Al Argo- Missionary, Author, Speaker to the World

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So enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Once a world champion wrestler, now a champion for Christ. Once the Russian nightmare, now the devil's worst nightmare. And your tag team partner, Nikita Kolov. It's time to man up. Welcome back.

Another episode. Nikita Kolov here, your host for It's Time to Man Up. Hey, the Russian nightmare. Once the Russian nightmare, now the devil's nightmare. In studio with me today. This man probably needs no introduction, but I'm going to introduce him nevertheless.

Al Argole, welcome to the Man Up show. Thank you, Nikita. It's a pleasure to be here this morning. Well, it's great to have you here and great to have you in studio because you're not only not in studio sometimes, you're not even in country sometimes. I am just honored to see you. You were supposed to be with us overseas last year, not only at the Olympics, but we, you know, we had planned the big NBA event in Philippines with our buddy Frank Shelton.

And of course, COVID canceled all that, but you can't cancel God. And so ministry goes on in Asia and in America. So I am privileged to be here with you in studio and to be able to see you face to face. Yeah. Hello.

Yeah. We hadn't seen each other in a while. And so not only in Asia, not only in America, but actually around the world, because not only does the Man Up show air on Truth Radio Network, which goes around the country, but it also goes up on all the major podcast platforms and latest count or to date, it may even be, it's probably even more at this point, but 58 countries at last date. So I say that to say, you guys are back in America, but you're not always in America. Give our listeners a little, take a minute or two and give them some backdrop on Al and your lovely bride and family.

Thank you, Nikita. Well, for the past 20 years, we've really invested our time, our energy, resources, and just our life into Asia. And so our passion is to train leaders is first of all, to see souls saved. But the Bible says make disciples and commission.

And that's right. And so we want to see people saved, but then we want to see people walk in freedom of the Holy Spirit. We want to see people discover their purpose. And we want to see people making a difference, not only in church, but even in corporate America, even in corporate Asia. And so we're just, you know, privileged to be able to have really spent 20 years, 20 years this month. And I want to talk about some of that because you're not just a missionary.

And I mean, that in itself could be a full, obviously it can be full time, is full time, but there's so many other things you do. And I want to hopefully kind of cover some or at least touch on all of those things. But let me ask a question. Why Asia? Why the Philippines?

Oh, that's a great question. So Asia, because it's the least reached for me. And Asia and Philippines, we spent the first 10 years in Singapore and work in that whole area. And we still work that whole area. You know, first of all, you can work from America in missions and prayer, right?

Everything starts in prayer. And then we had an opportunity to relocate into the Philippines. So we've spent the last nine years in Philippines in that whole area. But then we travel out from there, we raise and release leaders out into other parts of Asia. And so you have a lot of fans, actually, in Asia, by the way. Come on.

It's just crazy to me how I travel. We were in the ruins of Petra over in Jordan a number of years ago. There were wrestling fans in Petra. I'm like, for real? Like all these guys that were renting you the camels?

Like, oh, oh, you know, I'm like, for real? Like, anyway, so yeah, a lot of wrestling fans in Asia. Well, they love sports. And sports is that, you know, it's just a great way to not only release energy, but it's a great way to connect with people. And so from Australia to other parts of Asia, you know, you have fans and you know that sometimes they connect with you.

And again, if you've not connected with Nikita, you're listening to the podcast, connect with him through the show notes. You can connect. And he's, you know, I'm just so thankful that you and I met actually at a prayer breakfast in North Carolina a number of years ago. And we just stayed in touch. And the same way that you and I connect, again, you know, you love the Lord. God wants us to connect with him. And there are a lot of people in Asia who know about Christmas, but they don't really know the Christ of Christmas. And so if I can, for me, if I can write a book and connect people to Christ, that's great. If I can do a speech in corporate Asia and then people get to know me and connect them to Christ, or I just help them grow personally or professionally, that's why we've been in Asia the last 20 years. Okay.

Well, which is amazing in and of itself. And you are a connector. I mean, if you were the catalyst in connecting Nikita Kolov with tremendous Tracy Jones, who we've had on the Man Up show, Miss Tracy Jones on the Man Up show, Donny Ingram, and you were instrumental in putting together a really a monthly call that we've done for several years now. And all people who love Jesus, that's the common thread, but our book writers, book publishers, our corporate speakers, I mean, ministry conferences, it's been a great time being a part of that.

And I want to talk about that too, about some of the books you've written and some of those things that you've done. But you have two, do we call them charming boys? What do we call them? We've got two young men. They're two young men. Yeah, actually our oldest boy, Alex, is now 22, as of two weeks ago. Not long ago, he had a birthday and he is praying about serving our military. He's actually finished college in Asia, studied, he studied film and media. So, he one day can be quite the producer. He's very creative.

The Bible says in Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning God created. So, I teach a lot on creativity and my son, he's just, you know, he's just super, both boys, both boys, super creative, super athletic. The youngest boy is 19. He was invited to join the national team in his sport in Asia, but then when they found out really he has no Asian blood, you know, they wanted him to like lie and say, you know, he's got some Asian heritage, but... He got pushed off the Asian team because... Because he's all American. Because he's all American.

He's an all American boy. So, of course he, yeah, so we've got two children, 22 and 19. And who's we? Who's we? My wife, Colby and I. Yeah, yeah. I've spent the last 25 years with.

Okay. Yeah, so she and I were, we actually got to know each other in Israel. So, back long ago, we were not dating. We were young and single and both ended up on the same tour bus in Israel.

We had seen each other in the US, but not really connected in the US as much. And I was in a season of fasting dating at that time. I was dating God. Yeah, I was dating God.

I can relate to that. And then I, truth be told, she flirted with me. I'll just tell you the truth. Oh, okay. Full disclosure, full transparency.

Yes. She flirted with me and the rest, they say, is history. The old cliche, the rest is history. Here you are 25, a quarter of a century later. 25 years. That's, what a great story though.

What great memories. So, pray for her because she has to put up with me. That's true.

Yeah, well, no, I do pray for her because I know you, Al. So, come on. That is true. I'm kidding. So, well, and I'll just say this, I was called to missions at age nine. How'd you know that? Now she wasn't born at eight when I was nine. And then she was called to missions at age 15. And I didn't know her when she was 15.

She didn't know me when I was nine. Okay. And how did I know that I was called to missions?

Yes. I was in, you know, I grew up in church. My dad got saved before I was born. So I had just the joy of growing up in a Christian family. It's just because you grew up in a Christian family doesn't mean everything is perfect, right?

Right. And, but we had a good family. We love the Lord, and my mom and dad, and I'm the youngest of four. And so, you know, back then, every church had church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. And if the church doors were open, we were in church. And a missionary was speaking on a Sunday night. And I was, I was nine years old on the back hand pew of the right side of that church. And, and he made the statement, he said, if you feel the Lord's calling you to the mission field, you come down to the altar.

We want to pray for you. And I knew he was talking about me because the Lord in that service had really just spoke to my heart and said, I want you to do this for the rest of your life. And now when I was nine, I couldn't see well, I couldn't hear well, and I couldn't speak well. I could not say my own name correctly. I actually have a speech impediment.

When I was nine, I have, yeah, I just had some hearing trouble. And, and so I was extremely shy. And, and so, but I knew the Lord was calling me to the mission field at age nine.

And he said, if the, and so I hesitated for about 20 seconds. And, and then I took the first step and the second step, third step's a lot easier. That first step was the hardest.

First step, the biggest step. That would preach right there. And so I hit the altar and knelt down and the missionary, the pastor and my parents got around me and prayed for me.

And I told the Lord that night, I said, God, if you'll open up the doors, I'll go anywhere you want me to go. All feet agree. Clement's carpet is where you need to be with carpet, carpet, vinyl, tile, and hardwood from the top brands. Clemens carpet does it right from beginning to install voted number one by you in the reader's choice awards, Doug, Chad, Benny, Pee Wee, and the team at Clemens carpet look forward to seeing and serving you soon. This is Nikita Koloff, and I want to thank Clemens carpet for supporting my new show, man up Saturday afternoon at 1230 on the truth network. If you would like to support Koloff for Christ ministries for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs adoration and declaration for a gift of $50. Nikita will include his book wrestling with success. And for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, a tale of the ring and redemption.

Go to www.koloff.net and donate today. And thankfully we've been able to, we literally have been obedient and you've done that. And, and for the listener out there, you know, as you're listening to Al's story, you know, it's, it's not always that way. And I say, here's what I mean by that, Al recently did a man camp and had a man come to me during lunch, you know, later in the week and in tears. And he said, he was out on his morning devotional reading the book that we, that we give them. And he said, God spoke to him. God spoke to him and said, said, Greg, you got saved in your head years ago, but you never asked me into your heart, right? Cause it's all about the heart, right?

It's not how about head knowledge you have. It's all about the heart. And he said, I just crumbled to my knees and I was weeping. And he goes, he goes, man, I got saved this morning.

I said, how old are you, Greg? He goes 69. I go, how long have you been at church? He goes, most of my life. He goes, and I'm the chairman of the Deacons. So it's not always about your church attendance, growing up in a Christian home, attending a Christian school at some point in time, Al, right? We, we have to make that conscious decision, just like the conversation Nicodemus and the Pharisee and Jesus. Nicodemus, don't be verily, verily saying to you, you know, don't be, I mean, don't be surprised, you know, you must be born again, right? Born of the flesh, but also born of the spirit.

You are right. Uh, I wonder how many people spend their life. And in fact, the Bible talks about that. The Bible talks about people who know about God, but don't really know God and God desires a relationship.

You said something a minute ago, somebody maybe didn't catch it. A lot of people know Christmas, but they don't know Christ. They don't know the Christ of Christmas to that, to that very point, or they may have a head knowledge of like Greg did for 69 years, but the story never made the 18 inch trip from the head down to the heart.

That's what happened for me in 1993. And, and, uh, and I love your testimony. That's just an amazing, amazing testimony because you had people praying for you. You had people you didn't know praying for you, and that made an eternal difference, not only in your life, but when you think about it, all the men and all the families you've impacted for Christ, it's pretty interesting. It's pretty amazing.

It's pretty humbling actually. Okay. Um, so, so you write books, you do corporate. I know you do not just missionary work and minute you do corporate speaking.

Uh, what, what, uh, gosh, just talk to us, just take, talk to us about that. I like acronyms. And so I, I use my last name Argo, A-R-G-O as, it's really the eight focal points of positive impact leadership.

Uh, so I, I've been privileged. I used to work with John Maxwell, uh, all across, uh, Asia. We would, uh, I did his curriculum, worked with him, what worked with organization, uh, you know, in, in, uh, uh, Indonesia, Singapore, China, Vietnam, uh, going in and just training leaders, uh, uh, using his material. And then through the years, you know, I've been in Asia 20 years, I've developed my own leadership training. Uh, I also train in sales and influence because the Lord called me to the mission field. Uh, but then I, uh, my undergraduate from the university of Alabama row tied, come on, somebody out there, say row tied, roll tie. But I mean, we're, you know, we're number one, uh, a lot of times, and, uh, we just want to keep on playing some football, come on, roll on, even in the off season.

So my, so my undergraduate is, uh, from the university of Alabama and, uh, and so, but studied advertising marketing. So, so I've been privileged to train, um, companies, not only in America, but overseas, uh, in influence, um, sales, marketing, and, and it's, again, it's biblical principles, but you can apply them, uh, to corporate work. And you see your productivity increase, you see your sales increase, you see, uh, uh, you know, you see, I, we see professionals achieving more, relating better, growing quicker and overcoming obstacles. And, and, and, uh, and so with obstacles, all of us have obstacles, but some people let those obstacles, uh, stop them.

And we want them to say, no, you embrace the obstacles and you turn them into opportunities. And, uh, and so, yeah. Well, you're, you're, you're not only very gifted, uh, uh, speaker and, and, and author. I mean, I've read some of your books and, and for those listening out there, uh, we'll be sure to let them know how, how to get ahold of some of your books, but you, you do, so you don't just do leadership. I know you've done some children's books too.

You know, you've read some of the books, but your grandbabies have also read some of the kids' books. Yeah. And I appreciate that. So, so I'll just tell you a little backstory. So, so my friend Chris invited me to Australia. He leads, uh, our network of churches in Australia, and he invited me to Australia.

It wasn't probably four years ago. Uh, and he invited me not only to, to, to speak at their, uh, annual event, but he also invited me to do a, uh, a masterclass on writing books. And so at the end of that day, at the end of those, you know, two, three, four days, I was in Australia. He took, he took me and my buddy Russell out to, uh, Russell's from Japan. He took Russell and I, uh, out to ice cream and, uh, and at the end, uh, of, of, of eating ice cream, my friend Chris got the hiccups and look, I'm from the South. And so if you're, if you grew up in the South, someone, someone gets hiccups, what do you do?

You scare the fire out of them. So I turned over to him and I just, I just, he didn't, he never expected it. And I just scared the living daylights out of my friend, Chris, and the whole ice cream shop just stopped, but his hiccups were gone. And that became the first kid's book I ever wrote.

It's called Chris Get the Hiccups. And so it's like a Dr. Seuss type rhyme. And then at the end, we have educational facts.

So it's great for homeschool moms and dads. It's great for little kids because they like the rhyme and the parents like it because it's got true facts about hiccups. Like, like there's this man who had hiccups, Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 69 years. So I've just got some interesting true facts in the back of that book. And then book number one led to book number two, which is Chris Drops a Bomb. So that's number two.

A lot of, a lot of parents use that for, if they're potty training their kids. Yeah. Leave the mystery there. That's right. That's right.

Chris Drops a Bomb. Again, all the books take place in Australia, except, you know, except the very last one. So there's, there's four that are released. Number five's not released yet.

So we're working to get that released. What are the titles of the other ones? So Chris Gets the Hiccups. Chris Drops a Bomb. Chris and the World's Biggest Sneeze. And then the one that came out last year was about burping.

So Chris and the World's Biggest Burp. I don't even know the title, but you can find it on Amazon. All the arts hand drawn and every one of them rhyme like a Dr. Seuss type book. They all have educational facts. Hey, you know, and the reason they have educational facts is because you got to learn. We want, we want parents to read to their kids. We want kids to begin to read. And then we want them to learn and connect reading with learning and having fun.

I grew up reading and we want to just promote reading and literacy, not only in Asia, but in America as well. Well, and the expression is said over and over and over and over again. I'll say it again. Leaders are readers. And so the fact that you're, so when I say Al is a man of multi talented gifts, he's right. He's got children's books.

He, he goes to the other extreme on the other end of it, leadership books on leadership and, and a gifted speaker, an author. Those are just, those books are so much fun, but I like what you said, you know, we don't just want to, I just want to entertain the kids. Obviously you want to be entertained by the books, but I love the idea that you put facts in the back.

So there's actually some learning principle to it behind the entertainment of the book itself. And so what, let me ask you this. What, what do you, so what do you enjoy doing the most? I mean, we're talking, man, we're talking about a plethora of things here. What's, what do you enjoy the most?

Would you say? That's a great question. Every day holds unique opportunity. And so I enjoy connecting with people every day. I connect with different people and I do that strategically. So I have a system, I have a processing system that I teach people who, you know, who want to learn whether I'm coaching them or whether I'm doing a corporate training, I teach people how to connect strategically and, and with, with everyone, you can connect with people, you, you, you know, with people. And so I enjoy connecting. I enjoy writing. I enjoy learning. I tell people, my name's AL, A L it's an acronym for always learning. Now it's also an acronym for always laughing because I believe the Lord can bring you joy.

Right. Brings merriment to the heart, bring healing. And, and so always laughing, always learning.

Of course, my mama knows me best and she says, I'm always lying. Come on, come on. That's where, that's where John 1, John 1, 9 comes in. 1 John 1, 9 comes in there. So asking for forgiveness. Thank God for good moms. Hello, mom. I pray mom.

So, amen. I pray mom. Mom's kept me out a lot of trouble, a lot of trouble. So I was on the way to Mardi Gras one time, a long time ago. And I'm sure mama prayed and we turned the car around without knowing she was praying. Later we realized both, I was in the car with my friend, Jody Burdett.

I'm going to shout out to Jody this morning. And he and I are still close friends, but I connect with people and, and, and we just enjoy serving Asia. You know, whether it's, whether it's humanitarian work, like we've been able to respond to like the tsunami recent, you know, the, the type, whether it's a typhoon, tsunami, volcano, natural disasters, everything we get to do. Well, and let me just say this before we run out of time, let me just say this, that too, that you're in America, you guys are in America currently. You're not always in America. Obviously for anyone listening, they're like, wow, 20 years over, you know, over in the far East, over in Asia, you come back to America typically and travel around to different churches who invite you in. Because you're, you know, you're in a sense, you're kind of like Koloff for Christ Ministries, you're faith-based, meaning you rely on people sponsoring, supporting you financially. So churches will have you. So if you're a pastor out there listening, a local church, I would encourage you to have this amazing man of God and his lovely bride, Koli, in to, to share with, with your congregation, your community, and perhaps become a partner, partner with, with Al and what they're doing in impacting the world.

Cause you know, a lot of people aren't called to travel the world, but, but you obviously are. And so I just want to encourage any church out there listening to pastor out there listening to consider. And how would, how would people find out more about Al Argo, about the ministry, that sort of thing? That's a great question.

So you're right, Nikita. We are, our focus in Asia is really not only seeing souls saved, but helping churches become established, which is church planting and then discipleship. And so we do, we do large, you know, like they can go on Facebook and just check out Asia worship conference.

So all the material's still there. And so we're planning Asia worship conference, you know, every year. And then we're also planning a large leadership and evangelism conference for Asia, which, which you have a part to play in. Absolutely.

Absolutely. And, and so if people want to even donate to that ministry, it's, you know, they can receive a tax deductible donation for people who, who would like to give that you can go to, there's a URL and I'll give it to you. And I'm sure Robby can put it in the show notes, but it's just www.bit.do, so that's www.bit.do forward slash Asia missions. And so it's really simple. It's just www.bit.do forward slash Asia missions.

Not simple for me to remember, however. But we can get that for our listeners. And, and again, we do. Do you have a website though? We, we are revamping the ministry and corporate website.

And again, at this time, but, but people can connect with us on LinkedIn. Amazon, they find your books on Amazon. They find all the books on Amazon.

They can find all the books on Audible, on iTunes, and just search Al Argo or Chris gets the hiccups or. Chris drops a bomb, our case here. We've got what that book's about.

Chris dropped a bomb. Moving on, moving on. So I do have a brand new book called bless beyond stress, which is all about overcoming adversity, managing stress and living a life of resilience. So I, in that book, I tell my skydive an accident story, how I jumped out of a plane and my parachute did not open completely or correctly. You're going to leave people hanging on that story. We don't have enough time, but yeah.

So check jumping out of a parachute and it not opening completely or correctly. I learned how to pray that day in the power of the Holy spirit. I bet you did.

I would have, yeah, it was like, my prayer would have been Jesus. I'm coming to meet you. Come on, but I've been very fortunate. I'm very fortunate to be in studio with you.

You read a lot of, but man, so gifted writers, speaker, missionary heart for Jesus, man. It's amazing. It's amazing to, I'm just thankful it worked out for you to be in the studio. Me too. Thank you, Nikita for having me today.

What a pleasure to be with Nikita Koloff and, and just to meet you. You know, I watched it. I watched it a little, uh, Jody and I watched it again. Jody was my best friend since I was like 12 and now I've got a lot of best friends. I've got like 15 to 20 guys that I'm close to. Well, you're way ahead of the game. And so friends are important.

Yeah. Friends are important. And so, and I think in every state I have not every state, but that would be a goal for me to have friends around the world. And so, but, but I'm very close to several, several men, including you appreciate your friendship, appreciate your mentorship. And, and I just enjoy our monthly meetings that you and I've been able to do. And I would encourage men, uh, and, and even, even, uh, for all your, all of our, uh, lady listeners, just, just connect with God and connect with your family and connect with others in a real and meaningful way.

That's a good word. And now I won't hold it against you, the fact that you weren't a wrestling fan. And so, uh, Hey, thanks for tuning in today to the Man Up Show. Al Argo, I hope you were blessed by this conversation.

What an amazing man of God, his lovely bride, uh, there to support him along the way. And we'll catch you at another time on another episode of It's Time to Man Up. If you've enjoyed the Man Up radio show and or the Man Up podcast, well, guess what? It's time to Man Up TV style. That's right. You heard me 2022, the Man Up TV show, the Man Up show on MorningStarTV.com.

That's right. Tune in, dial in to Man Up on MorningStarTV.com. Nikita Koloff here.

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