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Missionaries Profile

Bolivia

Religions: Christianity with Roman Catholic majority; traditional religions of the indigenous peoples

Languages: Spanish, Quechua, Aymara

Ethnic groups: Quechua, Aymara, Guarani, European and mixed ethnicity

Location: Brazil on north and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, Chile and Peru to the west

Size: 424,164 square miles; 1,098,581 square kilometers or almost twice the size of Texas

Population: 8,300,500 (2001 est.)

Morales, Mario and Rosa (Iris) Morales Mario and Rosa (Iris)


Iris and Mario serve God at the Baptist Seminary of Cochabamba, Bolivia. They work together in leadership development, equipping and enabling young people to discover their gifts and start a journey of service in their communities and local churches. At the seminary, Mario teaches philosophy, religion and contemporary theology and Iris teaches psychology and pastoral care.



Most of the seminary students are indigenous Quechua and Aymara. These leaders-in-training are from rural villages and share a cosmological world view in which wisdom, personal relationships, and helping one's community are important values. Iris and Mario place great importance on building strong relationships with their students, and on modeling the love of Jesus Christ through what they call Evangel-Discipleship. They accept the challenge of building bridges between the cosmological and Western viewpoints. "We believe that God's love, and the living water that is Jesus Christ, can transcend these differences," says Mario.


Iris and Mario have two sons, Mario Joshua and Seth Benjamin, who are very much a part of their family's journey in Bolivia. The Morales family are thankful for your prayers.



Language used in ministry: Spanish