Reflections about Haiti

Haiti was so awesome!  The soccer balls were a huge hit at the youth camp.  The first day I was only going to bring one ball, but they were such a hit that we had to retrieve the others, too.  The youth and pastors also enjoyed learning how to use the wordless book.

One of the people I will remember the most is Pastor Lucian.  He was asked to bless the food. So he did.  He stood by the food that was being prepared and literally blessed it.  Not a "Thanks, Jesus for the food," but a real blessing.  I can never forget that moment.

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One of the most significant lessons God taught me happened when I met Evans.  In the orphanage we went to visit, I met a man named Evans.  He is not an orphan, but it is the only place he has to go since his accident.

Evans chair

 Evans either lays on his bed or sits in his wheelchair under the shade tree at the orphanage.  He can move his arms now, but he doesn't seem to have a reason or purpose at all.  He sits and listens to his radio.  No one can hire a person in a wheelchair.  How is he supposed to get to work, and how is he going to get around at work?

As a “handicapped” person I do still have limitations, but I can do so much more then Evans does.  This made me so thankful for the ability to walk even if it hurts some times.  It made me thankful for all the freedom my crutches give me.

If there was one person with whom I could share the freedom of wheelchair racing and the feeling of going at 26.1 mph (my fastest speed), it would be Evans.

Jenny taught me as much Creole as I could handle!

This is a video my dad put together after the trip.

Here we are again--

Yes, it has been a long time since Aerelle updated her blog.  Some of this is my fault, her mom and editor.  She started high school in August and took a trip to Haiti in October.  Her first race since July was in November.  With the spring, she is ready to rev things up again, and after watching the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, she is sufficiently inspired to get to to the hard work of training.  She has some exciting events coming up--I'll let her tell you about those, but first, a couple of blogs she wrote in the fall that I didn't get around to editing.  Here they are. . . 

Many of you know that my dad has gone to Haiti on numerous occasions.  This year dad asked me to join him.  I have not been on the foreign mission field in over 5 years.  I have been to Brazil (when I was 2 years old) and later to the Dominican Republic three times (between ages 6 ½ and 9 ½).  Now I excitedly look forward to stepping into a new country.  We plan to look at clean water wells and help with a youth camp.  Also we are going to visit an orphanage.  Our main goal is to do whatever the Haitian leadership asks us to.  What I am looking forward to the most is the youth camp.

God laid on my heart to bring in soccer balls for the churches there.  I told my Nana about this and she mentioned that there are soccer balls in the colors of wordless book.  I loved that idea.  When I was sharing that idea with some friends they said they would make some wordless books.  Now we are taking ten soccer balls and twenty Wordless books.  This is so cool because we can train the youth to use this tool with the books, and then they can use the ball.

The wordless book is a tool to tell others about salvation.  As the name suggests the book has no words; it only has colors.  This may seem odd, but this is part of what draws people, and illiterate people can share this story.  The five colors have meanings and Bible verses that go with them:

Gold-- (Heaven) We all want to go to this place with no pain or tears.
Black--(Sin/Darkness) Because of the darkness in our hearts, we cannot enter Heaven. 
Red--(Blood) Jesus gave his own life, and rose again for us so we can be free of darkness
White--(Clean/Light) Jesus' blood made us clean so we can go to Heaven and has set us free from darkness
Green--(Life) If you accept Jesus as your Savior and proclaim Him as Lord of your life, He makes you a new person with a new life.  After you decide to follow Jesus, you need to grow and learn more about Him.

Aerelle was in Haiti October 29-November 5.

Dear Blog-Followers,

Have you ever been completely overwhelmed by what God has done?

   God did that for me on July 4, 2013.  That day I was participating in the Bluegrass 10,000, my first 10K.  I was unsure if I was going to be able to finish the race because my hands had been hurting so badly that during practice that I had never done the full 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) of the race.  I was nervous about the rain that I had previously had trouble with due to slick rims and brakes.  I was happy that for once there were other wheelchair competitors, but then my competitive nature came out and I was pushing myself to hard.  Even though I had a lot against me, God used all those thing for His glory.  

   That morning I had told God He could have this race, and He blessed me in a very powerful way.  First of all, I finished the race!  Also, I now have the second fastest time for the women's push wheelchair division in the history of the Bluegrass 10,000.  Besides all of this, I had been looking for someone who knew what they were doing when it comes to wheelchair racing, and God blessed me with meeting Paul Erway, who is willing to help me get started with track racing.  To top it alI off, I received $250.00  in prize money which I have used to buy new tires I was desperately needing.  I was overcome with all of these blessings and found myself in tears more than once that day!



For more check these links:
An article I was mentioned in:
http://www.kentucky.com/2013/07/04/2704340/women-frith-wins-by-144-margin.html

Click on my name:
http://results.bazumedia.com/event/results/event/event-4608

I'm in pictures 54 and 63:
http://www.kentucky.com/2013/07/04/2703639/bluegrass-10k-2013-race.html

David Trimble, a friend who also ran in the race

Paul Erway 

Taylor West in her crank wheelchair

That is how bad my tires were

I was interviewed by the Herald Leader 

My awesome time

My grandparents 

  

This is the letter I got

Dear blog-followers,

 These pictures are from my second race which was in Somerset KY.  This was a hard race!  I had just bought my specialized gloves and had not gotten used to them.  Also, I was not very good at going up hills, and there were a lot of hills (a.k.a. mountains).

Dear Blog-followers,

It's me, Aerelle!

I have a lot of catching up to do, and I want to give you what I learned from each race and different tips and techniques I use so that if you decide to be a wheelchair racer, you'll have somewhere to start. . . but, for now,  here's a basic overview of my journey so far.

• July-August 2012:  Begin to think about racing
• September 2012:  Join Jessamine County Public Library Driveway to 5K running group trying to train with an everyday (slow) wheelchair
• October 2012:  God gives me a racing wheelchair and rollerbar for an affordable price (via Greg Insco!!)
• November 2012:  Learn how to steer the Tuesday before my first race and complete my first 5K (Jessamine County Parks and Rec. Turkey Strut)
• December 2012:  Follow advice from Tatyana McFadden and purchased a pair of harness racing gloves; Find article on proper push technique; Complete 5K in Somerset, KY (where hills are really mountains); Race in Kannapolis, NC where my grandparents get to cheer me on
•  January-February 2013:  Continue to train with my dad/coach while beginning search for a "real" coach
• March 2013:  Race my best time yet at RJ Corman railrunner 5K
• April 2013:  Unexpectedly travel to Greenwood, IN to race in a walk/run for orphans to support the Boaz Project; find out just how many hills Kentucky has (as compared to flat, flat, flat Indiana) and how bad I am at pacing myself without hills to climb and then fly down!
• May 2013:  Learn to pace myself; compete in RJ Corman run for the Chrysallis House along with my dad who decided he needed to be in better shape in order to keep up with me
  

So, there you have it!

I'll write again soon,

Aerelle

Hello, everyone!

Aerelle is finished with (most of) her schooling for the 2012-2013 school year.  I have officially handed off this blog to her.   She has already made some changes to the background and mission statement to better share her vision of what this blog should accomplish.

I have also challenged her to do a better job than me in keeping new pics posted from her races and training.   Her first job is to catch you up on what has been happening while the former blog-poster (that would be me!) was off sleeping or something!  

She also wants to teach you about the things she is learning about wheelchair racing, herself, and her Savior.
Soooooo, stay tuned and see what she comes up with!

Signing off,
Aerelle's mom (otherwise known as Della)

The front wheel is fixed!  Thank you to those who gave.

News Flash!  We are training the next generation of wheelchair racers.

In the cold and snowy weather, Aerelle trains on her "roller bar."  (It's sort of like a treadmill for a racing wheelchair.)  Guess who Aerelle got to try on her equipment?  Well, as long as someone has on the helmet and gloves the may as well get in the chair.  He's little on technique but big on cuteness.