Without Hesitation – A Local Believer’s Poem

Shepherd* was perhaps the first believing poet among our people group. Having come to faith as an older man, Shepherd was able to publish one book of Christian poems in our local language before he passed away in 2022.

I have been hoping to get hold of his book for a few years now. This past month, I finally did. Well, at least I got hold of pictures of the pages of his book. My hope is to steadily work through his poems, selecting the best of them to highlight in our own resources. Our people group is deeply poetic, so there is much potential for poetry to have a prominent place in the churches here. I’m also translating them to English, in hopes that Shepherd’s poems might also be an encouragement to believers in other contexts.

The following is one of the first poems of his that I’ve translated. In this, I’ve been able to preserve the meaning and the rhyme scheme, though not always the meter. When I’ve heard local poetry read, the last word of each line is typically slowed and stressed. So, as you read this poem to yourself, reading the last word in that way will get you closer to the effect of the poem in its original language.

The poem I’ll share today is one that focuses on the persecution and gaslighting that Shepherd faced after coming to faith out of a Muslim background. Rather than stay silent in fear, Shepherd speaks of his determination to boldly speak out about being a Christian, trusting in Christ to protect him.

Without Hesitation
by Shepherd H

I desire no more to twist reason and fact
They make me see black as white, and white as black
I express my heart freely and that without fear
I am proud to be a Christian and this silence tear
I put my faith in Christ as Savior and divine
I'll no longer to illusion's chaos be captive, confined
I put the door of my heart behind me, made Christ owner of my home
Lest I be shaking my head, empty-handed at God's throne
The jewel of the Bible is the capital of my world and life
My guardian is the mighty power of Christ

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*Names changed for security

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