Santosh- Against All Odds- He Made it to the Top

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Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Man, I have a special, special guest on the show today here in studio. We are in studio, and I'm going to need help pronouncing his name, because it's not like John Smith or anything. Santosh, help me out with your name.

Santosh Agamkar, and it's an Indian name, so it's content. Easy for you to say. Welcome to The Man Up Show. Thank you, thank you. Real opportunity you have given me here.

Really appreciate giving this time, and I'm really looking forward to sharing with you what the Lord has done. Well, I'm excited to have you on the show. Now, we met. For our listeners out there, give a little backdrop. Of course, you mentioned India, so right away, as they're hearing the introduction of your name, they're like, okay, that's not an American name, perhaps.

That's not an English name. So, India. Give our listeners a little background. So, you've been in America how long, obviously? Born in India? Correct.

I was born in India, of course, and then 1985, I came to this country to go to, actually, my brother helped me to come to this country, and then I went to Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia, to study television, because I had a little radio experience back in India. So, that really triggered me, and of course, during 1980s and 90s, I guess here, still black and white TV, or maybe color TV was coming up, but back in India, we had all black and white TV that time. In the 80s, in the 1980s?

Yes. Oh my gosh, okay. And then, I was very interested learning about television, everything about producing, to directing, to managing, to all those things. So, honestly, I mean, Lord opened the door for me there, because I did not have any money to go to Liberty University. That time, tuition was $16,000 a year. Okay, I think it's a little bit more now, but... Oh yeah, yeah, that time. Of course, it's double now. Right. It's far larger university, and that time, we had almost like maybe 6,000 students on the campus, or total all together that time. Wow. But it's now, it's like what?

On campus, it's 16,000, I think. That's what it is. It's tremendous.

It grew so fast. But anyway, do you want me to share how I went to Liberty? Yeah, so, well, what fascinates me is, so did you, before you get there, so did you know, so you had an interest in television, but, so was that at a very young age, and you did and you did some radio in India. Right. I was with, after finishing some college years back in India, my brother was working in Sri Lanka, and he needed some help in radio with Trans World Radio, TWR.

Okay. And he called me, and we visited him, and then he was going on a furlough. So, it's raining right now, you hear that noise, but just because of the rain, but he was going on a furlough, so therefore, he said, can you take care of this for one year?

So, I said, sure. So, Trans World Radio, we used to do Indian programming with them, and then he came back, and he said, hey, since you did this, he asked the management, we need help here, can he work with us? So, I stayed for a year in Sri Lanka, and then worked with Trans World Radio, did all the programming, editing to putting it on air, and that triggered my interest into television. So, after that, I went to, went back to India, and then worked with Trans World Radio for five years. After that, I came to this country in 1984, I came to this country, and then 1985, a fall, 1984 fall, I joined Liberty University.

So, here's interesting. So, I broke into professional wrestling in 1984. I wrestled in Lynchburg at what was called the, this little armory there. So, you would have been in school at Liberty University during my wrestling career, and simultaneously while I was in Lynchburg wrestling in shows, you would have been there studying. Yes, sir.

I was on campus for two years during that time, and then as I mentioned earlier, Nikita, that the tuition was pretty high for me, because I came to this country with two hundred dollars and one suitcase. That's it? That's it. Wow. Nothing, nothing after that, and my brother first, he just, for the introduction or whatever, the admission fee for a thousand dollars and things like that, he paid that. Okay. After that, I was on my own to pay all the tuition, and boarding, and everything. So, that's where the test of faith came in. I said, Lord, I do not know anyone here.

I do not know where to go, and I do not know who to ask for help. So, therefore, first year university gave me scholarship. Okay. Because I was an international student. Okay. So, yeah, so many cents.

Yeah, and my dad was being a pastor also back in India. They gave me that PK. Kind of a discount of some kind. Right, right. Okay. Then after that, they said, you have to pay for all these bills. So, I could, being international students, US lawyers, you cannot work outside of campus.

Yes. So, I could not work anywhere but on campus. So, when I saw my schedule and role for television production, you know, how to produce, and direct, and manage television.

So, that's what I, that was my major. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Koloff here.

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You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. So, after that, I said, how am I going to pay all these bills? So, every morning I will go to classes and then I got a job on campus driving a big truck and picking up all the garbage to picking up everybody who is going to work on campus and helping in… helping people to get into set up for what you call the big gymnasium, you know, chairs and tables and all that.

So, like sporting events and different things. Yes. Okay. So, that was just for a semester I did that. But, after that, school asked me to, you know, pay for my lodging and boarding, which I could not afford.

So, I have to leave off campus. So, when I look for a place to stay, I didn't know where to go, so I put an ad in local newspaper. So, one lady calls me and she said, hey, are you the boy looking for a space to live?

And, you know, this is how a lot works, you know, open the door for me to go to school and I didn't know, I didn't have a place to stay. So, this old lady calls me and she said, you're looking for a place to stay? I said, yes, ma'am. So, she said, come on over.

So, my friend gives me a ride to go to her place in Forest, Virginia. And I walked in and she looks at me and said, oh, you're that Indian boy, where is your turban? Oh, gosh, okay. I said, no, because there are Sikh, you know, people in India, they wear turban and we are... Right, right. Some do, some don't.

Yes, some do, some don't. So, I said, no, I don't wear turban. I said, okay. And she was a little heavyset. She said, come on in. And she sat in her recliner. She said, walk around the room and take whatever room you want.

And I was really taken back. I said, you don't want to ask any questions, anything? She said, no. So, she was living by herself.

She needed some help to take care of the house and her seven-acre property. Some assistance, wow. Yes. So, she told me what she wanted me to do. And then I said, how much is the rent? She said, $60. $60 a month? Yes.

Wow. I said, I'll take care of the house, take care of your farm, and pay you $60. Because I was working on campus. Right. But the problem was, I didn't have a vehicle. Transportation now.

That was the issue. So, guess what? I got to school. I got a house to stay. The lady said, use my car.

Uh-uh, come on. I said, Lord, I mean, I'm not that good, but you're providing my needs. And this is where the faith comes again and again and again that how the Lord provides and how you depend on the Lord. And the people who are struggling for faith, this is my faith story.

Walk by faith. So, what happened, I used her vehicle for a semester or so, and then after that I bought old VW Bug. Okay. And of course, VW Bug, during winter, it will warm up with engine, you know. Right.

And when I went to school on campus, 15-20 minutes, engine was warm and car was warm, but I was driving with the gloves on and jacket on and it's cold. But I will go to classes. So, this is what happened, Nikita. You want me to go on and share? Yeah, yeah. I'm fascinated by this story.

I mean, talk about a walk of faith. Yes, sir. Yeah. So, what happened during that time, I was a junior that time, and what was happening, that football coach, Cleveland Brown football coach, I forget his name, he came to class and he said, I need someone to videotape, Richigliano, sorry, Coach Richigliano of Cleveland.

He was the coach at Liberty University. Okay. So, he said, I need somebody to videotape our offense defense and punting for football. Okay. So, he comes to class and asks and nobody wants to volunteer because every game they had to travel.

Right. And Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, they had to do practice and videotape all that. So, therefore, nobody was willing to do that. So, he comes second week again and asks for, hey, I need a student who can volunteer or who can videotape all these games and travel with us over the weekend.

And nobody, nobody was willing to do that. So, he comes back again third week. This third week, my coach, my professor comes to me and says, Santosh, do you want to do this? And I said, Professor, I really do not know what is American football is. Okay.

Okay. Because American football is you play with hands and everything. Yeah. It's different than soccer.

That's what I was thinking. Yeah. Soccer. Play with your feet. Right.

Right. So, he said, don't worry if you do not know American football. We'll teach you. We'll show you. I said, you trust me? Then I'm okay. I will learn. So, he said, okay, next week onwards, you will be videotaping. So, I go there.

When I walked in that office, he did not tell me during that class that all the tuition and boarding will be taken care of. Oh, wow. Of mine. Come on.

So, look at this. I come to this country, Lord opens the door, go to university, Liberty University. Lord opened the door for me to stay at the place. And Lord also opened the door for me to take care of my tuition and everything. So, I don't have to worry about paying all my tuition.

So, guess what? I'm traveling with, I'm videotaping everything with the football players, their games and practices. Learning American football. Yes, and learning American football. What is offense? What is defense?

And then I have to edit that too and have it ready for office defense coaches to watch their, you know, that video. Right. So, I was told that you don't eat in cafeteria. Go eat with the football players.

Who got fed very well, by the way. I do this where you're going. I'm a skinny guy walking with six foot tall football players. Yes, six foot five. Yes, six foot five. They are so big. Yes. And I'm skinny guy walking with them and eating with their food. Healthy, wonderful, nutritious food.

And special privilege was given to go into cafeteria. Come on, Santos. Not me. All right.

Not me. This is Lord. Yeah. Yeah, but hold on. So, okay. So, you come here with $200, one suitcase. God opens the door to Liberty University, one of the best curricula, one of the best universities in America.

Really, still to this day. Yes. He provides the tuition eventually. He provides room and board. Accommodation. Accommodations. Transportation.

Meals, transportation. Yes, sir. The whole nine yards. And now, I look back and I say, of course, I did not do this. Right. I want to be honest with you, Nikita.

I cannot take this credit to myself. Sure. Understand? Lord opens the door. You're listening to The Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. 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. You're listening to The Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. My parents, being pastor, my dad was a teacher. He gave up his job and got into full-time ministry. And therefore, he got into full-time ministry and therefore he was a pastor all his life. And I saw him, I mean being pastor is not easy.

You know, all kinds of... So you grew up in a Christian home and came to came to faith at an early age. Yes, yes. When I was 16, 17, we went to one of the camps, youth camp. Okay. And I appreciate you doing youth camp because that's where we need to reach young people for sure. Yes.

That's where I accepted Christ. Okay. And so I saw my dad and mom on their knees praying for help and guidance and wisdom because my dad was the only one was working at home and we're six brothers and sisters and my dad's sister and my dad's mom and my mom. So total nine people are at home with one salary. With one salary.

Wow. How did Lord provide? We did not miss single meal. Of course, we did not have fancy meal, but hey. Right, but you had food. Food.

There was food on the table. Exactly. Yeah. So that's what helped me to grow in the Lord also.

My parents' faith I saw and that's why two parents are very important in every child's life. Yeah. They help you to grow in the Lord to see how they live and that affects you definitely. Yeah, how they interact as husband and wife.

Yeah. How they as mom and dad. And depended on the Lord for their needs. I mean, dad, he was a good soccer player. He was a teacher. He could have left all this and he would have gone and done far well.

He could have been a professional soccer player. Exactly. Exactly. God called him into the ministry. Yeah, but he did not do that.

Okay. So therefore, I saw that and looked back and it's word of God also says that blessing from you will flow to your children, children's children. Yeah, a thousand generations.

Yes. So I look back, my parents' blessings flying towards, coming towards us and that helped me to grow in the faith. So if you look at it in Matthew 14, 22 to 29, you will see Jesus was walking on the water and he asked, Peter looked at him and he said, is that you Lord? And he said, Christ said, yes. He said, can I come to you? And Jesus said, come.

Only one word. He said, come. So Peter walked by faith on water for a few steps, but same time he walked by word, by that one word, come, word of Christ. So he came by, walked by faith. And that faith is what is important in our life. We can take all kinds of credit, but realize that we did not bring anything in the world as word of God says, and we cannot take anything out of this world. What we do for the Lord is what is important.

And every time you credit to him for what we have. So by the grace of God, I was able to finish my master's program at Liberty University. All bills were paid.

All the tuition was paid. And I was able to move to Winston-Salem. Then I got married, of course, after that went back to India and got married to my bride and brought her here. Then we have a little, that time we had one year of daughter, but now she's 23 and finished her master's also. And then I bought a house because of our daughter wanted to play outside. We were living in apartments. So then after that, I bought a second house.

So that's a blessing. Again, I cannot take any credit. So I started working with ABC TV and, you know, there's much more.

I don't want to take too much time. Me talking, you had any questions. Oh, no. Well, I'm just fascinated by your story.

So, so, so let me, let me interject those. So all that experience, filming football, American football games and all of that gives you all of this experience. And you already had an interest. You already obviously had an interest in television experience and radio, just to kind of summarize, but you're seeing the hand of God move so much.

And then he opens the store with ABC television. That was kind of your introduction. That was about 28 or so years ago, right? Yes, sir. Of course, after that, my brother helped me to get citizenship in this country.

Okay. So I started working with ABC TV in Lynchburg, Virginia, WASCT 13. And then I moved to Winston-Salem and worked with WLX 45 here for two and a half years.

So total five, five, five and a half years, I worked with ABC TV at both stations. Then I realized, you know, Nikita, as you've gone through, you realize all the money, all the success and everything will not give you that peace. There will be peace, you will get that peace from the world, but that is not everlasting peace. Peace from the Lord is what you need. So I had everything what I wanted, but I wanted to make a difference in people's lives.

I want to use my talent for his glory. So when I was working at ABC TV, I realized that some of the programming did not agree with me. Right. It did not go well with me. Right. And I thought, I have education, I have time, I have talent, and I'm giving that to promote that I don't agree. I mean, there were certain programs that they were just... Yeah, you just didn't care for them. They didn't align with your faith and what you believe, which is what you're leaning into really how we met.

You and I met. Correct. Correct. Yeah.

And that's where... My boss was a pastor at ABC TV, by the way. Okay. Yes, sir. It's interesting. There were only three or four good Christians were there. Okay.

So, but I had to tell him that, look, I'm going to leave this place because I don't feel comfortable. Therefore, after gaining all... Don't get me wrong. ABC has tremendous, tremendous talent, equipment, and technology. And I learned all that and took that and joined one of the local national offices. Right. All that experience. TCT.

I joined TCT after that in 19... Which is where we met, you and I met. Right.

Right. And that's where I became a production manager at TCT. And I was there for 18 years as a production manager. And I did a lot of live, thousands and thousands of live programs, music, talk shows, interviews, book shows. So that helped me a lot with all the production side to management, to scheduling, to producing, to hosting and all that. And that's where we met you. And we invited you and we did a lot of programming there. Then after that, for a couple of years, I was a station manager for TCT here in Greensboro. But in 2018, they closed down local station here.

And therefore, I had to find my own way to do what to do with all my 22 years of experience with TCT. Yep. So therefore, all these pastors who used to come and on the programmers who used to come to do programming, they said, hey, we got to have another TV station to do our programming.

Because they didn't have any outlet to do their programming. Right. So they asked me, can you open the TV station?

I said, you really don't know what you're asking. What's all involved. I can't only imagine what's all involved. Correct. In doing that.

And starting TV station is not easy and a lot of money is needed. Right. And a lot of prayers and help and. Right. I had experience.

Yep. I had knowledge. I had education. You had connections.

And connections and networking and everything. And people were encouraging me. I just needed, wanted to make sure that I'm doing Lord's will. So I talked to my wife and I said, you know, with this experience and with what I have, I really want to start small studio.

But I do not have money. So she said, this is what she said. And hopefully everybody's listening. She said, sell my jewelry and buy equipment you want to for your studio. That was approval from her. And when she said that, that helped me to understand that she's. Supportive. Yeah. She's supportive.

She's okay. Yeah. Second thing, one of the pastors come to me and says, what happened to network?

You used to have hero. It closed down. He didn't know that. Right.

And then he calls me after a month or so. And I said, I'm sorry, that station closed down. He said, and he was not happy with that because he was pretty involved with. Well, sure.

Sure. A lot of pastors were not happy and organizations were not happy. So he said, what are you going to do? I said, I'm praying to start my own TV station. He said, come on over here.

And he writes me a thousand dollars check. Some seed money. I did not even ask.

I did not even ask anything. And I was shocked and surprised that how this is coming together. Even my wife approved, pastor is saying here is seed money. And then I said, okay, Lord, I see, I have to take a step by faith. So not by walk by.

Not by sight. You had to step out again, step out in faith. So I sold my house.

Okay. And I said, I'll sell my house and by faith, I will enter into this and started this TV studio. So I come into this place here and the pastor said, what is your prayer request? I said, I'm looking for a studio place to start TV station.

He brought me here and next thing you know, Lord is using this place. We built this studio. We have excellent 4k cameras, ultra high definition cameras. It's a 2,000 square feet studio. Two different sets are here and 20 different lights of digital lights.

And they are the digital lights and black magic switcher and much more. Not only we do production here locally, but we can come to location and do much more. Our vision is to reach out to unreached people and give opportunities to organizations and others to produce television programs. And your network is called? Global Television Studios and Network.

And how can people find it? You can go on www.gtvnetwork.us or on Facebook, you can go Global Television Network and you will see Global Television Network. A lot of programming there also on YouTube. Same thing, Global Television Network.

You can call if you have any questions, call 575-336-575-6577. Well, we're, I'm going to have to have you back on the Man Up show. I mean, we're out of time and, but your story is so fascinating, Santos. And I appreciate you sharing that with me today. Walk by faith.

Walk by faith. I mean, if that's not a story, okay, you're out there listening today and you're probably here and we are in the midst of a major thunderstorm. That's what you're hearing in the background, but hey, that's just an illustration.

That's just indicative of life. There's always storms we're going to go through. In fact, Santos told the story of Jesus walking on water and calling Peter out of the boat, come.

And they were on that, they were on that lake more than once with a storm where Jesus had to call him the storm. And so Global Television Network, Santos, it's a fascinating story, a fascinating walk of faith. I'm looking forward to, you know, we're going to do some things together, some television shows, some things together, and I got to have you back. Would you be willing to come back on the Man Up show again? I'd love to come back anytime and share and encourage, excuse me, encourage others to walk by faith.

I know we hear a lot about talk, walk by sight and a lot of messages, but we, our kids especially need to see that. Well, you are a true walk of faith when you consider you came from India with a suitcase at $200, and now you've got your own television network. Talk about the success and having an entrepreneurial spirit, but God opening so many amazing doors. Hey, I want to thank you for listening in to the Man Up show today, and I want you to tune in again for another episode of Man Up with Nikita Kolov. Why?

Because it's 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.

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