CHICAGO -- For better and worse, Sam Vega couldn't stop looking back.

Let down by a mother with destructive habits, a father he never knew and the grandmother who moved him to Chicago, Vega struck out on his own at 18.

But bitter memories of neglect combined with concern for his four siblings kept him from moving on. His failure to forgive undercut his will to succeed, as did a fear he was echoing the mistakes of his elders by walking away.

"A lot has happened in my life," he said. "The point is because we can't let the past go, it forms our future."

His life took a turn one Sunday three years ago when he sought guidance in a balcony pew of The Moody Church, a grand and historic sanctuary in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood. There, Vega, 23, found a second family and a second chance. With help from parishioners, he has learned letting go of the anger to rebuild his life doesn't have to mean letting go of family.

This year, in an attempt to reunite his family and put his siblings on the right path, Vega took in his three sisters, two of them teenagers, and his younger brother. To make ends meet, he works two jobs: one at a gourmet grocer, the other at Moody. Cheerleading contests, honor roll ceremonies and report card pickups are routine on his itinerary.

Now, Vega and his siblings must decide whether letting their mother back into their lives would put their tender union in jeopardy.

For Vega and his four siblings, the situation of growing up outside Detroit was grim. A relative rescued Vega's older sister, Nina Sanchez, from the hospital where she was born after her mother walked away. Sanchez remembers digging through garbage to find food.

The five siblings also fought for attention from adults. Sanchez and Vega barely got along. When the children were 20, 18, 16, 14 and 12, their grandmother moved them to Chicago for a change of scenery. But the scene didn't change much. One by one, they left home.

Sanchez earned her diploma and enrolled in cosmetology school. Vega earned his GED. He and brother Fadi Yassini, 22, got jobs.

When Vega shattered his ankle at the warehouse where he worked, depression took hold. He picked up a Bible his grandmother had given him years before and opened it to the Gospel of Matthew, which implored him: "Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows."

"Most people find God in their life when they reach rock bottom," he said. "Matthew is a very encouraging book to me. My life is a storm."

A radio ad led the 23-year-old to walk into Moody and eventually attend the evening service for young adults. Sister Reema Faraj, now 18, joined him just to spend time with her brother. Younger sister Sara Taha, 16, also came.

Curiosity led Vega into the church kitchen one night, where he found Lori Broadbent preparing refreshments. Broadbent, a single woman in her 40s, has become a second mother.

"God has put them in my life for this time in their lives," said Broadbent, who takes the girls shopping and bakes with them on occasion. "Because I had such a great mom, I want them to understand what a great mom should look like."

Broadbent said everyone at Moody knows Vega for his extraordinary zeal and dedication to his siblings. "He has no business having to raise teenagers, but he does an amazing job," Broadbent said. "I call him an 83-year-old man in a 23-year-old body. He's got this really old soul and wisdom beyond his years."

Aimee Lilly helps her husband, Scott, run Moody's Fusion ministry. She said Vega and his siblings are the "kids we would have loved to have if we had children. "We're continually amazed at their resilience and what they've endured," she said. "He's 23 years old and the patriarch."

That is why earlier this year, an anonymous donor helped send Vega to South America, where he and other missionaries built homes for Brazil's street children, a project sponsored by an agency called Hope Unlimited. The trip transformed Vega's perspective on his own circumstances. But it also inspired the Brazilian orphans to know someone in America could relate to their experience.

Vega concedes that letting Moody members into his family's life has taken a leap of faith on his part. There have been too many crushing disappointments. Just last month he heard from the woman he calls his "real mother" for the first time in 11 years.

"I forgave her years ago. But it's been 11 years. Why did it take her this long?" he said. "That's 11 birthdays, 11 Christmases, 11 Thanksgivings, 11 Easters. But there are five of us. Do the math. That's 55 Christmases."

For the time being, he doesn't want to let her shake the stability he has worked hard to maintain. "I'm not going to open up my heart to have it happen again," Vega said. "Right now, I wish the best for her and pray that one day we will see her."