A Huge "Thank YOU" to my first sponsors!

I designed the logo!

Message Aerelle's Wheels of Fire! on Facebook to find out how to get your T-Shirt.

I just wanted to brag on my girl for a moment.  

This wheelchair racing deal--it is her dream.  She brought it to us.  She started training.  She haggled for a good price on her chair.  (Thanks, Greg!)  She ran each week with the library running group.  She did the hard work and ran seven 5K's and a 10K in her first year!  It is her dream.  We just get to watch and encourage her (and drive her to training and races, and lug her equipment around(!).

Finishing the United Way 5K

Last March (2013) she wrote this in a draft for this blog:  
"00:25:38.8--This was my time.  My time in my other races has been around thirty minutes.  I did my first mile in 8:15"

June 21, 2014, she ran the United Way 5K on the runway at the Lexington Airport.  Her time?  00:20:27--Twenty minutes, twenty-seven seconds!  That averages to a 6:35 mile! What a difference a year of hard work makes!

First Place--Wheelchair Division

This past Saturday she ran a 5K in Wimore that she decided to do at the last minute.  It was not her best time, but with all the hills, it was great training for her 10K coming Friday, July 4.  On the same day, Tatyana McFadden, one of Aerelle's heroes, ran a 5K in 00:11:10.  Aerelle's response was giddy excitement for Tatyana, and then a quick, "Wow, now I've got to run one in 00:10:00!"

Wilmore start line

 What really makes me smile, though, is Aerelle's heart.  This dream isn't about winning gold in Rio or Toyko.  At its base, it is a dream to build a platform to tell others about a God who loves them desperately and died to made relationship with the God of the Universe possible then rose to give us life!  She remembers to keep things in perspective and uses all of it as worship.  She told me just yesterday, "Some of my best time to reflect on God and his Word is while I'm out in my chair."

Near the End of the Wilmore 5K

University of Illinois

Dear Blog followers,

Never did I think that I would be fifteen and looking at a college!  (This post should be in orange and blue, but since orange is hard to read, we'll just have to settle for blue and black.  You can look at my orange background once-in-a-while :)

In December, my parents gave me the opportunity to go to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a birthday present.  We were able to go for spring break and spend two days there.  On Thursday we went on a tour of the campus.  As we walked we found why it is in the BIG 10.  Friday we met with Adam Bleakney the coach of the University of Illinois wheelchair racing team.

Coach Bleakney showed us the training facility, introduced us to athletes and gave us tips to improve my performance.  One of my favorite moments was when we rounded a corner and Garrett and Iannah, who were walking behind me, said in unison "Whoa!" at the sight of a room full racing wheelchairs.  For me the greatest thing in being there was meeting other wheelchair racers.  

I explained it to a friend like this: imagine that your favorite color was purple and you did everything in purple.  You had heard of professionals doing everything in purple, but you rarely got to meet anyone else who did everything in purple.  Then one day you were invited to the purple club. 

When I met  Susannah Scaroni, Ray Martin and Brian Siemann, who were all in the London 2012 Paralympic games, I was very excited, and my dreams of representing my country on a world level did not seem far away.  God so kindly used the trip to encourage me to keep going after my goal of sharing the good news to other impaired athletes.  Thank you to my parents for the trip and to coach Bleakney for his time.

Now, I am looking forward to track camp at the University of Illinois in just two weeks! 

Our Family Is On Our Way to Meet Wheelchair Racing Superstars!

Check out my video:

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