July 8

I Bring You Down, Declares The Lord

The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, Who can bring me down to the ground? Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord . . . All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it.

Obadiah 3-4 and 7

It was the peak of the hippie era in the 1960s when Tom Mahairas was soaring high in New York City as the leader of a rock band. “By the time I was eighteen,” he recalls, “I had cut some records and was ready to sign a recording contract. Some people would say I had everything, but deep down I was not happy.” Like so many around him, he was deep into the drug scene.

“If I wasn’t high, I wasn’t happy”—but his highs only brought more lows, and his friends became his enemies. He lived with his girlfriend, Vicky, but his thinking had become so distorted that he became convinced she was the devil trying to trick him. Finally, he realized how low he actually was as he pondered his situation one summer day in Central Park.

"I was sitting by Bethesda Fountain high on LSD. In front of me were a group of Hare Krishnas chanting. To the left some hippies were tossing a Frisbee, and on my right an Indian guru sat surrounded by his followers. I looked at the scene like I was in the future; I disassociated myself from it. I watched and thought, ‘Man, I’m not going to do this for the rest of my life!’ So I walked over to the West Side Highway and hitched a ride upstate to Lake George. By this time, I thought I was the reincarnation of Christ, and I wanted to be in touch with something higher.”

After Tom arrived at Lake George, he met a young man on an evangelism outing from Word of Life Island in nearby Schroon Lake, who invited him to visit that youth retreat and to meet with its founder Jack Wyrtzen.

That memorable day in July of 1966 was the beginning of a new life for him. He committed his life to Christ and immediately called Vicky to share the news with her. She was initially skeptical “because under the influence of LSD he had already seen Krishna, Buddha and Allah” but as soon as he poured out his testimony she knew he was sincere and she too believed.

In 1971, he and Vicky were married, and in the years since they have pioneered a far-reaching ministry in New York City. Their ministry is associated with the church they founded, the Manhattan Bible Church, which began in their living room and has since grown to over seven hundred people.

Reaching out into the largely Hispanic neighborhoods, the ministry sponsors a Christian Academy, a Gospel Outreach program, a Love Kitchen offering meals to the homeless five days a week, and a Transformation Life Center, a drug rehabilitation program that ministers to young men, many of whom, like Tom, go on to lead productive Christian lives. ⁸