DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) - Generous people never expect repayment, but for Paul and Rose Strickland, they were paid major dividends when they needed it most.
If you saw an older model gold Mercury car in a Walmart parking lot from May until November 2017, you probably saw the Stricklands’ home. The same applies if you saw it the few weeks it was on the property of Love in Action Ministries in downtown Dothan.
But through God’s blessings - as the Stricklands and Love in Action director Ken Tuck will tell you - the Stricklands were able to spend Christmas, New Year and the brutal cold snap that followed in a more permanent shelter. Through a generous, anonymous donation, Love in Action officials received a camper trailer that was in good shape - and they turned it over to the Stricklands immediately.
“We’ve known Paul and Rose, and we had in our mind when we get this camper, we’re going to give it to them because we know they’re living for the Lord,” Tuck said when first alerted about the possibility of the donation. “They’re very faithful to serve here, and they want to get off the streets.”
The Stricklands said the gift punctuates a year in which their lives turned around.
Trouble in Florida
The Stricklands, especially Paul, have lived in states across the country and virtually seen all of the others. Careers in the military and in long-haul trucking have that effect.
But when Paul decided to retire from trucking in 2014 for a variety of reasons - his health and the health of family members among them - the couple returned to Florida.
A litany of problems followed. Paul grew up in Panama City and said half of his high school classmates went on to productive lives, but the others were either dead or in prison.
“Unfortunately I knew way more of the bad. While we were down there, her brother wound up going to jail,” Paul said. “Four or five of the guys I knew that I was still talking to - wasn’t hanging around - wound up in a Florida penitentiary, two of them on life sentences.”
“Me and Rose decided we needed to get away from this before we get wrapped up in it. We came back to Alabama, and that’s actually where life turned around at.”
In June of 2016, the couple returned to Alabama. Sometime later, Paul decided to pursue a work opportunity helping his mother’s boyfriend in Florida.
While Paul struggled with the work situation, another tragedy struck. Paul had a heart attack and a mild stroke on May 18, 2017.
“Florida is a bad omen for me and my husband,” Rose said.
Sweet home Alabama
After Paul left the hospital, he quickly decided what the Stricklands’ next move would be.
“(I) took about a week and a half and said: ’You know what? I’m done with this. I’m going back to Alabama where people actually acknowledge human beings,’” he said.
While the Stricklands knew they wanted to be in Alabama, they did not have a place to go.
“When we first moved here, we were literally on the street,” Rose said. “We had a couple of backpacks, a suitcase and a guitar.”
“And an amp, and we no longer have any of that,” Paul added.
The couple resided at Dothan Rescue Mission for a few days but determined the situation did not fit what they needed. Instead they decided to try it on their own.
“We lived in the car for seven months,” Paul said.
Good hearts, tough luck
To understand how the Stricklands ended up living in a car, one must understand their history.
For the last six years of his trucking career, Paul owned and operated his own truck. Rose kept the books and provided logistical support.
Even then, the Stricklands were generous.
“We’d take food out of our truck and give it to other truck drivers that didn’t have money because they were just starting out and they were with a company that didn’t believe in advances,” Paul said. “We’d give them showers. We’d feed people on the side of the road holding signs.”
After retirement, the Stricklands’ savings didn’t last long.
“I burnt through it just trying to gather what I was going to do next,” Paul said. “I just wasn’t good with money when I retired.”
Despite living in their vehicle, though, Paul and Rose never stopped helping others.
Knowing Love in Action helped them procure some furniture the first time they moved to Dothan in 2010, the Stricklands threw all of their efforts into helping the organization - when healthy.
“It took me about a month and a half to get back to where I could start exerting myself physically,” Paul said, referencing his recovery from the heart attack and stroke. “I wasn’t on the right medication. The doctors here at the (Love in Action) Samaritan Clinic finally got me on the right medication.”
Feeling better, the Stricklands worked almost daily helping LIA minister to the homeless. Paul proved really adept at fixing LIA’s fleet of vehicles - including the organization’s box truck they used for picking up and delivering supplies.
“Paul’s an incredible mechanic. He really is,” Tuck said. “I know squat. I can check the oil. That’s it. We go up to O’Reilly’s, and Paul will start telling them what he wants and then starts getting in-depth. Those O’Reilly guys will look at him (like), ’Dang, you know what you’re doing.’ He enjoys it so much.”
Paul and Rose often ministered to others in their condition outside LIA’s walls, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and the support LIA had given them.
“We filled out a form for the (homeless) stand-down. We got a tent from LIA, and ironically, we donated the tent to somebody,” Paul said. “Some of the things we have gotten from the stand-down, we have donated out. Some of it that we requested, we actually did not need, but we knew we would be running across somebody who did.
“We’ve given quite a bit away. Would I do that again? Yeah, without a second thought.”
Turning points
While LIA provided Paul and Rose some physical needs during the homeless period, it was the organization’s Bible studies that really moved the Stricklands.
While both professed Jesus as Lord, previous experiences had soured Paul and Rose on the thought of church attendance. Persistence on the behalf of Tuck and Dan Levy, though, motivated them to give church one more chance.
“It’s kinda peaceful to find a church I can attend where I’m not feeling like an outcast,” Paul said. “It’s funny because I literally swore a couple of years ago I would never walk back in a church again. I was tired of all the two-faced people.”
But the Stricklands saw that Tuck was genuine in his faith, and they immediately bonded with that.
“We don’t hang around any other organization. This is home,” Rose said. “The only way we’d leave the family God has given us is if He needs us somewhere else.”
Then the gift that cemented a life-altering year for the Stricklands came in December.
“We learned the first part of December that it was a possibility,” Tuck said. “Martha (Tuck’s wife), Dan and I had kept that amongst ourselves because we didn’t want to give them false hope. What if we tell them we may get this trailer, they get all excited and then we don’t get it?”
But on Tuck’s birthday, LIA learned it would receive the anonymous gift of the camper.
“That was the best birthday present other than seeing someone getting saved,” he said. “It was totally God that made that opportunity come about.”
With keys in hand, the Stricklands received the gift of a lifetime. As documented on video, Rose wept openly, while Paul had a different reaction.
“It was a total shock,” he said. “Never in a million years did me and Rose think that day we were going to see a camper.
“’I’m dreaming. I’m dreaming.’ I actually thought that up until a couple of days ago.”
Lessons learned
The Stricklands, especially Paul, are very open about the lessons they learned during the last eight months.
Paul first realized the sacrifices his mother made growing up.
“I can remember being a kid having no heat, no air conditioning, a lot of times no electricity, no running water, and it never really bothered me,” he said. “I can remember my mother working three jobs just to keep the house. It never really hit me the sacrifices made until the extended stint of being in the car.
“She really made sacrifices. I remember my mother had a ’73 Mercury - a land yacht. We could have slept in that car but didn’t have to.”
Paul also developed a greater appreciation for the things he did have, even though life in the car had its challenges.
“Back-breaking. Stiff. Boring. Hoping you got enough gas that when it rains, you can turn the AC on,” he said. “Yes, it was torment. But it’s what came out in the end that trumps that. Got to learn something, got closer to God and was able to realize that family isn’t blood.
“Family is the people that are not trying to give you a handout - they are trying to give you a hand up.”
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Information from: The Dothan Eagle, http://www.dothaneagle.com
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