This is the Truth Network. This Here's the United States champion. He became my first savior. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one fall. Introducing first from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kola.
Now, the devil's nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Have you ever seen The movie Blackhawk down. If not, I assure you after my conversation Today, you will want to go out and watch that movie With me today, the one and only Chad Craven. Chad, welcome to the Man Up Show.
Thank you, sir. It's a pleasure to be here. Or, Chad, should I say aka Chad Zone? Yeah, that's that's one way of looking at it. And I'm I'm I'm not even sure what you mentioned it to me in prior conversations.
I I I we'll talk about I'm not even sure what that means, but I'm like I remember you say, Yeah, some people know me as Chad Zone. I'm like, Okay, all right. Yeah, it's um it's it's funny you mentioned that because uh It's um I do a lot I do YouTube videos when see when when I fish I fish, you know, a lot of professional tournaments.
Okay. And I get so excited. You know, it's like Mike Icanelli almost excited. And people over over time the Tad Zone just started to develop.
Okay. Over a period of time doing YouTube channel, you know, YouTube videos and all that good stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He just appears. And so you, I mean, so you're.
Considered a pro fisherman? Yes, sir. I do a lot of professional bass fishing. I do. Fish a lot of big tournaments.
You know, you may have mentioned that to, or maybe it just slipped my mind, or maybe I either didn't know or didn't remember, but that's a. That's a good reminder.
So pro so how many how long have you been doing that, Chad? Um, let's see. I have been fishing those tournaments. Gosh. Probably At this level, probably Fifteen years now, probably.
Fifteen years. And and I'm guessing uh you've won a few tournaments over the years? Yes, sir. Um, I have. Uh won quite a few, you know, locally and some afar, but, you know, there's nothing too big to mention, but you know They're wins for me.
Yeah, absolutely. Hey, any trophy, you know, I didn't always win the biggest belt, but any belt I won was an accomplishment, right? Absolutely, yes, sir. Or anything like that.
So, well, that's pretty mean.
Now, and you're down in South Carolina, is that correct? Yes, sir. Right outside of Columbia. Yes, sir. Irmo.
Irmo. T take a minute and uh tell tell us about your family, Chad. Tell us tell us about what now? Tell us about the family. Um, my family is pretty much a down to earth type of family.
you know, our ours What we like to do is Help people. And what I mean by that is, um Like say if I'm at the grocery store or me and my wife are at the grocery store or whatever and somebody's standing up there and they're having a little hard time paying. We'll pay for their groceries. Come on. Yeah.
Or if I tell you what I do sometimes. Um I'm a licensed barber. Um, what they call a master barber.
Okay. Um, I'll go downtown to to Columbia and set up shop. and give people free haircuts. Wow.
Sometimes I'll go to like what we call Carolina Children's Home. And I'll cut those kids' hair for free.
Well, I didn't know you were a man of such a diversified many talents, Chad. I didn't know that. I'm learning all kinds of things about you.
So, master, barber, pro fisherman. We're going to talk about your military career here in just a little bit. But. What did it say? Jack of all trades, master of none?
A jack I don't know. You just said you were a master barber.
So that statement it doesn't hold true 'cause yeah what what is it out of curiosity, I'm just a random question. What does it take to become a master barber? What qualifies you? Really? You know, that's a good question.
All I did was went to school and took a test.
Okay. And I am uh A cosmetology instructor, also.
Okay. So all I had to do was. Go and take what they call your practical test, which is your hands-on. And once I did that, Then it became Master Barber. I'm not sure what you what entails Um going to school.
Getting your barber's license, and then what you have to do to become a master barber. I don't know what that part is. I just know when I went to Cosmetology School. and got out. or or graduated Two years later, I was eligible to go and became become a cosmetology instructor.
So I went and did that because I thought, you know, it'd help out and be another feather in my cap.
So I did that.
Well I didn't care and I'm not saying this in in a very in a mean way. I didn't care to do women's hair, so to speak. I mean, it was I I've done it, but I don't care to do it. I'm more focused on cutting men. You know, being a barber.
So that's I used that as a tool to get my master barber's license. Yeah. And I didn't have to go to school or anything of that nature in order to do it. Does that make sense? It does.
It does. Absolutely. Total sense. And where my barbering came in, this is a funny story. Um I was on float.
During my when I was in the Marine Corps, I was on float. We were doing a um I was on the USS Essex. And at the bottom of the ship, They have a barber shop.
Now Marines have got to you know, pretty much Keep their standard haircuts regardless of where you're at.
So Me and a buddy of mine went down to the bar went down to the barber shop. And we're sitting there getting ready to, you know, get our hair cuts. And there was a n no offense against the Navy. We love the Navy. When it's time to fight, they always give us a rise.
Love that. Yep.
So we were sitting there, and the Navy guy was cutting hair.
Well, Now this is the way it looked to me. When people would get up out the chair, The hair was jacked up more than it was before they sat down.
Okay. So my buddy sitting next to me I looked at him and I said, Hey, Let me cut your hair. I said, I can't jack it up no worse than what he's doing it. My buddy looked at me and said, Okay, go ahead So I gathered up some tools, I cut his hair. It looked really nice.
I was like, you know what? This is a pretty cool idea.
Well, one of the higher ups that was, I guess, over the ship or whatever. Seeing what I had done, And he went and talked to my captain and said, I want this guy down here on every Friday cutting air. And that's how that got started. That's how that got started. That's the backstory on that.
Well, hey, a little funny side note, which you probably wouldn't know this, but just. Just recently, I was up in Virginia and had the privilege of touring the Norfolk Naval Base. Absolutely. And I got a private tour of an active nuclear submarine as well as an aircraft carrier. Those things are amazing, aren't they?
Unbelievable. I was on the very newest commission, the the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, and yeah, the submarine blew me away. I'm just yeah, that I just I yeah, I don't even have words. You know?
We took a submarine one time From Uh San Diego to LA. Uh and then turn around and come back and uh I have nothing but the utmost respect for those guys who can do that. Yeah, that is not my cup of tea. I felt claustrophobic. Yeah, I just could not do it.
No, you've got to be a special person to do that. You've got to be. I asked to do give me the tour. I said so I said so hey if I can ask you know what's the longest you Been underwater without coming to the surface. He told me two months.
I'm like, uh-uh. Hey, but no way. Right. It seems like you forget the days. You don't know what day and night.
Yeah, that's right. Everything blends together.
Well, on that note, on that note, now what you mentioned your lovely bride. What's her name? Tracy. And and how long ha are you and Trace Miss Tracy been together? been together all together 15 years.
and been married fourteen. Got you 14 years of marriage.
Well, congratulations on that. That's amazing. Thank you, sir. And so, Chad, recently. You had attended attended uh Mancamp, you're a Man Camp alumni.
And One of the reasons I want to have you on the show, and even with the opening, and talking about the movie Blackhawk Down, and for those who. For those who don't know, it was a movie came out in 2001. Called Black Hawk Down. And it was essentially. uh portraying uh uh military went into Somalia, Mogadishu, uh and and initially correct me if I'm wrong, Chad, but uh humanitarian it was really initially gonna be like a humanitarian kind of thing, humanitarian aid and food, excuse me, food, that sort of thing.
And uh and and of course turned into turned into something else. But you you were a part of that. You were uh one of the platoons that were a part of that, correct? Yes, sir. We um We we're able to We were pretty much told that's where we were going.
And We were like, okay.
Okay. In the beginning, you're like, well, you don't quite know what to expect.
Well, when we got there, um, the Army was already there.
So we just attach to them sorta, kinda. I mean, we was we was in our own, but We were attached to them.
So One minute. everything is your your Adrenaline is pumping like crazy. You don't know what to expect. First round goes off, and excuse my French, All hellbricks loose. And you don't know whether you coming or going.
You know, and I can say that that movie, Blackhawk Down, doesn't do it justice because to me it was ten times worse. Gotcha. I mean, that's one of the one of the worst things I've ever been a part of. And I don't recommend it for anybody. Yeah.
And so the movie sounds like they may have really toned it down, and probably rightfully so. There were some parts that were now I haven't seen the whole movie.
Okay. I've just seen bits and pieces of it because it's hard for me to watch. I'm sure. I would imagine. Yeah, that was going to be my next question.
Yeah. Um, it was the parts that I did see Um It doesn't it doesn't Give you the Exact feeling of when you were there. And what I mean by that is You can look on to even know their actors. You can look on their faces and you can't comprehend what it's like actually be in there. Sure.
Does that make sense? Yeah, no, total sense. The facial expressions. And the way the guys or at least my guys, the way we came together. It's nothing like you've ever experienced until you've experienced it.
Yeah, until you're in that setting. And you can, to the best of my imagination, I can think of what it might have been like. But until I'm actually in that setting, I get it. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. If you would like to support Kolof for Christ Ministries, for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration.
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You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Now you and I have a uh a mu I guess in a sense a I don't know mutual friend. I mean but I The commander over that unit was a guy by the name of Jerry Boykin, who is a retired, now retired Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin. And I know you recognized that name when we were talking and discussing some of this. And something happened at Man Camp, though, that really you shared that really impacted me.
personally, you were without getting too deep in the weeds, you were you know, just kind of you kind of o opened up one night and just said, you know, had wanted to share some things that was on your heart and some things that That you had been holding on to since going back to 1993 when this happened in Somalia. Yeah. And you were ready to, you know, you were just ready to let some things go and didn't didn't want to hold on to some of those things any longer. And then you said, you looked at me, Chad, as I, as I, Thinking back on it, you said, and a kid, I've got something I want to give you. I don't remember the exact words, but essentially, the Lord had put it on your heart to give me something.
And I'm like, okay. And you pulled out of your pocket, which I, you know, cherish to this day, you pull out of your pocket this star, and you said, This was a piece. And correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, but this is a piece of the flag that flew in the camp. At Mogadishu, and it was one of the stars, and you'd been carrying it every day. Since 1993.
Is that accurate? Yes, sir. There was a flag that was flying over our little camp. Yeah. And when when all was said and done, it was time to go and all that good stuff and we were taking stuff down.
the flag was so tathered, we were going to have to retire it anyway.
So I Asked my guys, I said, Look, I said, as a reminder, let's take some. cut these stars out and keep them in our pockets.
So that's what we did. Yeah. And then after we cut the stars out, We were you know, of course we were tired to flag or whatever, but I mean, it wasn't necessarily the right thing to do, but I thought it would at the time. Yeah. It was, you know, it was a memory.
I mean, a memory. Right. A sentimental thing. Because. We knew at the end of this, some were going to leave, some were going to stay.
Mm.
So we wanted Um Some were getting out, some were staying in.
So I wanted those guys that were getting out to have something. To say hey. I was there when that happened. And those were my buddies that were there too. Yeah, look back on and have that, if you want to say that memory or that, you know, in a way, that momentum, so to speak.
And all part of your platoon.
Now, now. We're at camp, and so you give me that, and uh. And it was pretty, I was like, you know, really blown away by that. And then you, you did, you did lay things down. You let things go and laid things down.
And I know, in speaking afterwards, you had shared with me that in doing that and even handing, you know, that star off to me. That you just felt a real sense, that was the beginning of a process of just really receiving some healing from that experience in Mogadishu and there in Somalia. And then, what led to even your return home, I know you were sharing with me too, that you'd since been water baptized and you're plugged in. You said your marriage was just. you know, you're just crushing it on on your marriage.
Take take a minute and just share how that experience at camp has now led, if you kind of want coming out of that, to where you currently are today and and what's happening in your life today, Chad.
Okay. One one of the things I wanted to say about about that star too is A lot of us who are combat veterans Mm-hmm. We suffer from a a few things. One being P T S D, which I have Really bad. And number two.
Survival's guilt. Mm.
Me releasing that and giving you That star was my way of getting rid of survivor's guilt, so to speak. Yeah. My PTSD is going to always be with me. There's nothing I can do to get rid of it.
So I've accepted that. But I'm going to tell you this. You asked me to tell a little bit about Mancamp and what it's done for me. First of all, I want to say Thank you to you. into legs.
For having a place for somebody like me who was so lost.
So selfish. and so unforgiving. to come and actually get to know what I was missing. And I was missing the Lord. And while I was there, and I'm going to share this, I'm not going to share too much about it because that place is just 100% awesome to me.
I love it. One thing I'm going to share is you had mentioned Yeah. And for some reason, this resonated with me, and it has clicked with me, and it's 100% the truth. Most people think they know God. There's two different ways.
You know God with your mind. But you don't know God with your heart. And when you said there's a difference of eighteen inches. When that The very first statement hit me. I was like, what in the world is he talking about?
18 inches. And you pointed to your mind and you said, People know God. but down eighteen inches There's where you should know God and you point it to your heart. and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm like, Oh my goodness That's what that's it.
That's what I have been missing. And I knew right then When that was said, Man camp was going to change my life forever. I knew it. I just, it just, it was like when you said that, like a major. major calm come over me.
I said, I'm going to be all right. And one of the one of the other experiences that I've seen is I wasn't alone. I seen other men there hurting just like I was. And in the very beginning, when you first come, you know, you don't know what to I didn't know what to expect. You know.
And when you first get there you're sizing each other up, kind of asking questions, where you're from, this and that, but you're still kind of standoffish type. But as the program goes along, It's amazing to watch people change right in front of your eyes. Yeah. And then knowing that you're one of them. Oh, man.
There's nothing on this planet like it. A mapping.
Well, I tell you what, two things I made note of what you were saying. You know, the. The 18-inch trip. And that rings true in my own life. For 34 years of my life, I knew of God.
I just didn't know God until I opened up my heart in 1993. Actually, believe it or not, we're talking about your experience in Somalia in 1993. And 17 October 1993 is when I encountered Jesus. You had a deep encounter this past spring at man camp there in Georgia. And I wrote down what a transformation.
I wrote down because I had never heard of survivors' guilt before, but just the fact that God has set you now free of that and healed your heart regarding that. And that's amazing. And we only got a couple minutes left, but you have since been, you've been water baptized, right?
So now you've followed Jesus. I have. I have joined a church. It's called Somalia. Second chance.
I have va started volunteering. That's something I would never do before.
Okay. You know, because I didn't know. I knew God, but I didn't know God. Yeah. And when everything come into place, It I'm te when I say man, I can't tell people enough.
Come on. Man camp changed my life forever. Come on. And you're married? to the ungrateful, selfish human I used to be.
I'll never go back to that guy. That guy was left in Georgia. And interestingly enough, a little side note: if somebody out there listening ever ends up coming to camp, there is a literal graveyard at the camp a bone they call it the boneyard. For just animals, deer, horses, different things that needed a place to go. And there have been many a men.
Who have come down to a 10-man camp there in a little town called Royston, Georgia, who have, God has directed their path to that boneyard. and have left many things there and went back home grateful. Chad just mentioned being so ungrateful and selfish, just like he left all that there.
So can you. And so you're volunteering, you've been water baptized, you're at Second Chance Church. And last but not least, the camp enhanced your marriage as well, right? And our last minute for you. Absolutely.
No, there's one thing that you had said, too, that You know, life was going to hit right now whenever we had our last circle standing outside. Yeah. You told us when we leave here. Get ready. Get ready, because life's going to hit you.
And that is 100% true. Yeah, go ahead. But one of the great things is. is my wife have seen the changes in me. She has seen the major changes in me.
And my marriage now is stronger than it's ever been. because all she ever wanted, and I didn't take note to this, Because I was greedy and I was selfish and it was all for me, me, me, me.
Well see, I didn't take note to it. Until I got back. And she started to see the change in me that all she ever wanted was a God-fearing man to lead his household. spiritually. a God fearing man to lead his household spiritually.
And there's probably another woman or two out there hoping for that very same thing, Chad, as you share your story today. And yes, sir. That's amazing. I'm gonna tell you what. I'll tell you what's amazing.
and I got goosebumps talking to you. And if there's anybody out there listening and you want to go to this man camp, 100% do it. Because I know Personal experience. Mm-hmm. If that place can change me, It can change anybody.
No, that's that's and that's the God's honest truth if I ever told it because it has changed my life tremendous. And Nikita, again, I can't thank you enough. for what you have done with that place. Thank you, Chad. I mean, it's that's good.
It's true. I understand. Chad Craven, man. Blackhawk down. And what a powerful story and testimony of what God's doing in and through him.
Aka Chad Zone. Pro-Bass Fisherman, as well, Master Barber. Chad, thank you for serving in our military, too, by the way. I really appreciate that as well. Absolutely.
And hey, if you want information on the man camp, you're probably wondering how you get mancamp.info. If Chad's story today has stirred something inside of you, male or female out there, you want to send your husband or boyfriend or dad or son, go check it out. And hope you'll hope to see you there in the spring or the fall. We do it two times a year. And so, hey, all you out there in listening land, thanks for tuning in.
You're so faithful. Go out today, be challenged. By Chad's story, and have a God-filled and live a God-blessed day today. Until next time. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God.
and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to colof.net and donate. Good day. If you are enjoying the Man Up Show, would you help us spread the word?
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