Pastor Charles Zinzindohoue of Benin was born into a world of voodoo. His mother was a high-ranking animist practitioner until she came to Christ through miraculous circumstances and led her children to the Lord.

Charles’ interest in Bible translation arose the week before he heard of unfoldingWord. He was interpreting at a celebration service for a traditionally translated New Testament; there, he learned that the project had taken 20 years to complete. “I was really shocked and asked myself, ‘How will we reach Benin’s 63 languages if it takes that long?’” The next week, he heard a presentation by unfoldingWord and realized he had found the answer.

Soon, Charles became a leader with unfoldingWord’s Whole Bible, Whole Nation partner in Benin. “We are a storytelling people,” he says. “unfoldingWord Open Bible Stories (OBS) has an amazing impact among our populations.” OBS opens doors among Islamic people groups that had always blocked gospel messengers. And the Church-Centric Bible Translation approach changed the Chadian church’s thinking about reaching their country with the gospel.

“Formerly, we thought that translation could be done only by experts trained over a long period of time at astronomical cost. It was common for ethnic groups to wait for decades before the Old and New Testaments were translated into their languages. Today, our perspective has completely changed. Now we know we can translate God’s Word more inclusively, effectively, and efficiently than before. We are proud to be involved and willing to make great sacrifices to make this project a reality.”

Our Whole Bible, Whole Nation partnership with Benin began in 2023. They are nearing completion of unfoldingWord Open Bible Stories translations into five languages. See a video of Pastor Charles at youtube.com/@unfoldingWord/videos.