Soul Food Ministry has continued to post reflections in 5 languages which seek to meet the needs of Gay and Lesbian spiritual seekers on the Internet. At the 200l General Conference in Toronto, Soul Food Ministry received the UFMCC Commission on Laity Award for our outreach to non-English speaking people. We now reach people in more than 100 countries, from every continent (except Antarctica!). There has been a steady increase over the year in the site traffic. In January of 2001 the total site traffic was 11,084 hits, which breaks down to: 6,620 in English, 3,588 in Spanish, 390 in French, 355 in Portuguese, and 131 in Russian. By November of 2001, the total traffic was 14,531, which breaks down into: 6,628 for English, 6,371 for Spanish, 454 for French, 929 for Portuguese and 149 for Russian. Final numbers for December are not available, but based on statistics for the first part of the month, we expect around 20,500 total hits for December, with around 10,600 in English, 8000 in Spanish, 650 in French, 1000 in Portuguese and 200 in Russian.

          Rev. Dr. Sandra Bochonok has written many new articles for the site, including a series of devotions for walking the Labyrinth, reflections for World Aids Day, a retreat for Ember Day, an article offering spiritual comfort in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and a series of reflections about becoming and growing as a Christian. In addition, we posted a reflection by Rev. Gail Hicks, of our parish extension Holy Redeemer MCC, about the September 11 attacks, and Reverend Vera Bourne, an Australian minister, submitted a set of Epiphany articles for posting in 2002.

          The number of articles posted in other languages has grown as well. We finished translations of Rev. Dr. Bochonok's "One Day At A Time" daily devotions into Spanish, thus fulfilling one of our goals for the year. Another of the year's goals, increasing the number of Portuguese and French articles, has been accomplished. The number of articles in Portuguese has doubled, and the number of articles in French has increased by 50%. We have significantly increased the number of links on the Spanish, Portuguese and French pages, in particular trying to make sure there were links for people seeking UFMCC churches speaking their own languages. We also included links for on-line Bibles, since it cannot be assumed that everyone owns a copy. The French pages have been restyled to look like the others, so that there is a uniform interface for readers, regardless of the language in which they want to read the site.

          We continue our association with the MCC-DC Internet Intercessory Prayer team. There are now invitations to contact the Prayer Team in 4 languages on the site, since we recently added the invitation in French, which was another of the goals for the year. We also helped the Prayer team locate someone who can translate prayer requests in French, in anticipation of the French prayer requests which will begin to come in. In addition, one of the Soul Food Ministry volunteers does translations of Portuguese prayer requests for the Prayer Team.

          Rev. Dr. Bochonok also provides Spiritual counseling for readers who request it. With the help of multilingual friends, she has now counseled people who have sent in requests in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Additional goals from last year, not previously mentioned:

• Translate the Advent and Lent Devotionals written by Rev. Dr. Bochonok and God's Gnome into Spanish, Portuguese and French. This did not get done. We did not receive any of the grants which we identified as critical for this task. Seeking alternative funding for these translations is one of our goals for 2002.



• Recruit additional volunteers. This is ongoing. The potential volunteers we identified last year did not work out. We are getting some help at this point from a man who is checking the Spanish translations for errors, but we need more people. This is one of the goals for 2002.



• Locate a reliable French translator. Done. The company who does the Portuguese translations for us also does French.

Additional goals for 2002, not already mentioned:

• Post a Chinese version of "The Bible and Homosexuality". We already have a copy of the document. We need to get it into electronic format and convert it into HTML.



• Solicit writings from other gay clergy, both UFMCC and non-UFMCC, to post on the site.



• Work with Chi Rho press to publish Rev. Dr. Bochonok's book of Daily Devotions, "Living as the Beloved".



• Write a series of reflections on "The Church and Mission" and "The Church and Spiritual Gifts". This is part of Rev. Dr. Bochonok's series of reflections on becoming and growing as a Christian.