Ron Olivier

Ronald Olivier ran wild in the streets of New Orleans, selling drugs, stealing cars, and finally killing someone on what was supposed to be the happiest day of the year—Christmas Day. At the age of sixteen he was arrested and then sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola.  Locked up for 27 summers, he was miraculously released and then, in a remarkable twist, invited to become head chaplain for the entire prison system in the State of Mississippi. After serving in Mississippi, he joined the staff of the Louisiana Parole Project.  Ronald holds a bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministry and is the author of 27 Summers: My Journey to Freedom, Forgiveness, and Redemption, a book endorsed by Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy.

Key themes from various sessions from Ron Olivier:

Twenty-Seven Summers: How I found faith, forgiveness and redemption in one of America’s most infamous prisons. I speak about how God reached into my heart to expel the darkness and fill me with his love. A message to inspire hope and freedom no matter the circumstances.

Don’t Tell Me What God Can’t Do: They told me I would be locked up for life with no hope of parole, but God told me the opposite. Because of how he’s worked in my life and in the lives of the prisoners I now help, I know what a colossal mistake it is to underestimate God. A message for anyone who needs to reset their expectations about God’s desire and ability to help them.

But God - In Ephesians 2, Paul reminds us that we were all once dead in our sins. But God had another plan. We were living in bondage, but God freed us. We were destined for punishment, but God forgave us. Because of his great mercy we have become living examples of God’s kindness. Knowing we could not raise ourselves from spiritual death, he reached down and raised us into the heavenly places. By pure gift, we are now “God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us.”