Art dealer Ron Hall shares how his life changed when his wife befriended a homeless man. He also discusses the new movie based off his book, Same Kind of Different As Me.
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It started with the dream
of a woman named Debbie Hall.
She dreamed about a wise
man who changes the city.
Well her dream came true
and produced a best selling
book, a movie, and a movement.
Take a look.
NARRATOR: Ron Hall was
an international art
dealer with more money than
he and his wife, Debbie,
could ever possibly need.
They had everything,
but a loving marriage.
We don't share the same life.
We don't share anything.
You can leave.
You choose.
NARRATOR: When
Ron's unfaithfulness
was brought to
light, Debbie asked
Ron to serve with her at an
inner city rescue mission.
It was there that their
lives were changed forever,
when Debbie befriended a
homeless man named Denver.
A new movie hits
theaters October 20th.
Same Kind of Different As Me.
It stars Greg Kinnear
and Renee Zellweger,
and is based on the true story
from the bestselling book.
MAN (VOICEOVER): I worried I was
so different from other people,
but what I found was,
everybody's different.
Same kind of different as me.
Please welcome to
The 700 Club, Ron Hall.
It's wonderful to have you here.
Thank you, Terry.
Your marriage with Debbie
was actually in trouble
when you guys first
started working together
at this homeless center.
Tell me about where
things were at.
Well actually when we
started working there,
we had put things back together.
But just a few
years before that,
our lives had taken a--
we were both believers,
but I chose to stay.
And I made a very
conscious decision to do.
It was no accident, I
made a conscious decision
to destroy a marriage.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: Wow.
RON HALL: And she gave me
Christ-like forgiveness.
And through my sin as far as
the East is from the West,
I never brought it up again.
Only to promise that I would
not be unfaithful again.
And for that, I
promised her that I
would do anything she asked me
the rest of our lives together.
So it was just a
few years later,
that she had a dream
of a homeless man.
Then she asked me
to be his friend.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: Wow.
What did you think when she
looked at him and said--
well first of all, tell
us about her dream.
And then she said, I want you
to be a friend to that guy.
Well we had just moved
into our dream home
in Fort Worth,
Texas, which I had
wanted to build for years
to house our art collection.
We were art collectors
and I was an art dealer.
And so in this dream
home, she began to dream.
And the first night, she dreamed
of the most beautiful mission,
homeless mission that
would ever be built.
And the second
night, she dreamed
a literal dream of a man.
She said the next morning it was
like a verse in "Ecclesiastes
9:15" where Solomon wrote,
"there was found in the city
a certain poor man who was wise.
And by his wisdom,
he changed the city".
And she said, I
believe that if we
can find this man of my dream,
I'll know it's from God,
and I think we'll see
revival in our city.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: So you're
working together at the center.
Well that morning,
she asked me
to go with her to look for
this man of her dreams.
So we started driving
around the inner city.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: That's
amazing that you did this.
RON HALL: Well again,
that's the first thing
she had asked me to do.
And I'm still believing that
I need to pay the price.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: You're
following the promise.
So we started driving around.
We didn't see him, so we
stopped late that afternoon
and volunteered to
start serving an evening
meal at the homeless
shelter, which
was called The Union Gospel
Mission in Fort Worth, Texas.
And we had been there
serving a couple of weeks.
And everything was
going well after I
got over my initial affront
to the all the smells.
And it was just a
run-down old place.
And so a couple of weeks in to
our serving there, this man--
giant African-American
man with no shoes,
and no shirt, and
just some raggedy old
britches-- storms into
the dining hall and says,
I'm going to kill
whoever done it.
I'm going to kill
whoever stole my shoes.
And she said, that's him.
And I said, that's who.
She said, that's the man
I had the dream about.
And she said, and I
think I heard from God
that you have to be his friend.
And I said, but honey I
wasn't at that meeting you
had with God.
And if I'm going to be
friends with someone who
wants to kill everybody, I think
I should go talk to God myself.
Well and Denver, this
man, did not exactly
open his life up to having
friendship with the world.
How did you bridge that gap
and become Denver's friend?
Well it took five persistent
months of almost pursuing him
daily through the inner city.
He was not looking for a friend.
He didn't speak to anyone.
People on the streets
called him suicide
because they said,
messing with him
was the equivalent of
committing suicide.
He's dangerous, he's crazy.
So you need to stay away from
him because he'll hurt you.
But Debbie's insistence,
she knew that God
had a plan for this man's life.
And she was going
to live and not
only, he was going
to live to see it.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: So
eventually, you and Denver
did become friends.
You and Denver and
Debbie became friends.
Yes we did.
How did God change
you through that?
Well God took a very
arrogant, self-centered man,
and he used this homeless
man, who turned out to be not
so crazy.
He was prophetic himself.
And he used him to save our
marriage, to save our family.
This is not a
white savior movie.
This is a man--
an African-American man--
who really saved our family.
He repaired my damaged
relationship with my father.
He totally transformed my life.
The art became so
meaningless to me
and he, and the
homeless cause, became
what God put on my heart
to begin working with.
Well at a later point,
the unthinkable happens.
Debbie gets sick and eventually
dies, but she had a dying wish.
What was it?
Well her final words to me
were, don't give up on Denver.
God is going to
bless your friendship
in a way you can never imagine.
And so--
TERRY MEEUWSEN: God did that.
God, oh did he ever.
What did he do?
You and Denver had--
after Debbie's death, such
an even deeper relationship
with each other.
It really, for both
of you, gave vision
to a bigger issue
in the community.
The city was changed.
What happened?
Well, first of all,
I did abandon him
right after her death.
I did exactly what she
asked me not to do.
And I left and I
went away to Italy
for about five months just to
kind of get my head straight.
And I began writing the book
there and all of a sudden,
I realized that the real story
was back in the hobo jungle,
by a dumpster in the inner city.
And I would never really
have told the real story
unless I go back.
So I went back to
Fort Worth, Texas.
I ask him to move in with me.
And so he joined me.
And my two children were
living there at the time,
so he joined us as our family.
And then they moved out
shortly, as they were
getting married and things.
But he began to
transform my life.
He became my professor
and I was his student.
And one of the first days
on the streets, he asked me.
He said, are you one
of those Christians?
And I said, yes, I am.
And he said, well
can you tell me
why all you Christians worship
one homeless man on Sunday,
then turn your back on the
first one you see on Monday?
TERRY MEEUWSEN: Wow.
That'll stop you in your tracks.
He said, Mr. Ron.
You never know whose eyes
God is watching you out of.
And they ain't going to be your
preacher or your Sunday school
teacher.
He said, might be
a fellow like me.
He said, it ain't
me, but it might
be a fellow that looks like me.
So be on the lookout.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: Wow.
That'll give you some
food for thought.
Eventually, where
did your friendship
lead as far as the issue
of homelessness went?
For your heart, for the way
you saw people, and for Denver?
Well, he told me.
He said, you know the courthouse
is full of judges, Mr. Ron.
God's not looking for any more
judges, but god is looking for
and needs servants.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: Wow.
And he said, so
if you're going
to walk the streets with
me, you better not judge
and you just better
start serving.
So I started
serving with Denver.
And we started
walking the streets,
trying to make a difference.
And in fact, our movie is
about making a difference.
It's about, we mix
black and white,
we mix poverty and wealth, and
we throw them all together,
and we come out with a message
of hope that hopefully,
can be healing our nation.
This is a movie for
this time, right now.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: What was that
like for you to see this story
untold on screen?
You'd written the book,
but now to actually see it.
RON HALL: Truthfully
Terry, I love the ending.
But the beginning is so
painful for me to watch.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: I'm sure.
I just can't imagine.
But in the end, you have
created something that even
in sharing what you just
shared about the things
that Denver said.
Things that make people think.
Yes.
That make us see
it differently.
Yeah.
RON HALL: He gave me new eyes.
He gave me eyes to
see the homeless
through the lenses of God.
And this is what I want
people who see our movie.
I want them to leave
wanting to make a difference
in their communities.
We just started a new
campaign for our movie
called Making a Difference
Across America in 175 Cities.
We want people to begin random
acts of kindness that will just
translate into love, and
showing the love of Christ
to people all across America.
TERRY MEEUWSEN: But it
takes pains sometimes,
to get us to that place.
And you have to be
willing to pay the price
to see the miracle come true.
Thank you.
Thank you, too.
Thank you.
Well OK let me get it together,
so I can just tell you.
There's so much more to
Debbie, and Denver's story,
and Ron's book.
His story as well.
It's called The Same
Kind of Different As Me.
Get the book because
it's wonderful.
It's available wherever
books are sold.
And then you don't want to
miss the movie starring Greg
Kinnear and Renee Zellweger.
The Same Kind of
Difference As Me
opens in theaters starting
on October the 20th.
You don't want to miss, it could
change your life, really could.
Thank you, Ron.