Melissa Youngquist and Amy Muegge spend most of their time focused on their families and their jobs. There’s little time for refreshment and connection with other women. Caught in the day-to-day activities and needs of others, they might lose sight of their own need for renewal and connection.

Women’s Refresh is a weekend set aside each spring for Victory Lane women to spend time relaxing, laughing, playing games, walking trails, eating meals together, and making deeper connections with each other. This year was the second year to include all women in the community, both serving and Victory families. There were 16 women in attendance this year, some of them returning from past years and others joining for the first time.

For Melissa Youngquist, returning this year was a given. Travelling all the way from Tennessee for the second year to attend the weekend’s events, Melissa finds it important to stay a part of the community. She expressed, “Because we live so far away, we have to look for those opportunities we can make work.”

Last year, Melissa almost changed her mind about driving up for the weekend. Her sister in law, Tiffanny Youngquist, became very ill the week of the event and couldn’t attend with her. “With Tiffanny I don’t have to interact much because she does it for me. I was very apprehensive to do it without Tiffanny. I wasn’t so sure about it. But it was a wonderful weekend. Now it’s another one of those things like a part of camp. It’s what you do,” she shared.

Melissa understands the value of taking the time to connect with other women without distractions. She described, “Of course we all love and adore our kiddos and moments away from them we worry about them. But it’s nice to have that true, grown up, female fellowship without having to stop because someone needs you. We really have time to get know each other personally. Our kids are our lives. We’re also individual people. It’s a chance to get to know each other as women.”

Similarly, Amy Muegge appreciated the time together and the distraction-free down time. She shared, “It’s nice to have that time to get away and not have any plans. At home when I have time to myself, my time is divided up into things that need to be done. With refresh weekend, you have time with solitude to really focus on being alone and thinking. We were just women. We did talk about our families and our kids, but it’s not like that was the key point. It was more about us being people and connecting.”

Coming in as a first-time attendee, Amy felt a little apprehensive at first. Unsure of how vulnerable she would have to be, she wondered how much she would be sharing. She expressed, “The first night was a little anxiety-driven. The second day, I let down my hair a little bit and relaxed. Then when it was time to go home, I wasn’t ready to go. I’m ready to have a little bit more.”

As Amy continues to grow more comfortable within the community, she really values the relationships formed. “I’m around women that are honest and true and really have each other’s interests at heart. I don’t feel like there’s any judging. It’s just different than any other community I’ve found. It’s a different kind of friendship,” described Amy.

Melissa also sees the unique quality in the Victory Lane connections. “As an outsider by proximity, it has been so amazing to watch this community truly grow and depend on each other and rely on each other. They fellowship together and just do life together. At the end of the day, that’s what we all want. We all want to find our community. It has been so rewarding to watch those relationships truly grow and develop into personal, life-long relationships. There is no other place like Victory Lane.”

Are you looking for relationships that go beyond the surface of daily life? Find out how you can be part of the Victory Lane community. Contact Tiffanny at [email protected] or call her at 765-591-4191.