Book Review by Jonah

I recently read the book, “Same Kind of Different as Me” and it was the most inspirational book that I’ve ever read. The story begins by telling two separate story lines about two completely different men from two very different backgrounds. One is a wealthy white man named Ron and the other is a very poor black man that was a modern day slave, named Denver. Denver had a very tough life as he lost his close family members in a house fire. He gets shuffled around between other family members and lives his childhood and early adulthood working day and night in the fields. Ron grows up in an entirely different family situation and is able to go off to college, get married and then end up making millions by selling expensive artwork that he creates and lives the wealthy life.

These two men's lives cross paths when Ron and his wife, Deborah decide to begin working in a homeless shelter out of a desire Deborah has to serve the poor. They meet Denver who has recently become homeless after fleeing the scene of endless hard work as a sharecropper with almost no pay. Denver does not trust rich white people because of the horrible way they treated him when he was growing up and refuses to speak to Ron for quite some time.  When Ron persists in getting to know Denver he finds that over time the perception he has of Ron fades and it’s slowly replaced by a relationship of love and grace.

Ron and Denver meet while Ron is helping out at the homeless shelter that Denver comes to often and they end up becoming best friends. The person who encouraged this relationship was Ron’s wife Deborah. Deborah was a wonderful Christian woman who valued people’s lives and had a beautiful heart for Jesus. About the time Ron and Denver become friends, Ron and Deborah get the heartbreaking news that Deborah has cancer. It is a huge shock to many given the fact that Deborah had impacted so many lives, including Denver’s life through the homeless shelter and through other situations.

Denver begins to realize how important these people are to him and how much they have impacted his life and helped him. It is through Deborah’s heart for the LORD that Denver was able to become so close to both Ron and Deborah. Denver begins to constantly encourage and pray for Deborah while she is battling with cancer. Ron begins to see how much Denver has come around since they first met and he also begins to see his heart for Christ.  It is through Deborah’s fight with cancer that Ron and Denver get to know each other on a deeper level, learn life lessons from each other and become extremely close.

Unfortunately, Deborah dies from her cancer but she is definitely not forgotten. Deborah impacted so many lives through the way she handled life situations and through the way she cared for those all around her and through her love for Jesus Christ. After Deborah’s passing, Denver feared that Ron would leave him.  Ron assures Denver that he is now a part of their family and considers him his best friend. Denver trusts Ron at his word and realizes that because of Deborah, he was able to find a new family. This story is about love, grace, friendship and impacting people’s lives in a Godly way. This is my review of the book and I highly recommend you go and read it. I hope it moves you the way it did me.