For several months a group to which I belong at First United Methodist Church of San Diego has been focusing on the humanity of Jesus. In doing so we have moved attention away from the, shall we say, magical stories told about him. We have been trying to see his life more as we think it actually was than as a Harry Potter kind of experience that ended tragically. Most of us in the group have come to think of him not in the same category as hobbits, trolls and unicorns. He was almost certainly not the conjurer that some of the Biblical writers and some modern-day preachers and teachers suggest he was. The words of the Christmas carol we sang as children say it best. He was our brother, kind and good.

We had someone visiting our group this morning, Marita Viloria, who has, as we say in America... “put her money where her mouth is...” In Baguio, Philippines, she has begun a program to help young prostitutes get education so they can get out of the oldest profession before they become too old and unattractive to continue their “work.” She is not judgmental. She knows they and their children could probably not survive without the income they earn selling their bodies. She gives them practical health information in her effort to keep them as safe as possible until they and their children can break away from their pimps. Most of the women and men prostitutes get into the business when are still children. Most are sold into sex slavery by their parents or other relatives. There are thousands of them in Baguio and millions more all over Asia.

On another subject: My doves are doing well. The male hasn’t shown up at all. The female was away from the nest almost all day yesterday and today. The time is seven thirty in the evening as I write this, and she still hasn’t come back to the nest. I took pictures of the two chicks today. I continue to be amazed at the rate of their growth. The feathers on their heads are now almost as smooth as those on their mother’s head, and just four days ago they were barely able to hold their frizzy heads up.All of today's pictures are of the chicks. In the photo above they look as if they could fly already. Of course, they can't; so I am being careful not to scare them into trying to fly away. Their mother will know when they are ready.