Ron Hall - Workin Our Way Home

Its a rare opportunity for an actor to be blessed with a role so soulful as in Same Kind of Different as Me. To embody Denvers spirit was at once an emotional challenge and an extreme privilege, learning the story of a man who came from so little and gave so much.

DJIMON HOUNSOU, ACADEMY AWARD AND SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDNOMINATED ACTOR

I have known and loved Ron Hall for over four decades and it was my joy to know and love Denver for a decade as well. Never have two men lived with each other, learned from each other, and loved each other in a more Christ-honoring way than Ron and Denver. There are lessons here for all of us. After all, we, too, are just working our way home!

O. S. HAWKINS, PRESIDENT/CEO OF GUIDESTONE FINANCIAL RESOURCES

This book is so powerful. It opens my heart and deeply touches my soul. Thank you, Ron Hall, for bringing this awe-inspiring story to my life and the world. I am forever changedI love this book!

KYM YANCEY, COFOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF EWOMENNETWORK

Ron and Denver have done it again in this page-turning memoir about the two most unlikely friends. This will go down as one of the greatest buddy stories in history.

JON GORDON, KEYNOTE SPEAKER AND BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE POWER OF POSITIVE LEADERSHIP

For decades, legendary radio broadcaster Paul Harvey concluded one of his nationally syndicated programs with these enduring words: And now you know the rest of the story. Thats exactly what Ron Hall gives us in Workin Our Way Home. Their authentic account is a powerful reminder that the journey from human crisis to human flourishing does not play out on a downhill highway, but rather on an uphill track through tough terrain with numerous turnouts and toll booths. And the books abiding lesson for us all is this: its a journey God never intended for anyone to take alone.

JOHN ASHMEN, PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF GOSPEL RESCUE MISSIONS

In Workin Our Way Home, Ron Hall continues to remind us of the power and inspiration that can be found in unexpected friendships. In this new book, we have the gift of exploring Denvers unique wisdom and ongoing legacy that Ron keeps alive through his beautiful storytelling. What a joy to experience this journey!

ANNE NEILSON, ARTIST, AUTHOR, AND PHILANTHROPIST

Workin Our Way Home is a magical read and an important reminder that each day we get closer to the end of life. What will you do with this day and this moment? Ron and Denver, two amazing men, answered that question as they searched their souls, only to discover we are all simply working our way home. A must read!

LOUIS UPKINS, ENTREPRENEUR AND AUTHOR OF TREAT ME LIKE A CUSTOMER

2018 Ron Hall

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Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by W Publishing, an imprint of Thomas Nelson.

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Epub Edition January 2018 ISBN 9780785219859

ISBN 978-0-7852-1985-9 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017918090

ISBN 978-0-7852-1983-5

Printed in the United States of America

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Im dedicating this book to the memory of my father, Earl Hall. In my first book, Same Kind of Different as Me, I wrote some unkind things about him. Though they were true based on my understanding of his life, I own my part in the conflict we experienced given that I never found a way to love him until Denver forced me to bless the hell outta him. It was then I discovered the father Id wanted since my early childhood. I cherish the year we spent hanging out together the way best friends do and getting to know each other before he went to heaven at age ninety-one. I have just finished writing our memoir that can best be described as Same Kind of Sorry as Mean apology and a celebration.

And to Denver, who moved into my home bringing nothing and gave me everything. I miss you.

Contents

As Denver was the first face I saw every morning and the last almost every night for nearly twelve years, I know his voice as well as mine. I have tried to faithfully recapture it here as best I could. For more than ten of those twelve years, we lived under the same roof and experienced the events and had the conversations Ive written about in this book. Both are recounted as accurately as I remember them.

RON HALL, SEPTEMBER 2017

Im not really a betting man, though I am a gambler. That said, if you are reading this preface, you are probably one of the millions who read Same Kind of Different as Me, the first New York Times bestseller coauthored by a skitzy, homeless ex-con known as Suicide who could not read or write.

If thats not the case, then let me say welcome. I hope you will join Suicide and me on this untold journey that straddles a Texas canyon between insanity and hilarity for a long tumble in the whitewater until tragedy shows its ugly head. And hopefully, after you have turned the last page and said, Dang, that was fun, you will circle back to our first book and make some sense out of all this craziness.

This story is for Debbie, who on her deathbed gave me a job to do, and for Beth, who years later encouraged me to write about itthen cracked the whip until I finished.

I am travling towrd lifes sunset gate, Im a pilgrim going home.

THE SUNSET GATE

DENVER

I looked out over the crowdmostly white folk. Wadnt nary a dry eye in the whole church. They was affectin me, and that aint normal cause I seldom makes eye contact less I be thinkin bout takin care of bidness, if you get my drift. I paused, tryin to figure out what I was gonna say next. Maybe I done said enoughseemed like Id been talkin bout thirty minutes. Then it come to me.

Im fixin to do somethin the Devil aint never done for youIm gonna cut you loose. But before I do, Im gonna leave you with a little somethin to think about. Whether we is rich or whether we is poor, or somethin in between, this earth aint no final restin place. So in a way, we is all homelessever last one of usjust workin our way home.

A rich-lookin man bout fifty years old on the front row stood up and pointed his finger at me. That shut me down. I thought I might have made the fella mad tellin rich white folk theys homeless just like me. But the next thing I knowed, the lady next to him stood up, then Mr. Ron and his family stood up, and before I knowed it, the whole crowd, maybe a thousand or so, was on they feet clappin like they was at some kinda performance.

I never really wanted to know Miss Debbie. Miss Debbie forced me to know her. That was the stubbornest woman I ever metblack or white. Thats sayin a lot for some skinny little white lady who wadnt scared of me, cause everbody else on the streets feared meI made sure of that. I guess Id have to say Miss Debbie was a stubborn angel, my angel that I wadnt never lookin for or never wanted. For the life of me, I never could quite figure the lady out, but she loveded me and never gave up on me.