Sweating it Out
They call New York City a melting pot and they're not kidding. This week a crippling heat wave has had us under its spell. Even my Mississippi friends might find this a bit extreme. In the three years I spent down there, I don't remember temperatures cracking 100 degrees. We've had three consecutive days where (depending on where you live) the mercury hit the century mark. People are dragging themselves around. The power grid in the city is under unusual stress resulting in scattered power outages around the five boroughs. I'm glad our VBS program was last week because if it were this week, there may have been some casualties. It's hard to think of anything else but how to keep cool. Yet we press on.
Fortunately, the heat is expected to break tonight with a savage rain storm. Much lower humidity and heat is expected to bring us a comfortable weekend and coming week. That's good news for Ascension Church because the school auditorium where we worship has no air conditioning. I know my deep south friends can't relate to the concept of any building not having central air, but many of the older edifices in the North are more accomodating to cold weather than hot.
The heat presents another challenge for the new part-time/job seeking status in which I now find myself. Pounding the pavement looking for work in 100 degree heat and humidity is quite a challenge. My job search has two faces. On one level, I'm looking for temporary gigs for some quick cash so I can pay the bills which are arriving faster than the money. On another level, I'm looking to firm up some full time work at the same time to stabilize my income. Obviously, I am maintaining part-time status with the church as well. I feel like I'm back in seminary where I took numerous odd jobs to pay the bills while studying for my M.Div. It may give some people heart failure, but it gives me kind of a rush.
I have nailed down a good gig working promotion for the Improv (I'm still doing the occasional stand-up routine at the New York Comedy Club). The job can be full time if I do well, but it's flexible enough to allow me time to search for full-time stable jobs. The Improv is the most well-known comedy club in the city. Major comics have taken the stage there over the years including two guys from Queens who you may have heard of, Rodney Dangerfield and Jerry Seinfeld. Does the name Jack Raplee go with those two? You tell me. I need to find enough work to make up for my reduced church income on this side of Redeemer's Fellows program and raise additional funds to work me more and more into the church's budget so I can focus my efforts in a Gospel direction.
Please continue to pray for my job search to stabilize so I can concentrate on the things that matter most to me: working to proclaim God's Kingdom in central Queens, and paying my bills.