Today, we have some exciting news to share with you! We have an announcement that has been in the making for about 3 years! Refine PT is going to expand its services in the next year to offer local fitness classes, as well as prenatal and postpartum classes, at RowenHuis, a gym we are building on the farm.
Before I get into the details, I wanted to share a little history for those of you who are newish around here! Before Refine PT existed, I had been working at our local hospital for 10 years, and then felt the Lord lead me to stay at home. During that time, He also led me to become certified as a Revelation Wellness ® fitness instructor. Revelation Wellness is a non-profit organization that uses fitness as a tool to spread the gospel. It was through this training that I not only found freedom in my own health journey, but I also began to dream some big dreams about seeing other women set free, too. I brought these fitness classes back to our community, and they were well-attended by women in my local area, with 15-30 women attending class each week.
From there, God led me to extend this same type of freedom and truth-speaking to women through pelvic PT, and I opened up my own specialized women’s health practice in August of 2019. For a while I kept up the fitness classes while also working in my clinic, but eventually it became too much and I had to give up teaching. I knew it was for a season and also sensed that God was simply pressing pause on the classes, not closing the door completely.
During this time, we also felt led to open up another business, remodeling a little lake house 3 hours north, and used it as an Airbnb. It ended up being a much more extensive project than we had anticipated, and we definitely regretted our decision at the time! However, God provided, and it ended up renting out really well.
In the meantime, God began giving me dreams of having a gym space on our property for kids to move their bodies in the winter. Winter feels like over half the year here, and Todd and I really value movement over being on screens. The lake house had become such a sweet place of retreat, and we longed to bring some of that back home. I consulted with Kristin at Align Creative Design Co and began sharing my dream and what I hoped to all include in the building space.
At the time, we weren’t in a place where we could swing the gym financially, and over the next couple of years, this project was put on hold, while we continued to process how we wanted to use the space. The design evolved over time, but finally, in Fall 2024, we committed to the project and clarified exactly what our goals were for the space and where it should be located.
As a family, Todd and I also had to nail down what we valued. For our family, God is first – loving Him and serving Him however He calls us. Second is the discipleship of our children. Third is doing our work for the Lord as He leads. Fourth is hospitality and community. God has given us a heart for loving and serving others in this way – we have people in our home most weeks of the year, including families, friends, and often our kids’ friends. We value relationships and face-to-face interactions over spending time in front of devices. Finally, we value movement and play. Our kids don’t have video games, and they don’t have their own screens, but we love to play games and we love sports. We believe that movement is not only healthy for our bodies and minds, but it’s also a great way to bring people together. Movement can be individual and personal, but it’s even better when it’s done in community with others.
This spring we broke ground on our property and we decided to sell the lake house. While the lake house was a great investment opportunity and we loved our personal time there, the business side of things was a little overwhelming being three hours away. Although it was a great retreat, it was primarily just for us. It was small and hard to invite others there. As our kids have grown older, their sports schedules make it difficult to get away for long weekends, and we couldn’t justify having such a significant financial investment in a place that we only got to enjoy a few times a year.
The house sold immediately, and the Lord gave so many confirmations that it was the right decision. We used that money to invest in the gym space, and we can’t WAIT to see how God uses it.
We’re calling the building RowenHuis – Rowen, obviously, for our last name (which is Dutch, as Todd and I are both Dutch and live in a Dutch community), and Huis, which is also a Dutch word meaning ‘house,’ ‘home,’ a place or building used for a particular purpose, or a gathering place. We hope that this building will be a place where many people gather! We hope and pray that God will use it for so many things in our community. We hope it is a place of inclusion where God’s love is felt and you feel welcomed and like you belong.
RowenHuis will be a space that Refine will use to host:
- Faith+Fitness classes
- Prenatal + Postpartum exercise classes
- How to Lift/Strength Training Classes
Other business opportunities that I’m hoping could develop:
- Age 40+ fitness classes (for those pre-/post menopause)
- Personal/group training
- In-person Pelvic Core
- Dual membership opportunities with in-person classes and Refine Fitness online.
And then we hope the space will host a wide range of activities, including kids, adults, families, teams, church groups, Bible studies, game nights, volleyball/pickleball tournaments, and much more! We want a space for kids + adults to move their bodies, have fun, and get off screens. We hope it’s a place that brings people together because life is so much more fun when we do it in community. More than anything, we pray God will use it for His purposes and for His Glory!
RowenHuis gym is expected to be finished within the next couple of months; the hangout portion is scheduled to be completed sometime this winter. Stay tuned for more details and pictures to come!
This is so exciting! Can’t wait to see it.