Chain of Love

By: John-Mark Echols, Founder and CEO of The Field’s Edge

We drove up on a busted-up old couch leaning up against a barbed wire fence right as the sun was coming up. There was a light glaze of ice on every surface and the mesquites were sparkling in the sun. Growing up in West Texas I have come to deeply appreciate the unique beauty of the land that God has placed me in. As we got out of the truck, there was no movement, and I began to get worried. We were there to check on our friend Ted and bring him some breakfast. After a few minutes he stirred, and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

Ted was one of the first people I met when I first got involved in homeless ministry. He was such a paradigm shift for me because he did not fit the stereotype. Ted was not an alcoholic. He wasn’t mentally ill. He wasn’t lazy. If I had to describe Ted, I’d lovingly call him “a good ole’ boy”. When we met, he was living in an old camper on the yard of an oilfield service company. He had a bike that he was very proud of along with a trailer that carried most of his worldly possessions. At first, he was particularly crotchety and got frustrated easily, but he reminded me of my dad, just a no-nonsense country boy. There were a few things we were helping him with, but any little hiccup in the plan and he would just storm off and say, “To hell with it”. It began to frustrate me because I arrogantly thought I could clearly understand the problem and knew just how to fix it. You see, when I first got involved on the street it was 2011 and the Midland economy was booming. When I first learned that Midland had a homeless population at all, McDonald’s was paying $18/hour and they’d pick you up from work. I was the guy who said that the homeless should just stop being lazy and go get a job. Boy was I naive and arrogant!

As I got to know Ted, I learned that he was honest, hard-working, and industrious. I also realized that his challenges were not as simple as I had imagined. Hailing from Hereford, Texas, Ted grew up ranching and doing hard labor, and I would soon find out that one of the triggers to Ted’s homelessness was a 40-foot fall from a grain silo onto the pavement that nearly killed him. As time went on and Ted grew to trust me, I learned more and more about the difficulties Ted had experienced in life. 

There was a time when I wasn’t sure if Ted would ever get off the street. He was aging and the streets were getting harder on him. Every day we went to check on him I was afraid we would find him dead. While sitting up at Starbucks one day to charge his phone, Ted struck up a conversation with a couple and they ended up giving him the keys to a dilapidated building in exchange for him keeping an eye on the place. This certainly didn’t end his homelessness, but I think it saved his life. I would bring burritos by his building in the morning and one day he invited me in. The building was basically falling down and there was so much junk everywhere because it had once been a thrift store. Ted took me up the stairs that I wasn’t sure would hold my weight and I was blown away with what I saw. Ted had made a little apartment up there for himself complete with makeshift plumbing, solar panels, a lighting system, a generator, and a TV! I knew then and there that if there were ever an apocalypse, I would want Ted with me. 

There were some things working against Ted, some back child support that he owed, his brain injury, and an old broken-down RV that he just couldn’t let go of and was paying storage fees for. It took a lot of patience by a lot of people, but what first helped us break through the shell was a newspaper-selling program that Church Under the Bridge was operating. Ted ended up becoming the bus driver and would go pick people up and drop them off around town to sell papers. Eventually, the program fizzled, but Ted kept it up. He would ride his bike close to 20 miles every Sunday for years, pulling a heavy trailer full of newspapers from downtown Midland to the Wadley/Loop 250 intersection back. Yet again this completely upended my expectations of the homeless stereotype. 

Ted started working on plans to build himself a bike trailer that he could sleep inside of. He showed me the drawings and I bought him some wheels for the cart he was building, but there were so many people who had grown to love Ted and a plan was set in motion to help him get up and off the streets. He was still quite crotchety and would easily get frustrated if our plans deviated at all, but with patience and the grace of Jesus Christ and a generous donor, we were finally able to get him into his own RV as a temporary dwelling until we were able to complete our tiny home village.

We obtained a vehicle which he was adamant about purchasing from us. He didn’t want a handout. He went to work immediately at the Tarzan and Jane Grill in Stanton and was a dedicated employee for over a year. In the past, he would start working and his wages would get garnished from the back child support so much that he could never get ahead. At that point, he would normally quit, but this time he made the decision on his own that he wanted to work hard, take care of his debt, and move on with his life. He was so dedicated in fact that once when his car broke down, he rented a U-Haul box truck to drive himself to work. His car broke down again when he was low on cash, and he rode his bike all the way to Stanton and back for work. He was beginning to recognize his own God-given dignity and value again, but he was still isolated living out in a trailer park in the county and we couldn’t wait to get him to the village into community with others. 

When he first moved out here, he pretty much kept to himself and still does to a large degree, but we began to see him smiling and cracking jokes. Now he regularly tells me how happy he is here with us. We found out that his mother was still alive in Hereford, and he talked about our family to her. She would send my kids little dolls and blankets that she was making in her assisted living. We even had the opportunity to send him up there for a few days to visit with her for the first time in many years. 

Just last week, I was out walking the dogs and I was having a rough morning. Here comes Ted around the corner and he has something to tell me. With him you never know what it could be about, but he asked me if I knew the country music singer Clay Walker. I knew of him but couldn’t think of any of his music, but Ted looked at me and started tearing up and said, “Go listen to the song Chain of Love, that’s our song, you saved my life”. I started crying and remind Ted of the many, many hands and hearts that came together to support and lift him up. What an incredible privilege to witness the body of Christ come around this man and love him without any expectation in return. 

Ted has been my neighbor for nearly 2 years now. He deeply loves my kids and considers them family. Our four kids are so blessed to have so many bonus grandparents who buy them candy and spoil them rotten. But more than that Ted and our other neighbors serve us sacrificially every day. Ted knows that the cold weather really makes my illnesses flare up and volunteered to salt the sidewalks in the early mornings in winter. You see The Field’s Edge isn’t a transactional giver/recipient dynamic, but a transformational family relationship. The Lord continues to deepen our understanding of homelessness, and our resolve to continue cultivating home for the many who are still out on our Midland streets. 

I will leave you with the chorus of “Chain of Love” by Clay Walker that so aptly reminds us that everyone in life will come to need the help of another, and that it is our duty and privilege to pay it forward.

"You don't owe me a thing

I've been there too

And someone once helped me out

Just the way I'm helping you

If you really wanna pay me back

Here's what you do

Don't let the chain of love end with you."