Let’s spread some hope this Christmas. This is a great story of God’s provision and love!

From Fox News. There was a time in her life when Elizabeth Groff, born in Ukraine, felt completely absent of hope and love.

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Living in an orphanage with no family at all, she felt forgotten and alone.

But a single yet significant act of giving at Christmastime — involving a shoebox full of toys, sent and distributed by people who didn’t even know her — sparked a light in the darkness of her young life. …

“Through this act of unconditional love, I was washed suddenly in a bright hope,” she said.

“God wasn’t going to abandon me,” she added, sharing her deep faith. “He was meeting me right there at rock bottom.”

Groff, 28 years old today and a 2017 graduate of Virginia Tech University, is reaching out to others in need during this holiday season and letting them know, too, that they are not alone — and that others care.

As people all over the world prepare to make or buy presents for their loved ones this year, Samaritan’s Purse, the evangelical Christian humanitarian aid group, is anticipating a significant marker of giving and generosity toward other human beings.

It will collect and distribute its 200 millionth Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift in December 2022 — and Elizabeth Groff herself will be the one to hand it out to a child in need.

Said Groff to Fox News Digital, “At 11 years old, God planted a seed of hope in my life through the ministry of Operation Christmas Child. [And] at 13 years old, God blessed me with a family who adopted me and continues to show me the unconditional love of Jesus Christ through how they love me,” she added.

“God used that shoebox to tell me, ‘You are not an orphan. You are my daughter.’ The shoebox gift opened my heart to God and he began to nurture my heart, gradually replacing my feelings of abandonment with hope and tenderness.” …

After all these years, however, Groff has not forgotten the shiny yo-yo that she received as a child when she was living in an orphanage.

Someone had packed it for her inside the Christmas shoebox she received.

That simple toy — and the much larger gesture of giving and caring — changed her forever and is why she’s active in giving to others today, she said. …

She’s preparing now to hand-deliver the 200 millionth shoebox to a Ukrainian child impacted by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Are you encouraged by Groff’s testimony and service? If so, share this article with your friends and family to encourage them!

(Excerpt from Fox News. Photo Credit: Canva)