The Gospel Music Association recently honored Candy Christmas, founder of The Bridge Ministry, during the Second Annual GMA Honors held at Lipscomb University's Allen Arena. The event celebrated those individuals and organizations that impact culture through their individual efforts. Christmas was recognized for her contribution in service to the Nashville, Tennessee community through her organization, The Bridge Ministry.

Accolades from a diverse group including Governor Mike Huckabee, Reba McEntire and Journey’s Jonathan Cain honored the ministry. The most poignant acknowledgment, however, came from formally homeless Jeff Stultz, who said his life was changed when he met Christmas under the Jefferson Street Bridge.

Begun in November 2004, The Bridge was formed out of a desire to help feed and clothe the homeless of Nashville. Christmas started taking huge pots of jambalaya to the homeless living under the Jefferson Street Bridge. After seeing that the need was far greater than just one hot meal a week, she began to collect clothing and nonperishable food items to pass out to her friends. She stored it all in her garage, and friends volunteered to fill grocery bags with food. The ministry grew as more people learned about it and caught the vision.

The Bridge is now housed in a 20,000-square-foot warehouse that not only stores the food for the Tuesday evening services, but also acts as a local food bank for other area ministries. The Bridge Ministry also aids schoolchildren on assisted lunch programs by filling their backpacks with food Friday afternoons so that they have something to eat on the weekend. There are 11,000 homeless in Middle Tennessee, and of that number, 4,000 are children.

The 2nd Annual GMA Honors event was held May 5 and is set to air on TBN's JUCE TV on Friday, June 5 at 7 p.m. PST/10 p.m. EST and Saturday, June 6 at 12 p.m. PST/3 p.m. EST. The next GMA Honors ceremony date will be held May 10, 2016.

Along with Candy Christmas, the GMA Honors recipients include Bishop Paul S. Morton, founding bishop of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International; Passion, founded by Louie and Shelley Giglio; and Porter’s Call, founded by Al Andrews. In conjunction with the Honors, the GMA inducted BeBe and CeCe Winans, Mark Lowry, Roland Lundy and Twila Paris into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

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