2011-Present
Judson Breckenridge Merkle
Student Myanmar/CO
On November 22, 2011, missionary Candice Merkle delivered her second child, her first son in Ching Mai, Thailand. Based on long conversations with her husband, Breck Merkle, the lad was named for the iconic Baptist missionary, Adoniram Judson. This couple were serving as missionaries in Myanmar and working directly in the linage of Ann and Adoniram Judson. They had been motivated by the faithfulness in ministry shown by the Judsons in the 19th century.
Breck Merkle had a fascination with Adoniram Judson from his earliest days in Colorado where he graduated from high school in 2001. This was heightened while at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, when he spent a summer in Myanmar as part of an intercultural internship in 2003. After completing SBU in 2005, Breck went east and earned a Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies from Southeastern Seminary (2014) and then went west to compete a doctorate from Gateway Seminary (2020).
Breck and Candice served 10 years as missionaries in Myanmar where they were quick at grasping both the Burmese and Shan languages and where they have visited both locations at which Adoniram Judson was imprisoned. The couple continues their international ministry through The Glory Project whose “vision is to see the unreached reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ and Myanmar is where the harvest is most plentiful. It was the Judsons’ faithfulness that has kept us serving so faithfully.”[i]
Their son, Judson Merkle, now gets to travel with his father on missionary trips and is often referred to as “MIT” or missionary-in-training. Young Judson Merkle (and his parents) look forward to the day when the gospel of Jesus is received in Myanmar in the 21st century thus fulfilling the 200-year-old vision of his namesake, Adoniram Judson, Jr.[ii]
+++++++++++++++
[i] Breckenridge Merkle email to compiler Jerry Cain, January 17, 2023.
[ii] Breckenridge Merkle phone conversation with compiler Jerry Cain, January 13, 2023.