Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together

Ron Hall · Denver Moore

Mar 2008 · Sold by Thomas Nelson

About this ebook

A critically acclaimed #1 New York Times best-seller with more than one million copies in print! Now a major motion picture. Gritty with pain, betrayal, and brutality, this incredible true story also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.

Meet Denver, raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana until he escaped the “Man” in the 1960’s by hopping a train. Untrusting, uneducated, and violent, he spends 18 years on the streets of Dallas and Fort Worth.

Meet Ron Hall, a self-made millionaire in the world of high-priced deals—an international arts dealer who moves between upscale New York galleries and celebrities.

It seems unlikely that these two men would meet under normal circumstances, but when Deborah Hall, Ron's wife, meets Denver, she sees him through God's eyes of compassion. When Deborah is diagnosed with cancer, she charges Ron with the mission of helping Denver.

From this request, an extraordinary friendship forms between Denver and Ron, changing them both forever. A tale told in two unique voices, Same Kind of Different as Me weaves two completely different life experiences into one common journey. There is pain and laughter, doubt and tears, and in the end a triumphal story that readers will never forget.

Continue this story of friendship in What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing, available now. Same Kind of Different as Me also is available in Spanish.

Ratings and reviews

This book, a true story, is written in a novel way alternating from Ron Hall’s life story to Denver Moore’s, comparing the very different lives of two men growing up and their eventual meeting. God uses the life of a selfless, servant hearted woman to bring these two men together in an unlikely friendship that rips holes in the barriers formed by prejudices. Denver grows up in the Southern US states as a cotton picker, oppressed and disillusioned by loss and despair, he ends up as an angry and detached homeless drifter. Ron, by contrast , although not brought up in the lap of luxury, manages to find himself there in a very cosy state later in life. Through God ordained “coincidences” both men’s lives are dramatically shaped and changed as their hearts knit together through joy and pain and often the unpretentious wisdom and child-like faith of a homeless man. Many times I found myself soaked in tears, swept away by the raw pain that characterized their lives, and other times at the life-changing love that God hides in the most unexpected places for us to seek out. Denver Moore writes: “I used to spend a lotta time worryin that I was different from other people, even from other homeless folks. Then, after I met Miss Debbie and Mr. Ron, I worried that I was so different from them that we wadn’t ever gon’ have no kind a’ future. But I found out everybody’s different – the same kind of different as me. We’re all just regular folks walkin down the road God done set in front of us. The truth about it is, whether we is rich or poor or somethin in between, this earth ain’t no final restin place. So in a way, we is all homeless – just workin our way toward home.” An emotionally stirring and thought provoking book, you cannot come away from it unchanged.

Two things struck me about this book most strongly. First, despite the vernacular parts of it were written in, it was incredibly readable and I really enjoyed entering slightly more into the story through the non-proper English. Second, I found it a powerful testament to what sorts of transformations happen when the gospel infects people and gives them a real burden and real love that is invested for a long time into others. For that alone it is worth reading and contemplating.

Two worlds collide as a former sharecropper (modern day slave) and world reknown art dealer bond in a friendship so close it is almost supernatural. A true story about agape love and dying to self. A true story about inhumane treatment at the hands of 'the Man' and unspeakable cruelty of cancer. A true story of an unselfish woman's passion to follow God and the mighty legacy she leaves behind. Anyone who loves history would enjoy this book, and anyone who loves the story of an overcomer would love this book. I worked at Mission Arlington for two years in the 1990's and have lost many loved ones to cancer. This book is not a light nor an easy read, but I could not put this book down.

About the author

Ron Hall has dedicated much of the last ten years of his life to speaking on behalf of, and raising money for, the homeless. Formerly an international art dealer, Ron is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and writer/producer of the Paramount/Pure Flix film Same Kind of Different as Me. A Texas Christian University graduate, Ron was honored in 2017 with the Distinguished Alumni Award. In addition to traveling and speaking, Ron and his wife, Beth, run the Same Kind of Different as Me foundation (SKODAM.org), which meets emergency needs for those who are less fortunate.

Denver Moore served as a volunteer at the Fort Worth Union Gospel Mission until his death in March 2012.

Lynn Vincent is the New York Times best-selling writer ofHeaven Is for Real and Same Kind of Different As Me. The author or coauthor of ten books, Lynn has sold 12 million copies since 2006. She worked for eleven years as a writer and editor at the national news biweekly WORLD magazine and is a U.S. Navy veteran.