Whether Valerie is sharing her heart concerning spiritual formation to leadership groups or at women’s conferences, or talking to couples about marriage or parenting, you will find her to be an authentic, engaging and motivating communicator. Common responses to Valerie’s presentations include: “She’s so real and human, I could really relate…”; “Articulate, passionate, and spiritually insightful!”; “Such a creative storyteller—I laughed and I cried…”; “She opened me up to God’s work in my life in ways I had never considered before…”; “I came away full of hope and convinced of God’s love for me!”

SOUL CARE
Valerie has a strong interest in soul-care coupled with a passion for helping others find spiritual well-being. Her approach invites people to discover biblical principles and spiritual practices that can sustain them through the most difficult life challenges. Her book, A Well-Tended Soul, describes the nuances of that inner journey and is a core resource to her spiritual formation seminars. Her strong belief in a God who deeply loves and cares…inspires hope, trust, and courage for any life situation. This is a popular topic for women’s groups, denominational meetings, and retreats.

PARENTING
Then, also, Valerie’s well-known as an encouraging voice to parents. She’s travelled all across North America—in person, plus via radio and television—teaching hands-on seminars emphasizing emotionally intelligent, relational parenting that focuses on character development. Her popular book, Getting Out of Your Kids’ Faces and into Their Hearts, clarifies in memorable ways how each parent can discover his/her own best style towards becoming the warm, loving, effective parent their child needs them to be. For parents who wonder “How do I get my kids to play on my team?” Valerie’s insights will lead to practical breakthroughs at home and in everyday situations—parents win…and kids win!

MARRIAGE
Another often-requested topic is geared specifically for couples. Valerie and her husband, Steve, enjoy presenting this life-changing material together—based on their book, Made to Be Loved: Enjoying Spiritual Intimacy with God and Your Spouse. Their goal is heart transformation through the practice of seeing a spouse through God’s eyes—and six other doable spiritual intimacy exercises designed especially for Christian couples. After one of their conferences a California participant reported, “Their content is relevant, deep, practical and enjoyable…as if the Bells were watching us on video-cam the last 28 years!”

COMPASSION/ACTIVISM
More recently, following her travels to Africa and her growing awareness of the AIDS pandemic and world poverty, Valerie is speaking out more and more these days to Christian believers who are wondering what exactly they can do to become more engaged. Her focus centers on developing an adjusted lifestyle that demonstrates spiritual authenticity to a suffering world. Practical, challenging, creative and life-altering, these sessions help Christ followers address the toughest issues of the 21st century. Valerie’s presentations accompany her latest book, An African Awakening: My Journey into AIDS Activism.

All of these topics, and others, can be tailored specifically to your group—i.e. presented as stand-alone talks or crafted into multiple messages for longer bookings—for an entire week, a multi-session weekend event, a one-day seminar or a workshop setting.