Soul Food Ministry continued international outreach through Internet evangelism in 6 different languages. We received visitors from 106 different countries, with substantial numbers from Mexico and Brazil. Over the year we saw a sizeable increase in the number of articles downloaded from the site. For January of 2002, the total number of hits was 17,178, with the language breakdown as follows: 8,106 in English, 7,282 in Spanish, 559 in French, 982 in Portuguese and 145 in Russian. For November of 2002, the total number of articles downloaded were 25,115, with a language breakdown of: 10,312 in English, 10,891 in Spanish, 972 in French, 2,600 in Portuguese, 112 in Russian and 188 in Chinese. Although final totals for December are not yet available, preliminary numbers indicate traffic will be similar to that in November. As of May of this year, more Spanish articles are being downloaded than English articles. The traffic on the Portuguese pages has nearly tripled.

          Rev. Dr. Bochonok continues to write articles in English for the site. A major effort this year has been the "To Zimbabwe with Love" series, which is intended to minister to people from Zimbabwe, or any other country, who are afflicted with hunger, disease, civil unrest and government oppression. In addition, she wrote the "New Life in Christ" series, which was identified as "The Church and Mission" in last year's list of goals for 2002. The "Faith Journey" spiritual retreat was held at MCC-DC in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 disaster, and was subsequently posted on the website.

          We have also posted many articles from other pastors, both from within and without UFMCC. Many of the 5 Minute Bible Studies, written by Holy Redeemer MCC pastors Rev. Clay Witt and Rev. Gail Hicks, are now on our site. Rev. Vera Bourne, an Anglican minister from Australia, contributed a Chanukah article, "A Star at Chanukah". In addition we posted many denomination-produced articles, such as "Our Story Too...Reading the Bible with New Eyes" by Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson, "HIV/AIDS: Is It God's Judgment?" by the UFMCC Commission on Faith, Fellowship and Order and revised by Rev. Stephen Pieters, "Homosexuality: Not a Sin...Not a Sickness" by Rev. Elder Donald Eastman. We already had French translations of most of these documents, thanks to Fabrice Lebert of the MCC in Provence-Languedoc, and were also able to find and post Portuguese and Spanish translations of many of them. Finally, we posted both Portuguese and English versions of 5 articles by Rev. Luiz Fernando Pereira Garupe from the Emmaus Community MCC in São Paulo, Brazil.

          We are continuing to translate English articles on the site into other languages. A major success was to get the Advent 2000 Devotions, written by Rev. Bochonok and Rev. Bourne, into Spanish and French. These devotions have proven very popular in the Advent season in all 3 languages. In addition, we posted a Chinese version of "Christianity and Homosexuality", originally produced by the Canaan Fellowship in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Rev. Bochonok had been given this document, in Chinese, as a hard copy at the General Conference in Toronto in 2001. We went through an 8 month odyssey of optical character recognition, proofreading by someone who actually speaks Chinese, and HTML conversion to put this document on the site.

          Rev. Bochonok is sometimes called upon to minister to people who read our articles. One notable case is a man from Rio de Janeiro, with whom we connected via E-mail and whom we guided to the MCC there. We make a special effort to point people to MCC's near them by posting links to UFMCC churches on our web site. We also continue our association with the Internet Intercessory Prayer Team, sending people who need prayer to them. Soul Food volunteer Geraldine Wright helps translate incoming Portuguese prayer requests into English.

          Finally, Rev. Bochonok, assisted by Soul Food volunteer Geraldine Wright, was a co-presenter in a workshop at the Region 2 conference in October in which she described Soul Food Ministry.

Other goals for 2002 not previously mentioned:

• Translation of the Advent 2000 Devotions into Portuguese - We only had sufficient resources to do the Spanish and French translations of this document, so the Portuguese did not get done. We expect the Portuguese translation to be done in 2003.



• Translation of the Lent 2000 Devotions written by Rev. Bochonok and Rev. Bourne - Again, lack of resources prevented these translations being done. With the church's help, we expect to get this document into Spanish in 2003.



• Recruit additional volunteers - This is an ongoing process. We have gotten people to volunteer for specific tasks over a short period of time, but no one has been willing to make a serious commitment yet. We are learning to work with whatever commitment we can get from volunteers.



• Publish Rev. Bochonok's book, "Living as the Beloved" - Not yet. We expect it to be out early in 2003.

Additional goals for 2003 not already mentioned:

• Continue the "To Zimbabwe with Love" series - Rev. Bochonok's contacts in Zimbabwe have asked her to continue ministering to them through these devotions, since they continue to be afflicted by starvation and AIDS.



• Develop a fundraising/recruitment/publicity strategy - Our vision is significantly larger than what can be accomplished with the current team, so we need more money and people. We will consult with an expert to help us identify grant opportunities, fundraising techniques, and ways to attract new team members.



• Expand the number of articles in French



• Post a Russian translation of "The Bible and Homosexuality"



• Conduct a workshop at General Conference in Dallas in 2003 - pending denomination approval