I’ve heard a lot of great speakers through the years. But what is outstanding about Valerie is her ability to connect with women. It doesn’t matter your age or life circumstance, you feel that she has an incredible ability to understand your feminine heart. When you listen to her speak, it’s obvious that she not only understands women, but likes women. Her heart for ministry to women came through strong and clear.
President—Great Plains Women’s Ministries
Baptist General Conference

I’m writing this letter to pass on to you the uplifting comments that came to us by way of the evaluation forms. A month and a half has flown by since our retreat. When our committee met to discuss and evaluate the retreat, our meeting ended in a praise service. Thank you for allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you. By an overwhelming vote, YOU were the highlight of the retreat. Please allow these statements of gratitude and appreciation to affirm your ministry and let you know how much we love you:

“Valerie had a wonderful way of teaching...I felt like Valerie and I could really connect...What an eye opener!...Main sessions with Valerie were very uplifting...I truly enjoyed her sessions...The highlight of the conference was the Holy Spirit via Valerie...The Lord clearly showed me why I came. I needed to work through issues of grief and selfishness and pride. She touched on many points of spiritual interest to me...Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!”
Chairperson—Southern Michigan Women
Free Methodist Church

Dear Valerie,

Just a short note to thank you for speaking to our group last week. You are a very special lady and the Lord used the words you spoke for healing of broken hearts as well as blessing and encouragement! When you speak there is a very special anointing on you. The words you say captivate the listeners. They can so easily relate to what’s being said. That helps women to drop any barriers and listen. You have the gifts of mercy and encouragement. You speak in humility which brings much honor and glory to His name. Thank you for coming to minister to the women at the retreat.
Barbara
Attendee from a Texas retreat

Dear Valerie,

You have shone a whole new light in my life. Many other women feel the same way. My life has a whole new spiritual outlook that I have not experienced in so many years. Thank you for making us laugh, for making us cry, for helping us examine our lives through the grid of God’s love.
Regina
Attendee from a Colorado conference

Dear Valerie,

Thank you so much for the parenting seminar my husband and I recently attended. We have a three-year-old and I’m due in a few months. Due to the patterns we were establishing with our daughter we knew we needed help or we would wreck our relationship with her. God’s timing is perfect! We can testify that the results of putting your teaching into practice are instantaneous. We feel like we were rescued from the brink of family disaster. Praise God!
A California couple

I volunteered for a World Vision event at Arizona State University and heard Valerie Bell speak on An African Awakening: My Journey into AIDS Activism.

She is the first to admit that she is not an expert on Africa. She likes a good manicure as much as the next woman. And she confesses to having a weakness for furniture sales.

But when she was confronted with a little girl in Kenya who was dying of AIDS, her priorities got shifted.

This little girl’s name was Faith, and she was four years old…four years old and 16 pounds. Faith was not getting anti-retroviral drugs (the drugs that can drive back the HIV virus) because she was three pounds too small.

Three pounds.

Shortly after Valerie returned to the States, she got word that Faith had died.

Three pounds too late.

Valerie decided she couldn’t live in a world that says a child who is three pounds short is not worth saving. So the manicures went away. The unnecessary expenses went away. Because even though everybody knows that one person can’t really do anything to change an overwhelming problem like an AIDS pandemic, Valerie decided to do something. She saved her money and sent cows to the Faith’s family in Kenya. Valerie understands what Mother Theresa understood — that even if you can’t do great things, you can still do small things with great love.

And sometimes, even in the face of a huge pandemic, small things are enough.
Lisa—a Phoenix, AZ Volunteer Leader