Show and tell: Invite each person to bring a handmade item (or an antique or photograph), and tell the story of where it came from and what it means to her. Or ask each person to bring and share about an item that symbolizes an important aspect of her life and/or personality. Or invite a group member to bring items she has collected and tell about them.

Exchange names; between meetings, contact each other and learn stories from each other’s lives. The next week, have each person introduce her partner (without revealing her name) by telling a story about her.

Ask a different woman at each gathering to share about a woman who was an important influence in her life.

Invite members to bring readings (not more than a page or two) from sacred or secular sources. Put them in a basket and draw one or two at each get-together to read aloud and discuss.

Bring a funeral program to your meeting. What item might each person choose to represent her life on the cover of a program when she dies? Ask group members to share about how they want to be remembered.

Compile a series of questions which may be drawn from a hat and answered by group members. Samples include:
-- The word that describes me best is:
-- The biggest goal of my life is:
-- My favorite book/passage/story/character of the Bible is:
-- My culinary specialty is (and I learned how to make it from/by):
-- On a typical Monday (or other day of the week) I:
-- Few people would guess that I:
-- My high point/low point this week was (and this how I felt about it):
-- This is the story of my name (why was it chosen? what does it mean?):
-- A time I toughed it out and accomplished my goal was:
-- The best advice my mother/grandmother ever told me was:
-- People who knew me in high school thought I was:
-- If I’ve learned one thing in life it’s this:

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