Pastor Bradley
By Trevor Spencer
THE TRAIL
“We find them. We don’t just set up and wonder where they’re at.” – Rev. Bradley Clyne
Friday afternoon, Bradley Clyne walks the smooth concrete trail that runs alongside Walker Park. Runners and bikers swerve past him as their minds focus on finishing the next mile of the path. Connecting several parks and cutting through the heart of Fayetteville, the Razorback Regional Greenway trail provides a good way for residents to enjoy some exercise in nature before returning to their couch. Clyne, however, is not walking as some form of escape or recreation. He is not focused on finishing the next mile. Because, he does not, as many runners like myself, avoid the reality that sits just outside the concrete path.
Uncovered by the barren trees, anyone during Fayetteville’s winter can plainly see clusters of tents that sit beside the creeks and under the bridges that the Greenway passes. For almost a mile along this stretch of trail near Walker Park, these camps are communities of homeless people. According to NWA Continuum of Care, a community organization dedicated to reducing homelessness, there were 198 homeless people in Washington County as of 2022.
For many of those that are lying in these tents just beyond Walker park, they have no couch to go back to like those passing them, no home with a bed, or a shower, a kitchen, or AC. But, every month, they will see Bradley Clyne’s familiar face. “To them, I’m B.C.…They’re family.” And, they know why he’s here walking, waving, and looking right at them.
—
Bradley Clyne leads a non-profit organization and ministry called Every Soul Matters, which distributes food, clothing, and other needs in homeless outreach. Just before it began, Clyne was ordained as a minister in 2014 with Worldwide Missionary Evangelism. Soon after, in 2015, he started Every Soul Matters as a disaster relief foundation. But, after a lack of funding, Clyne shifted the focus of his organization to the homeless. “I had a revelation that hurt my heart. Why am I going so far when there are those that need help right here?” Clyne described his new area of service as those that we all pass on the street corners.
Tommy Randles is a former homeless man in Fayetteville. Clyne has cared for him on several occasions, even sending a tow truck to help him get to his parole meeting. As a friend of Clyne, he’s seen him at work for years. Many times, Randles explained, Pastor Bradley will go to Walker Park and bring snacks and a message of hope to the homeless there. “Pastor Bradley goes to the freaking dark side of Walker Park.” Specifically, he says he’s often there to pick up anyone suffering from substance abuse issues in order to get them the help they want.
For this Friday afternoon, however, he is just spreading news. Because, on one Saturday each month, Clyne hosts an event in Walker Park designed to meet many basic human needs: medical attention, showers, food, clothing, haircuts, supplies, and friendship. The last one, a friendly connection, is the most affordable to give and, yet, Clyne describes it as often being held back by many in society.
He described our general attitude toward the homeless and disenfranchised to be “looking past them.” But, in Clyne’s “holistic approach to helping the homeless”, these Saturday’s go beyond passing out food and t-shirts. This event is not merely a handout. The help he does for others is more than the number of care packages and meals he hands out in a given month. “We’re giving them a friendship,” he said. “We’re talking to them. And not only that, but we’re listening to them. They want someone to listen to their story. They want to be listened to and to be seen as people.”
One regular volunteer at this event, Larry Holliman, explains that many of these individuals that Clyne cares for have mental issues, recently deceased family members, or have just given up on life. Another volunteer, Karen Rodgers, said that Clyne “has challenged them to look at these homeless as people, because they are, and because we must learn how to deal with people that have different challenges.”
—
Bradley Clyne walks this trail not casually passing by, gazing into the forest, or looking confusingly and fearfully at the tents. “Pastor Bradley exudes outgoing love that has a strength behind it,” Randles says. This strength is Clyne’s ability to see beyond the prejudices and struggles that plague the homeless. Clyne says, “We’re going to look at them, not through them or past them, but we’re going to see them.” Clyne continues his walk, handing out fliers and greeting familiar faces.
THE VAN
“Now, I just point to the big blue box and they know where to find us.” – Pastor Bradley Clyne
Early the next day, Clyne wakes up at around 5:00 am in a hurry. He makes his way outside in the dark and cold to fill up the tanks for the large blue shower van. “On these Saturday’s, I don’t stop at all.” The rest of the rapid morning preparation is coordinating. Clyne directs volunteers to their stations. He checks on the clothing distribution van, the grilling tent, the coffee dispensers, the tables, the music, the mobile medical unit, and, his newest edition, this mobile shower van.
Just before 9:00 am, Clyne gathers all the volunteers in a circle. And, for a moment, all the moving and talking, cooking and organizing stop. All eyes look to Clyne at the head of the circle. Being a pastor, it is his job to shepherd his people into one, cohesive heart and mind in order to serve well. And, he does just that. With one word, longsuffering, Pastor Bradley unites the volunteers in this theme. Deriving this esprit de corps from a passage in Paul’s first letter to the Corinth church, Clyne prays for the day’s event to be one of patience, kindness, hope, and endurance for all those attending.
Just as the event is kicking off, Clyne sends volunteers to walk the trail and invite the disenfranchised for a final time. I volunteered, and, suddenly, I found myself making the same walk that B.C. made the day before. I walked alongside Larry, who is a regular volunteer for these Saturdays.
As we walked the trail, Larry enlightened me on the significance of what we were doing, what the event was for, and what Clyne had been doing every month for 3 and half years. “This is what Jesus does,” he said. “He meets people where they’re at. He went out into their space and communities and cared for them.” Put simply, Larry says that Pastor Bradley sees a need and he fills it.
Two women sit under a park pavilion shaking from the 26-degree weather. Larry invites them to join us and offers them coffee. One woman shakes her head softly back and forth, denying both offerings. The other gladly accepts some coffee, as she quickly picks up her head and smiles wide to Larry. But, I was disappointed by the interaction. I expected to have them join us in the “family reunion,” as Clyne calls it, that was 300 yards away. I wanted to have them join us. I was disappointed. I had so many questions. Had I done something wrong? Aren’t hey hungry? The most nagging of my questions was: What does Pastor Bradley do in light of those who don’t want to be cared for?
Then, I remember what Pastor Bradley said. “We’re not here to force anything. We are just trying to love as Jesus did.” He said, in the theme of longsuffering, “If we continue to love, we can show them that hope is there and change is possible.” Larry and I walk back to the parking lot filled with vans and tents. People emerge from the groves and camps near the trail and walk beside us toward the echoing piano and the rising grill smoke in the distance. And, I realize just how different of a “service event” this is.
There are several other organizations that care for the homeless in Fayetteville and give them hope in their struggles. There are churches, government organizations and programs, non-profits, and homeless centers like 7 Hills that do life-changing work. But, there are few that outreach in this way. “We don’t need nice lights and theater seating to care for people,” Clyne said. And, for homeless centers that are closed on Saturdays, these people are left in need on cold winter weekends in Fayetteville. In response, Clyne does not open his doors. Instead, he enters their space. He brings his vans filled with caring volunteers, their arms full and open to share, their eyes ready to look at them with the dignity they deserve, and their ears ready to listen to each person’s story. “His approach is eye-opening, because its different,” said Holliman. “Anyone can sign a check to help, but when you’re in the trenches with these people, sitting with them, listening, hugging them, it is just different.”
—
Bradley Clyne has lived a very different and difficult life. But, it has provided him with more empathy than most for this group he cares so deeply for. In 1977, at 20, he moved near Estes, Colorado, which is the base of Rocky Mountain National Park, to help his dad run a girl scout camp called Meadow Mountain Ranch. This sort of venture was not new for Clyne. For the seven previous years, Clyne grew up in a remote town called Big Moose in New York that sat in middle of the Adirondack Mountains. His mom and dad ran the Little Fox Hotel there. Even then, his parents’ business controlled much of Clyne and his brother’s lives. His parents would hotel run the bar till 2:00 am most nights, and, in what he called an abusive household, he would not want to disappoint them. So, he would get up at 5:00 am as he does on these Saturdays, wake up his brother, and get them both ready to reach the school bus.
The strenuous atmosphere led to long sessions of escape in the wilderness reading and playing in the lush of Northern New York. He gained peace and safety in these times alone, as well as an independent spirit. But, after school, his brother and he were put to work chopping firewood. And later, they would have to tend to the bar or help out in the restaurant. Eventually, Clyne was dissatisfied with the pay given by his parents, and he went to work at another restaurant close by. His independent spirit grew. So, in 1977, it wasn’t but a few months of helping at the ranch before his friends met him in Colorado to leave and hitchhike the West.
He travelled from Colorado to Arizona and Arizona to Washington. Taken up by the independence of his childhood combined with the similar free spirit of the 70’s, the goal of his adventures in the West was to smoke pot and eat cheap food. He and his friends would sell their plasma for $15 dollars a week to eat cheap hamburgers and buy fresh Mexican pot.
This lifestyle of travel and homelessness would keep up into his mid-20’s and 30’s. Starting in 1981, Clyne, his wife Angela, and eventually his two children would move back and forth between Pensacola, Florida and Northwest Arkansas for much of the 80’s. They initially moved to Northwest Arkansas because the samples of Madison county marijuana they were sent. Soon after arriving, they would begin to homestead, living off the land, and growing their own crops. In the winter, they would move to Pensacola, but after years of instability in a home and job, Clyne and his family began to live out of their van.
—
In 2023, you can still see him spending his time in a van. He’s here on these Saturday’s getting vans ready. But, they’re filled with possessions to give away and food to share with others. Or, as of recently, it will be the large blue box. It reads “Showers of Hope and Blessing” on one side and “Body and Soul Bathhouse” on the other.
THE CRASH
“If there was a line to him [Clyne] like there would be to Jesus, he would give every person the same big hug and smile.” -Tommy Randles
As the park event begins, people from all walks of life emerge in the center of this concrete slab on 13th and Block. The mobile medical unit pulls up to complete the carousel of care that surrounds them. Rotating in the center, there are families in need, young loners, elderly, people from different states and countries, and people from many backgrounds. Completing the circle around them, the volunteers are much the same. There are individuals there to sing worship songs, medical professionals, groups from churches, and, again, people from many backgrounds.
And, in the midst of this giant picture of diversity and service, there is a man running around facilitating and caring for anyone in sight. It was, of course, Clyne. He goes from one point of the circle to the next, guiding people to their needs. He answers any question, points in the necessary direction, and hugs the many familiar faces. “Its hugs all day long…I don’t know how many I give…almost to all of them. It doesn’t even matter who they are or what they smell like.”
He pushes his long white hair out of his face and around the back of his hat, and he leans in close to those needing assistance. And, by the care in his eyes, I can tell he was listening to be that friend he desired to give them. Then, he suddenly departs and burst off in one direction to check that all needs are being met elsewhere. Randles says of Clyne, “He makes time for everybody. He is the busiest f*****g guy in the world. But, he does it with such grace. It shows the love he has for everyone.”
In one particular instance of this busy, graceful routine, Clyne showcases the genuine heart he has for all people. A volunteer group from Teen Challenge Adventure Ranch huddles around him. This ranch is a home to boys who have gotten in trouble with the law and/or their families. One of the kids is under the impression they are not going to get to wash the dogs that the homeless brought. Clyne is upset! Clyne is not going to let this promise of service and kindness be unfulfilled for the giver or the receiver. Motioning several of the teens with him, he darts in the direction of the shower trailer to set up the process.
Later, in pausing his constant activity, I get to have a short moment alone with Clyne during the event. He points out the picture in front of us. Many of the anxious faces arriving to the scene, the ones that live in camps near the creek, are now eating, smiling, hugging, laughing, and singing. Outside of any warm church building or check-writing suburbia household, neighbors in life gather together in mutual friendship to share what they have to help others. In a world of people he perceives as all loved and valued, it was a “family reunion.”
Clyne also described this event as “a fun, fun day. Its powerful. But its draining, and I’m incredibly depressed on Sunday.” I was so enthralled by the family reunion occurring in front of me, all I heard was “fun” and “powerful.” But, I knew I had heard a similar phrase about this day-after depression.
One volunteer, Richard, and Clyne’s wife Angela spoke of a “crash” that hits them in the hours after the event ends. This “crash,” as all three describe, is a realization of the life the homeless go back to and the life they go back to in their homes. Clyne says, “Its unfair…I know what while I am sitting on my couch, someone else is lying on the pavement.” The “longsuffering” for them extends past Saturday’s event.
—
Bradley sees himself as someone who has be dealt a lot of empathy and patience from God. His passionate care for the homeless comes from a familiar past. His empathy for those struggling with drugs and alcohol is no different. Clyne’s father was an alcoholic, and Clyne himself started drinking at 14. Substance abuse issues would follow him for two and a half decades.
In the early 90’s, Clyne and his family had moved from a van in Pensacola to a school bus in Fayetteville to a small, isolated cabin outside of Fayetteville called an icosahedron. At this time, he was working as a surveyor in Northwest Arkansas. But, after work, he would get drunk with some of his friends and co-workers and make his way home. He would pull up and attach some cables from his truck to this icosahedron. The lights would flicker on, and he would hear screams from inside, “Dad’s home!” He describes this time as fun but dysfunctional. “We thought we were doing this cool, different thing, but we were drug addicts. We were dumb.”
In 1998, this life of instability and drug/alcohol addiction would crash, and the longsuffering on his behalf would come to fruition. He and his wife Angela were tired of being consumed by the substances. One day, they were watching television when a message came on called “Walk in Love.” They didn’t have a remote for the tv, so they couldn’t change the channel. The show played on. It spoke of freedom and a life of selflessness. Clyne describes this program as a pivotal moment of life change for he and his wife. They threw out their drugs and their drinks, they started attending a small Assembly of God church in Witter and then in Huntsville, and they joined ministry work.
—
As Saturday ends, Clyne crashes into this depression. As he washes the towels from the previous day, he thinks of all those struggling. But, this depression is not one of careless pity but compassion. It soon turns into a passion springing forth into action. The next day, Clyne goes to work as a supervisor of another non-profit, Community Blood Center of the Ozarks. As the week unfolds, he makes calls in planning a warming center for the homeless, and he brings them supplies on the trail near Walker Park. He continues his work to fill the needs of the homeless and downtrodden.
THE STARFISH
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
-Matthew 25:35-36
At the community Blood Center in Springdale, I sat in front of Clyne, exploring his life and his purpose. I had one final question for him: “Why do you do this? Why do you do this even when people can’t be helped or they won’t be restored?”
Pastor Bradley, like his teacher, told me a parable. A boy went walking on the beach after a big storm. Thousands of starfish were washed up on the shore, drying out, and dying. The boy picked up one to throw back into the ocean. A man watching nearby told the boy, “You can’t save them all, boy! Don’t be a fool.” The boy hurled the starfish into the water and responded, “I saved that one.”
Clyne doesn’t always see the problems go away or lives restored. “Some of them just can’t help it. It’s all they know.” But, what Clyne does is he sees a need and fills it. He goes out to them. He hands food to the hungry and clothing to the cold. He’s led weddings for the homeless in the park. He’s attended their funerals. He’s bought them hotel rooms in the middle of an ice storm. He’s hugged them and laughed with them and eaten with them. He knows their pain, and he listens to their problems. He gives them a loving friendship. Larry Holliman has spent almost a year with Clyne. He says that Clyne has seen a lot of hurt people, and not every day is “puppies and rainbows,” but Clyne remains continuously patient and hopeful.