.

Here is a brief summary of each day and a gallery of photos from our trip!

Wednesday / Thursday / Friday: Travel

Concord, NC 🛻 Myrtle Beach, SC ✈️ Atlanta, GA✈️ Incheon, South Korea 🛻 Songtan, South Korea

Day 1- Saturday: Songtan Central Baptist Women’s Brunch and the Songtan 4-9 Market

Day 2- Sunday: First English Church service and Korean BBQ Lunch!

Day 3- Monday: Korean Starfield Mall

Day 4- Tuesday: Hiking and Prefer Cafe with the ladies of SCBC

Day 5- Wednesday: Osan Air Base Tour

Day 6- Thursday: More coffee with friends and KT Wiz game!

Day 7- Friday: Lunch with Korean church staff and Pastor / Korean Friday evening prayer service

Day 8- Saturday: Day Trip to Daebudo Island and dinner with church members

Day 9- Sunday: Second English Church service, pizza lunch in the park, dinner cook out with church members

Monday / Tuesday: Travel

Songtan, South Korea 🚌Incheon, South Korea✈️Atlanta, GA✈️ Myrtle Beach, SC🛻 Concord, NC

Stephanie Mauney 7/29/25 Stephanie Mauney 7/29/25

A Thousand Year Wait

When I (James) accepted the call in June to pastor Songtan Central Baptist Church (SCBC), our hope was to be in Korea by August. Stephanie and I were eager to step into this new chapter, wrapping up our ministry here in the States and preparing to go where God was leading. We moved forward with urgency, excitement, and prayerful planning.

But despite our best efforts, that goal won’t be met.

In order to work for a Korean organization, we must obtain a Korean work visa—a process that has proven to be slower and more complex than we anticipated. Each day, we’re asked the same question: “When are you leaving for Korea?” And each time, we answer honestly—sharing about the visa delays and how we’ve been doing everything in our power to be ready once approval comes.

It’s frustrating. At times, disappointing. But even in the waiting, we are trusting the Lord’s timing.

God has provided in incredible ways through this journey. We sold our camper—something we expected to be a major hurdle—in just a few days. Our home is on the market, and we’re holding onto our vehicles for now as we continue waiting. These provisions have been reminders that while we may not control the timeline, God is still at work.

2 Peter 3:8 reminds us:
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

It’s a simple but powerful truth. The same God who has orchestrated every step so far is the God of time itself. He will place us exactly where we’re meant to be—at exactly the right time.

So, we keep saying yes.
Yes to waiting.
Yes to trusting.
Yes to His perfect timing.

Ways You Can Pray For Us

Pray for expedited documents from the NC Secretary of State and a expedited visa process once the final application is submitted.
Pray for a buyer of our home here in Concord.
Pray for June as she begins to start some kindgarten classes. (a process we really hoped would begin in Korea)
Pray for Stephanie as she learns the new skill of teaching June.
Pray for James to finish his ministry at Parkwood well.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and to pray for us.

To God be the Glory.

Stephanie Mauney 6/16/25 Stephanie Mauney 6/16/25

Our Official Yes

To many of you, this may not come as a surprise—but over the past week, as Stephanie and I have started posting things for sale on Facebook (our home, beloved camper, my truck, and more), the questions have started rolling in:

“What in the world is going on?” and

“Why are you selling all your stuff?”

Some of you who’ve been closer to the details have already connected the dots, but now it’s time to make it official:

We’re headed to Korea!

Why Korea? The Story Behind Our Big Move

Why Korea?

If you would have told us a couple years ago we’d be selling the majority of our belongings, packing up, and taking our family of four to Pyeongtaek, South Korea— we probably would have called you crazy. BUT it’s funny how life goes and ever so unique how God orchestrates our paths. There have been many moments along the way in James and I’s (Stephanie writing here) stories so far both independently before even meeting and collectively over the past almost 14 years together.

In early 2024, James attended a conference where he first learned a statistic that broke his heart for the nations and struck in him a desire to do more for the Gospel.

174,202 people die across the globe daily apart from Christ

James left that conference and said a prayer that he didn’t share with me. He asked that God would give me the same brokenness and the same feeling that we should go to the nations without ever telling me he was having those inclinations himself.

Fast forward several months, and wouldn’t you know, I started having those same whispers from the Holy Spirit. Through the teaching of our Pastor and a personal testimony from a missionary, I felt impressed that we needed to seriously consider what our faith was worth. Indeed, it is worth literally everything we can give.

With that, I turned to James after church one day and said with tears in my eyes, “I think God is telling us to go.”

At this point we had absolutely no idea where, when, or how we would go. But, we did feel we needed to relinquish our idea of what the future for our family looked like, and just give God our Yes. This was about July 2024 at this point.

Through a series of conversations missionaries, international pastors, our own mentors, research, and prayer- we begin the journey of seeking international missional opportunities over the next 6 months.

I received a lighthearted text from James one day, “how about South Korea"?”

….”sure” I replied hastily and mindlessly as I was in midst of a hectic work day.

Little did I know, we would soon be invited for an initial interview in early December with Songtan Central Baptist Church in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. That initial interview excited us in a way no other opportunity had yet. SCBC has strong ties with the Southern Baptist convention, they identify themselves as a sending church due to the rotational nature of their congregation, and their search committee was adamantly heartfelt and prayerful about ensuring they choose the Pastor who would be the right fit for their next leader.

Through a series of conversations, 6am Zoom calls, prayers, and much patience, James was chosen from a large candidate pool as the desired next Senior Pastor of SCBC.

Thus begins our journey….

Ways You Can Pray For Us

Just Our Yes