Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes can help change lives around the world: Senegal native who received gift visits Woodward

Edouard Ndecky shows an Operation Christmas Child shoebox. Ndecky received a gift from Operation Christmas Child as a youth in Senegal. (Photo by Megan Poole)

Twenty years ago, at the age of 14, Edouard Ndecky received a shoebox from Operation Christmas Child that changed his life.

Living in Senegal, West Africa, it was not an easy childhood for him and his family. It is an extremely poor nation. Even though Senegal is 95% non-Christian, Ndecky's father was a pastor.

"That God picked my dad in the middle of that people to be a pastor, to be called a pastor, is amazing. But being Christian in Senegal is not easy because it's not just wearing a t-shirt or a cross, telling around ‘I’m a Christian’. It's an attitude. It's a lifestyle," Ndecky said.

While his father pastored, his mother worked from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. His family ate one meal a day and had no furniture in a house without electricity or running water. But through this abject poverty and struggling to provide, Ndecky recalls seeing his parents thanking God every day and being appreciative of everything around them.

"[They] never complained. Always give glory to God. And for me, seeing that situation, the harsh situation they were living in and looking at my dad and saying, ‘I want to be like that man; to follow the same God that he is following’ lead me to when I was 12 to accept Christ," Ndecky said.

Two years later, at the age of 14, Ndecky attended a kid's program called Good News Club where he received the gift of a shoebox from someone a world away who he would never know or meet. This was the first gift that Ndecky and his brother had ever received. They waited until they got home to open their shoeboxes so that they could show their mom these precious first gifts.

"[Inside the shoebox] were many amazing and awesome things," Ndecky said.

Among those things were two bars of soap and two toothbrushes. Soap was something his family struggled to buy, and a single toothbrush was shared by Ndecky and his brother. Those things were greatly needed and appreciated. But the most important item in the box to Ndecky, was a yo-yo.

"How the yo-yo became my favorite because I was the only kid that received a yo-yo, in the whole neighborhood, in the shoebox. That put all the kids that don't know Christ to come to our house to find out why this yo-yo and to borrow it and to go home and show it to their parents," Ndecky said. "And I told God I want to be like a yo-yo. I want to go to kid's houses, I want to go to people's house to show them the love and to put that questioning in their heart…to share the love, to share that someone cares."

This is what Operation Christmas Child calls the wow gift. Thomas Manning, Media Support Team Member for OCC shared that this is such an important moment for the child when they first open their box. The thing that impacts them the most. And the person who packs the shoebox has no idea which item that might be. The yo-yo was Ndecky's wow.

Of the impact of the shoeboxes, Ndecky had this to say, "Someone, somewhere say first ‘yes. Yes, God, I want to do this.’ ‘Give me what you want me to put there.’ That person that packed my shoebox didn't know my family's struggle with soap. They didn't know I was waking up every single day to brush my teeth first [before my brother used the toothbrush]. The person didn't know the yo-yo would impact my life. But when I see it like this now, I’m like ‘God, You planned this. You designed the shoebox just for me. For me to know that You care.’"

If anyone would like information on how to be a part of Operation Christmas Child, whether it is packing a shoebox, volunteering at a shoebox drop-off location or processing center, mobilizing your church to pack shoeboxes, being a prayer team member or any other numerous ways, you can contact NW Oklahoma Team Area Coordinator, Amie Pierce, via Facebook or at the NW Oklahoma OCC office located at 2801 Maple Avenue (gray building in the parking lot of Crown Heights Baptist Church) in Woodward.

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