By Debbie Knowles

Are you looking for a creative outreach project for your ladies? The sky’s the limit on ideas. Here’s one that our Women’s Ministry leader at Christian House, Crystal Brandon, organized a few years ago. Contacting our local women’s shelter to assess guest needs, purses were one of the suggestions. Because so many sheltered women must exit their homes in haste, they’re forced to leave behind many of their belongings. As you know, a woman’s purse is her life support bag–her staging area; it’s a crucial piece of equipment for moms especially. It contains important items that are needed daily, and items that we carry “just in case.” It may sound trivial in a shelter situation, but as a rule, women feel more themselves with their purses on hand and half-dressed without them.

Our ladies gathered gently used handbags from their personal stashes. Crystal gathered the items that would fill each one: hygiene necessities, pens, paper, a devotional, etc. We gathered together one afternoon to stuff the bags and create handmade cards to be slid into each one. We had a lovely time of fellowship. We prayed for these ladies whose stories had brought them to this season of transition.  We were grateful for the opportunity to offer these small tokens of love and went home in anticipation of each woman opening her purse to find a handwritten personal encouragement from one of us.

To protect their confidentiality, we weren’t able to visit the shelter ourselves and minister to the guests. But when Crystal hand delivered the loaded purses, they were very well-received. The best part for us was knowing that each woman would be hearing about Christ’s redeeming love through the devotional and our “love” notes.