I pray for Ayoré people all over the world
Yicatecã́ri ome ayoréode iji erámi jnese Ipeyai
I have been reading three things in Dupade’s Word:
As if I really knew all about Dupade’s written Word, so, I’ll just teach you a little bit.
When I’m in Tobité I like to pray for you here in Rincón. I pray for the Ayoré all over the world. And the people in Zapocó.
The only god they wanted to worship was women:
You probably know about these persons if your teachers have taught you about them. Or if someone else has taught about them in the past. You see there was a poor man, but the same thing happened to him that happened to the deformed people that were hated by our leaders. That’s what Dupade’s Word tells about, and it’s true that this does happen.
You know that don Len and Ecarai went to visit others and I prayed for them after they left for six Sundays. And then, they came back and Davidé began telling me about Dupade’s Word. But Pajei and the others wouldn’t listen to Dupade’s Words, and that’s how it was with that rich man in the Bible. But afterwards don Len and Ecarai tried to teach Pajei and them. But they told Len and Ecarai: “There’s nothing to it.” They told them the only Dupade they wanted to worship was women. They just wanted to go after them and love women.
But later Ajei, they said, taught his people about Dupade’s Word. He didn’t know much about Dupade’s Word, but he taught them the little that he knew. And that’s all the teaching they had.
They said: “It’s only women that we worship.”
You have heard the story because your teachers have no doubt taught you about the poor man that Dupade taught about his Word and the rich man who had a lot of money. I am like the poor man. I don’t have anything. I’m like that poor man.
Just as the rich man didn’t want to listen to Dupade’s Word, neither did Pajei and them. They tried to discourage Davidé and they said: “There’s nothing to Dupade’s Word. Now, women, that’s who I worship.”
But Pajei and the others just didn’t understand Dupade’s Word, and that’s why they acted like that.
The poor man asked the rich man for things:
And then the poor man came to that rich leader but stayed at a distance to make his request. He wanted to eat the food that the rich man had left over. But worse for him, because the rich man continued to refuse him. He never thought about what Dupade’s Word says about helping the poor.
The poor man died:
But later the poor man died, and he met up with one of the first men, one of our ancestors whose name was Abram. He had reached the place where Dupade’s believers go.
The rich man also died:
But that rich man, Dupade would miss him for he didn’t go where his believers went. Dupade said: “I will miss him even though his ways were not good.” Dupade wanted him to help poor people and give his things to them, put he held them back from the poor man. So, Dupade said, “I don’t want to look after that rich man any longer.”
And you know that your teachers with their knowledge have told you how later the rich man was sorry. He went to Abraham but had to go back to the lake of fire.
Len encountered a man on the train who was against everything:
That’s how it was with an encounter that don Len had with a man on the train. This man hated everything. Len didn’t know why this was so. The man said to him: “In vain I went to one of the churches where you believers in Dupade go. I went in, and we were with them, but it didn’t help me at all.”
He went again to Abraham, but he refused to do what the rich man asked him to do:
This is what it was like with the rich man. He went to see Abraham twice but did not get what he went after.
I know the names of some of the characters in this story but won’t mention them right now. This is what I understand. This is all.
Key:
Dupade – God
Dupade’s Word – God’s Word
Cojñoi – Person not of the Ayoré tribe.
Ipeyai – Rincón de Tigre, Bolivia – 1960.
Transcribed and translated to English by Maxine Morarie.
