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Acacio Silva is often tired when he leaves Lar Evangelico Portugues. He puts in long days at the group home, teaching children how to play piano, helping them with homework, and keeping the ministry’s accounts in order. Even when the work is done, he stays late so that he never misses an event of special personal significance—bedtime Bible stories.

Acacio devotes so much time to the boys and girls at the Samaritan's Purse-supported orphanage because he knows what they are experiencing. He once was one of them.

He was 4 years old when he arrived at the home. Frightened and alone, Acacio had never known the security of a loving, Christian environment.

“I remember staff members calling the children together each night, reading Bible stories and talking about a man named Jesus,” he said.

The devotions, and the Christ-like, unconditional love he received from the staff, made a lasting impression. When his friends began using drugs during his teen years, he knew he had to make a choice.

“I started thinking about those who grew up with me, those who followed Jesus Christ and those who didn’t,” he said. “Would I accept Christ and follow Him?”

He reflected about the witness of the Lar Evangelico Portugues staff, and he decided he wanted a relationship with Jesus.

His commitment to Christ soon brought Acacio back to the home, this time as a staff member. He said his mission now is to tell the children about the hope he has found through Jesus.

“Growing up without parents is very difficult,” he said. “It’s difficult to make the children understand that they have a Father who loves them.”

Having no children of his own, Acacio pours all of his energy into the lives of the young people he sees each day at the home.

“These are my children,” he said. “God gave them to me.”