Dupade uruode batigade
Ecarai’s opening remarks:
These are Dupade’s Written Words that he left with us long ago, and we have translated them and told each other about them where Dupade’s words land when we gather together. But before studying them, let’s “sleep a bit above” and ask Dupade to help us and to hear our prayers so that nothing ugly be among us. If there is any ugliness, tell Dupade about it, so that he will accept us and forgive us. Sleep a bit above as I bring us to Dupade.
Ecarai talks to Dupade for the congregation:
Yoque Dupade, I’m praying to you because I’m very thankful for you, but I don’t know if all our countrymen here have presented themselves to you, if they’ve come to you tonight, only you know about that. Help us to understand your words. We recognize that you have given good things to your believers. You are not only good to us, Yoque Dupade, but you include the whole world when you send rain for our rainy season crops.
I ask you right now, Lord Jesus, to really help your believers here where your words land. Your Father, Lord Jesus, finished his work long ago on this day, and the only thing he wanted us to do on this day was to rest in camp. For this reason, we ask you to kindly bless us with your words, that we only think about your words today. But, Yoque Dupade, we know we do have lots of work to do. And even though we do our work as unto you, don’t let anything bad happen to us, Yoque Dupade. I pray for your believers here in Tobité to grow in their faith, so that we might rejoice together and be happy.
I pray for the missionaries who live here in our village also that we might learn more and more of your Words from their lips. We know that they know your Word, but they do not speak our language very well, and only you know all these things, Yoque Dupade.
We pray for our countrymen Rosadé and Soríané, who have recently returned to us. They believe in you. I know that we grow in our faith here in our village, but it’s because of the landing of your words that any of us can leave here, and go on studying your words wherever we go, even as these men (Rosadé and Soriané) have done everywhere they’ve gone.
Dupade, I talk to you about all of this in the name of your Son Jesus.
This is Ecarai’s message: (John 16:22)
I am reading a message that Jesus taught while he was still on earth from the writings of John. He spoke about his Father’s plan. He told his believers about what he had to accomplish while he was still on earth. He told them that people were going to threaten him. Despite being all-powerful, Jesus heard threats about people wanting to kill him. And that’s why He shared this with his believers and taught them saying, “I’m going to be leaving again for heaven, and when I do, it will be a time of sorrow for you. But it should be a time of happiness when I say I’m leaving.” This is what he told them while still with them.
But his believers didn’t understand what he was saying. Even his disciples didn’t understand what these words meant. So they whispered together, and this is what they said: “What is he talking about? One moment he says it will be a time of happiness, and the next he says it will be a time of sorrow.” They didn’t understand at all what this teaching of his meant.
But Jesus heard them. He knew what they were thinking– he could see right into their minds. And so he said: “You don’t understand my teaching at all. That’s why you’re talking about it among yourselves,” this is what Jesus said to his disciples.
We are like that today, too; when what we teach is not understood, we must give examples to help people to understand. And that’s what Jesus did, he gave them examples. But I’m telling you, they still didn’t understand. They kept saying: “What do Jesus’ words mean? Why is he saying he’s going to leave, and that we’re not going to see him anymore? We don’t know where he’s going, we don’t understand this teaching of his?”
But Jesus explained his teaching to his disciples in this way: “You know that when a woman goes into labor she feels pain, but when she gives birth, she forgets all about the pain. She doesn’t think about it anymore. She goes happily on her way.
Jesus said: “That’s how it is with what will happen to me. The people are going to kill me, and it’s going to make them very happy to see me dead. On the other hand, my believers will miss me, and they will be sorrowful, but then they’ll see me again. That’s because I’m going to come back to life.” This is how Jesus explained to them what he meant when he said they would be sorrowful and then they would be happy.
What joy it will be when Jesus arrives to take his believers:
And when Jesus comes back it will be like this. Jesus died when the cojñone killed him and they rejoiced that they wouldn’t see Jesus anymore. But when his believers did not see Jesus in human form they missed him. They missed him and were sorrowful and cried for him. I don’t know if all the believers cried, but some of the women cried his nearness (mourned for him) after he died.
Now when he returns, it will be a time of sorrow again, but also, for us who believe, a time of happiness. It will be a happy time for the Ayoreos, and the rest of us when we leave with Jesus. And they will rejoice with Jesus as they near his city in heaven. But their relatives who do not believe in Jesus will not leave for Jesus’s big city in heaven. People will miss each other, in vain. They will miss brothers and sisters. Jesus’s return will be like it was when he was killed in his human body and the earth dwellers rejoiced long ago as they finished him off. But on the other hand, through his death Jesus brought his believers into salvation, and took them up to heaven with him and their unbelieving relatives will miss them with no hope of seeing them again.
It’s not possible for Jesus to take those unbelievers with his believers, for that’s not what is written in his Word. It doesn’t say: “Jesus will surely take everyone of us to his town in heaven.” You won’t find that in his Word.
But what you will find in the Bible is this: the people in a village that have given their all to follow Dupade’s Words and have faith in Dupade, these will go whole-heartedly to their final destination – which will be Dupade’s town.
Jesus continues to explain his teaching to them:
That’s what Jesus taught his believers and how he explained his words to them. He said: “You didn’t understand these things I’ve taught you, but soon you will understand them.” And what he said was true, because the day did come when they understood, and then they said: “Jesus, we no longer say that we don’t understand!”
He finished his teaching by saying again that he would be killed. He said: “Very soon now you are going to miss me, but in vain. It is not going to be possible for you to see me again as I am now.” He said, “But you’re going to see me!”
What Jesus said about his being killed, did come to pass:
But Jesus was right, for the cojñone did kill him – and they did bury him – and they did not see him anymore at all. But then he was alive again, and He appeared to some of his disciples inside a house. And that’s when they rejoiced again.
And this is Jesus’ teaching to us, too. Well, not to us, it was really to his disciples, but it is fitting that we apply this to ourselves and remind each other about what happened from his words. Jesus appeared to them inside their house, and they rejoiced to see Jesus. They told other believers that Dupade’s Son who had died, was again among them. I don’t think there were many doubters among these first men that believed in Jesus. I don’t know if it was two months that he was in their presence, or if it was 40 days that Jesus came and went among his believers in their houses, at their meetings, appearing to them.
After he rose again, Jesus appears to two of the men who believed in him:
But in the beginning, they didn’t always recognize him. In the very beginning when Jesus appeared to them they would say: “Is this the former Jesus? But didn’t they just kill him? Isn’t he the one who made us?”
But Jesus appeared to them and said: “Who are you talking about?”
But they said: “Haven’t you heard about how they killed our leader, the former Jesus, and we can no longer see him, and won’t ever see him again?”
And Jesus said: “I know! How can it be that people believed that he could cure their illnesses, but then they turned around and killed him.” He spoke like this with them, but they didn’t know who he was.
Dupade will not take to heaven those whose names are not found in his book: (Revelation 21:27)
Some among us like to come to listen to Dupade’s Words, and we can understand them. But we still haven’t put our faith in his Son, so it’s not going to be possible for us to accompany Him to heaven. We aren’t sure of our state of being before Dupade, or what our destination will be when Dupade arrives to take us – we still don’t know.
When he comes back we might tell him: “Dupade, I went to hear your Word. I listened when they explained them, and I knew that you were going to come back again. I sang the songs and knew all the tunes. I took my Bible with me and read it and understood what I read.” But that person will say: “So, I don’t know why it is that you won’t take me, too,” that’s what the person that is left behind would say to Dupade.
But Jesus, who is Dupade, would answer: “But your name is not in the book at all. I won’t take anyone whose name isn’t in the book. I knew they were always listening to my Words. I knew they sang the songs about me and knew the words and the tunes. They even prayed to me sometimes, but they didn’t believe in me. So, I didn’t write their names down in heaven and I won’t take them with me to heaven at all,” he will say. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Key:
Dupade – God
Dupade’s Words – Bible, God’s Word
Sleep a bit above – Close your eyes and bow your heads
Yoque Dupade – Our God
Landing place for Dupade’s Words – Church; meeting place where God’s Word is studied
Cojñone – People who are not of the Ayoré tribe
Ayoreos – People of the Ayoré tribe
To cry one’s nearness – To mourn for someone
Ecarai – Tobité, Bolivia – 1960.
Transcribed and translated to English by: Maxine Morarie.
