• Purse games can be fun women's ministry games.bag image by MLProject from Fotolia.com
  
  Whether women in the church are getting together for a ladies evening or for a weekend retreat, some games will help the women's ministry event run smoothly. Games are useful both for icebreaker activities to get women talking and introduce new people to the group and for times in between more serious Bible teachings.
  
  

Feelers

• A bag or purse should be filled beforehand with small items, such as a pack of gum, credit card, keys, coin, cell phone, child's toy, packet of ketchup or pair of headphones. The facilitator gives each woman 10 seconds to reach her hand into the bag and feel around it. After that woman's turn is over, she writes down as many items as she can remember feeling, and whoever lists the most correct items wins. If the women's ministry event has a special theme, this game can be played with a shopping bag full of items that relate to the theme.
  
  

Divide Into Teams

• There are a number of games that divide women into two or more teams. One such game is to write down names of animals on pieces of paper, with a different animal for each team you would like to form. Each woman receives a piece of paper and must find team members by making the noise that animal makes. To make the game harder, the papers can be taped onto each woman's back and, still using only animal noises as communication, women must figure out what animals they are and form groups.
  
  

Bible Telephone Charades

• A game of telephone charades is sure to have everyone laughing. Women are divided into groups of four or six, and each group stands in a single-file line. The person at the back of each line is shown a familiar Bible verse on a piece of paper. That first "actor" then taps the next person on the shoulder, who turns around and watches the actor for 20 seconds as they try to act out the verse. After 20 seconds the facilitator yells "time" and the person who watched the first actor is now the new actor, turning and tapping the next person on the shoulder and acting out what they saw. This continues all the way through the line, and the last person then has to guess what the Bible verse was. Multiple rounds can be played with everybody having a chance to be at different locations in the "telephone" line.
  
  

Purse Scavenger Hunt

• At least two teams of women can go on scavenger hunts in their purses to try to come up with everything on a list of items they have been given. The list can include a paperclip, bookmark, family photo, key ring with at least five keys on it, comb, dental floss, sudoku puzzle, nail polish, 15 pennies and anything else that would be difficult but not impossible to find. The team that gathers the most items on the list wins.
  
  

Balloon Pop

• A game that is especially amusing is balloon pop. Either in teams or in one large group, women must each blow up a balloon, stick it under their shirts, gather in a circle and try to pop their balloons by moving into a smaller and smaller circle. The winner is the team who pops the most of their balloons, or the individuals who manage to pop the balloons on their bellies.