This week's resource on prison ministry includes materials and interviews from Koinonia House, which helps Christian ex-cons readjust to society. We asked for a testimony from one of Koinonia's residents to share. This is Jon Bell's story.

I have been in and out of prisons eight times, locked up for a total of 33 years. I came from a broken life, but now I am healed. For that I give glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, and I am grateful to the entire staff of Koinonia House and all the members of Willow Creek Community Church of DuPage, who adopted me and brought me out of the streets of hell and surrounded me at the dinner table with love and support.

I grew up on the West Side of Chicago. My mother drank a half-gallon of vodka every day, and when my stepfather got drunk, he would beat my mother so bad that he left his heel mark on her forehead. He broke her jaw, arms, and legs. Because me and my brother weren't his, he would come home, search the house for us, and beat us black and blue–so ...