Q&A With Koloff- #97

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Christmasairlift.com in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov. Welcome to another episode of Q&A with Kolov, the Devil's Nightmare. And today, it's an honor to have with me today, Bobby Rogers. Thank you for being in studio and on the Q&A with Kolov. Well, thank you for the invite. Well, it's great to have you here and, of course, if I was going to be more formal, I would say, Pastor Bobby Rogers, because you pastor a church up in Waynesville, North Carolina, Maggie Valley area, isn't that right?

That's right. Delwood Baptist Church in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. Delwood Baptist Church. And, of course, I had the privilege a while back of you guys hosted me for a two-night men's conference and then graciously opened your pulpit on a Sunday morning to a packed house, man.

How many? Three, four hundred people, possibly? Yeah, somewhere in that neighborhood. Okay, yeah, I figured. Yeah, it was full.

It was close to standing room only, but I don't think that was because of the Russian nightmare. I think it was because Jesus showed up. Jesus always brings the crap.

Yeah, always. I mean, it could be 5,000, I'm just saying. Wait, where have I heard that from? Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm getting ahead of myself. So you're up in Waynesville, North Carolina, Maggie Valley, Delwood Baptist Church, and you've been there for quite some time. Sixteen years as a pastor there.

Sixteen years. Wow. That's a milestone in itself. Congratulations on that. Of course, you have family up there. I do have family. My wife, Rhonda, we've been married for 35 years, just celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary.

Wow, congratulations. I have two children. Tyler, my oldest son, he's 30 years old. My daughter, Emily, she's 25. Okay. Tyler and his wife, Holly, have given me two grandchildren.

Okay. Seth, who is two years old, and Barrett, who is two weeks old. Two years and two weeks. Man, a newbie. Brand new at this. Wow. And do you love being a grandpa?

I love being a grandpa. Do they have a nickname for you? They don't have a nickname for me. They call me Poppy right now.

Okay. But I was a – I'm going to go off script here just a little bit. I'm a big Alabama football fan. So it thrilled me when they named my second grandson Barrett because I can call him Little Bear.

Little Bear. Well, you know, so on that note, I was recently here in 2022. I just dated our show. Anyway, I was at the Alabama-Texas A&M football game and had my youngest daughter, Colby, and her husband, Andrew, down with me as well. And a nail-biter to the final play. Did you happen to watch that game on television? Yeah, I watched every second of it. You did?

Okay. A nail-biter to the final play, right? To the last three seconds.

I mean, my goodness. I want to tell you what, kudos to the defense, who really – I don't know what your view – perspective was. The defense kept them in the game. I mean, any time you turn the ball over four times, it's highly unlikely you're going to come out with a W. You can, and they did. It wasn't pretty. But it's rare.

But they got the W. They got the W. And it's rare. Yes. Yeah.

So kudos to Nick Saban and all these girls. You know, one thing I do want you to do. Okay. Just for my church family back home, they'll appreciate this. Okay.

For my associate pastor back home, he'll appreciate this. Okay. Would you just give them one big roll, Tyler? Roll Tide.

Come on now. Roll Tide. I've got to tell you, I'm doing a men's conference up in Virginia.

People go either way, but I'm doing a men's conference up in Virginia, right? And I get this social media message. No, actually it was a text message. And he was like, give me some scoop on the men's conference and how it was coming along and all that. And he says, and then towards the end he goes, I am very disappointed in you, however. And I'm like, uh-oh, what did I do? And then he ends with, Roll Tide? Seriously? Like, that's funny. I'm like, well, apparently he's not an Alabama fan.

But anyway. And I've got such a good friend. Shout out to Dwayne and Suzanne Cunningham, who are graduates. Big boosters.

I mean, when I say big boosters, I'm talking front row parking like 50 feet to the elevator to get to their suite. Talk about a blessing. And how God connected me with Dwayne and Suzanne. But all that said.

So that's what kind of helped prompt me. Because they're like, dude, you're a Minnesota guy. I'm like, yeah, but the Gophers haven't won a championship in like 100 years or something.

You know, the Minnesota Gophers. I'm like, really? Anyway. So we got off kind of on a tangent there, didn't we, Bobby? All right, so back to your family. So how do you like being a grandfather?

Let's get back on track. How do you like being a grandfather? I love it. Absolutely the joy of my life. Can't wait until they get just a little bit older and start fishing with them and doing things with them.

A lot of fun now, but they're going to be more fun as a group. Now did I meet, I think I met one or both of your children when I was up there? Yeah, I know you met my son at the men's conference. He's our missions minister at the church. Okay, that's right.

That's right. So, well, you got a great thriving church up there in the community. Hey, if you're listening, you're ever on holiday in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, just around the corner right there in Maggie Valley, Delwood Baptist Church. And if you're there for a Sunday morning, man, I would encourage you to go visit Delwood Baptist.

You will be blessed to know. We've had your music minister and associate pastor on the Q&A and the Man Up show in the past, Sean Porter, who did a phenomenal job just with the worship and stuff. Just so anointed and so blessed. Phenomenal voice and an even greater person. Real man of God.

Yeah. Loves the Lord Jesus. That's obvious. You spend any time around him, that just comes out.

That's pretty obvious. So 16 years, so 16 years there at Delwood Baptist. And one other thing before we transition to your questions for me, Bobby, is you guys take Holy Land tour. You guys take groups to the Holy Land.

How many trips, I'm curious, have you been to the Holy Land? This December, we have a trip coming up at this December. Of 2022.

2022. Because I already dated the show. We'll just make sure. Okay, keep going. We have a trip coming up in December. Okay.

And it's sold out. Okay. That will be my 20th trip to the Holy Land.

Wow. 20 trips. Then we've got another one in June. Of 2023. Another one in December.

2023. Yeah, there's a rumor flying around. I've heard a rumor. Yeah, that the Russian nightmare may end up on one of those trips, or more than one in the future.

We'll just let people kind of consider that for right now. Yeah. But, and I want to say that before we get to the Koia, I do want to bring this up though. Because when I first came up, first met you, you made mention that I got baptized in the Jordan River. And I'm like, well, yeah, I got that picture posted on my Facebook, you know?

I mean, anybody and everybody can know that, right? Then you go, yeah, I was there. And in my mind, I'm like, no, you weren't. No, you weren't. It was me and Ted DiBiase and Jason Sanderson, you know, the three of us standing in the middle of the Jordan.

You were nowhere to be found. All I saw was our guide and our driver, you know? And then you enlightened me. Because you even said, I got a picture of it. I'm like, wait, how can you? And you were like, no, you see, you were on the Jordan side, but we were over on the Israel side, right? Right. And on that site, right? Beth Abra.

What's it called? Beth Abra. Okay. Which they've determined that's where John the Baptist had baptized Jesus, right? That's right. And so you were there on the other side.

See, I was so in the moment, I didn't see, like honestly, I saw an Israel flag flying on the other bank, but that's all I saw, you know? Right. Wow, you guys.

Well, literally, you know, now with the shrinkage of the river and the irrigation and all this, pretty small. Yeah, it was. Especially there at that site. Yes. And we were standing there on the Israeli side. You were on the Jordan side. One of the people in my group said, hey, who is that? I said, that's Nikita Kolov. And I said, even more so, that's Ted DiBiase. You with him.

The million dollar bed. Yeah. Because you grew up watching wrestling up in the mountains. Grew up watching wrestling. I'm a country boy that grew up in the mountains of North Carolina.

Okay. And wrestling was on every Saturday night right after the local news. Mid-Atlantic championship wrestling? Mid-Atlantic. Mid-Atlantic, then the NWA. Yup. WCW.

Yup, eventually WCW. Okay. So, man, that just blew my mind when you said that, though. I'm like, wow, that's pretty cool. And all these years later, we get the opportunity to cross paths. And you shared that story with me.

And now, the possibility, the potential to now maybe travel with you over there even better, right? So, all right, well, let's segue into your questions, Bobby, and see what you have for me. Again, it can be any, you're out there listening. The questions can relate to anything, life and whatever, wrestling.

Well, I want to start out with a non-spiritual question. Okay. Back to the wrestling days.

Sure. Because my wrestling memory goes back a pretty good ways. I'm getting a little older. You're seasoned.

I'm seasoned, well seasoned. And, as a matter of fact, Terry Funk was the champion when I started wrestling. Okay. So, that's going to go back quite a few years. Terry and Dory. Terry and Dory Funk Jr. Terry and Dory Funk Jr. That's right. Yes.

That's right. You know, I got to wrestle Dory Funk Jr. Really? I never stepped in the ring with Terry. But, yeah, I'll let you get to your question. I can tell that story if you want me to, but go ahead. No, tell the story. Tell the story.

So, early in my career, in fact, I get asked a lot of times, how did you get into wrestling? And I tell that whole story. By the way, if you want that full story, just go to Koloff.net and buy Nikita, A Tale of the Ring of Redemption.

It's newly updated. I autograph every book purchased through my website, and you'll get the full story from as far back as I can remember, the early days in the salt mines of Siberia, Minnesota, and all the way to Charlotte, North Carolina, you'll get the full story. But here's a little quick side note about, I think the best thing about that book is, my story's in it, but William Murdock, who did it with me, is a wrestling historian, and he takes the history of professional wrestling back to the 1800s in that book. So, anyone who's an avid wrestling fan would appreciate for that reason. Okay, back on track.

So, in my early days, with no experience, no training, I got the privilege of stepping in the ring with some very seasoned professional wrestlers, like Black Jack Mulligan, if you remember that name. Oh, yeah. Johnny Weaver. Do you remember that name? Oh, yeah. The Sleeper.

Go back that far? The Sleeper. Yeah.

In fact, Johnny, he was in the twilight of his career, and he was gracious enough to let the Russian nightmare break out of that Sleeper hold, and he survived the Russian sickle and survived, you know, but he was gracious enough to, you know, up and coming star to put me over and make me shine and make me look good. Let me tell you one other random note about that. So, Road Warrior Animal, remember the Road Warriors? Oh, yeah.

Legion of Doom? Yeah. Animal and Hawk.

Yeah. When Animal first broke in, he wasn't a Road Warrior. He was wrestling mid-Atlantic.

I think his name was Joe Lorne, and he was in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and he's booked and scheduled to wrestle Johnny Weaver, and they come to him that night, and they're like, hey, Johnny's going to give you the Sleeper and win. And Animal, who anyone knows Animal, had 23-inch arms. The neck was probably about the same size, but, like, legit.

He's in the dressing room with Sergeant Slaughter and Don Crenodle, who go on to become my partner, and he is furious. He said, who's going to believe that that old man could put that Sleeper? Look at this neck.

Look at this neck. Nobody's going to believe he could put me out with a Sleeper. And Don and Sarge had to talk Joe off the ledge and go, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe. I promise you, all these people out there in the area will never remember that Johnny Weaver put Joe Lorne out with a Sleeper, right? Anyway, a little fun side story there. Fun story. Anyway.

Go to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Koloff here, and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement? Well, maybe it's a minor announcement.

Anyway, Facebook. Go look up my new fan page, Nikita Koloff Fans, and like it and follow today. 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. So I got to wrestle Dory Funk Jr. Wow. I got to wrestle him, and man, the scientific wrestler he was, and Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, so many legendary guys that I got the privilege of being there to learn from. Right. In my early days. Right. So anyway, okay. So let's go to the next question. Well, how do you make the transition?

How did you know that God was calling you out of the ring and into ministry? So truthfully, I didn't. I mean, I was, in my mind, I'll give you a little bit more of the back story. When I was a kid growing up, a pet peeve of mine was athletes who hung around too long. I'm like, why can't these guys leave when they're on top, or not necessarily maybe in their prime, but certainly not past their prime. Right. Right. In my mind, for the football fan out there, to me, Jerry Rice just didn't look right in a Seattle uniform, right? Right. Exactly. He looked right in a 49er uniform. Joe Montana didn't look right in a Kansas City Chiefs, in my mind. Right.

In my mind. I'm like, no, no, you're a 49er, you know. So anyway, this is why I had a lot of respect.

I've been kind of coined the Barry Sanders of pro wrestling, if that makes sense. Right. Because anyone, again, anyone who knows football knows that Barry Sanders, running back for the Detroit Lions, walked away in his prime.

I mean, he easily could have run another probably three, four, five years. Right. Right. But he chose to walk away. So I had respect for him.

The other guy I had respect for was Wayne Gretzky. And so I said, man, when I make it, of course, at that time, I was thinking pro football, man, I'm going to have, I figured out my career, how long it would be, then I'd go into coaching and figure out how long that coaching career would be, and then I'd just sail off into the sunset, you know. Right.

Well, God had a different plan for me. And so I get into this wacky world of pro wrestling in a very unusual way, and then I leave at age 33 was not typical for that business. Most of those guys are just heading into their prime and, you know, and bigger money, if you will. And I walk away right before all the big pay-per-views and where guys went from making thousands to making literally tens of millions of dollars.

Right. Walk away from all that. No regrets and even thinking back or looking back, but when I walked away at age 33, I didn't know what life held for me next. In fact, I was on this journey of asking the question, what does life hold next for Nikita Kolov? And I'd had some health clubs at that point, but I'm like, I'm going to do this the rest of my life. I'm going to sit inside these four walls. Right.

What else is there? And I'd met a Christian couple through other business ventures that I was in. They invited me to their church. I accepted the invitation, showed up on a Sunday, called them, said, hey, I'll be there on Sunday. And that was my, it was a divine appointment for me because that was in that very first service in that church in Concord, North Carolina at the end, an invitation was given. And I say it this way in one of my other books, Wrestling with Success, I was successful, but I was unfulfilled.

Right. And it was in that moment, an aha moment when I'm like, I know something's missing. And I know what's missing, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And Bobby, I went to the altar, first went to the altar on my knees, surrendered my heart and my life to Jesus. Now did I know that that would launch me into a full-time ministry or, or, you know, a whole nother, if you want to say career, but a whole nother path, let's say?

No, no idea. Although a man came to me after service and said he had been, it saw me on television five years earlier, doing an interview, not a wrestling fan, but God told him to these, these words, pray for this man's salvation, I have a call to ministry on his life. And I didn't fully know what that meant in the moment in October, 1993, but I can look back now and see what that meant. And I didn't just jump into ministering immediately.

There's about a five-year window there where I got my hands dirty. I went to build a, help build a church in Trinidad. I went to help build a Bible college in Tobago. I went and spent three weeks in Angola, Africa to build a church.

And so I just went and got my hands dirty and learned how to serve. And then God in 1998 made it crystal clear and began to open doors to go preach the gospel, evangelize, to be a soul winner, and eventually men's ministry and et cetera, et cetera. Well, isn't that a beautiful picture though, so many people miss the opportunity to find the fulfillment that God has for them. And a lot of times it's because they're blinded by success or that they fail to realize that serving Christ really means serving Christ. And sometimes you just got to bloom right where you're planning, stay in your lane and do what God leads you to do so he can grow you up in the ministry. And so many times success or failure to surrender causes us to miss all the blessings that God has for us.

Darrell Bock Yeah, 100 percent accurate in what you just said. And I don't know what the percentage would be, but I feel like through a lot of conversations and of course, again, I do a lot of men's ministry. I hear a lot of their stories. Lex Luger and I, I know you remember that name, we do this camp called Man Camp. I do a one-day men's intensive, but we do these five-day men's camps where we can really dig deep into the heart of a man's life and try to equip him and empower him, send him back home to be even more impacting on his family, his marriage, his community. But it seems like it's a high percentage to your point of not just men, but people in general who live a very unfulfilled life because they didn't pursue what God had for them, thoughts, as you said, success would bring them happiness only to find out they climbed the corporate ladder, maybe even reached the pinnacle, and then still realized like I did that something's still missing in life. It starts with that personal relationship, but then from there, God can open their eyes as he did for me or open the doors that launched me personally into full-time ministry where some don't realize that, hey, you can be an insurance agent and be in full-time ministry. Because that can be your ministry is all your clients as an insurance agent. Darrell Bock Well, isn't that what we're really all called into, full-time ministry? The Bible says as we go along, as we make our way through this world, we're supposed to be on fire for Christ. We're his children. I mean, we're servants of the most high God, and we need to realize that we're to serve as servants. Darrell Bock And I would say for those of you listening out there, as you're listening to this conversation Bobby and I are having back and forth, you know, I mean, you can stay at home.

I got two daughters, Bobby, that stay at home and raise children, and there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, that's a full-time job in and of itself. Darrell Bock Probably the hardest full-time job. Darrell Bock Probably the hardest full-time, yes.

One has four currently, and the other has two currently. And I commend, so whatever your chosen, if you want to say profession, it's all ministry or should be in the eyes of God. And so, very good. Darrell Bock One more question. Darrell Bock Come on. Darrell Bock You ready? Darrell Bock Yeah, throw it out. Darrell Bock The question I always get asked, I'm going to ask you. Darrell Bock Okay. Darrell Bock After you've walked the land of Israel and you've seen the sights and experienced the worship there and following the footsteps of Christ, what's your favorite place in Israel?

Darrell Bock Oh, my goodness. There were several, how I will say, emotional moments, several. Certainly the baptism in the Jordan River, probably the greatest highlight was the baptism in the Jordan.

That was overwhelming, overwhelmingly emotional, certainly. Sailing the Sea of Galilee. I remember going up to the front of the ship, and I never, I'm not a sailor, a bow or whatever it's called. And it was a sailor that was going to go, that's not what it's called. Anyway, went up to the front of the ship, and I'm looking out at the Golan Heights. And I was just overtaken with a flood of emotion, and I went, wait a minute, those mountains probably haven't changed much in 2,000 years. So what I'm looking at is the same thing when those disciples were sailing back and forth across the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus was walking, that was probably the same view or picture that they had that I have right now. And I'm going to tell you one little quick side story to that.

Only God could do this. I'm on the boat, it's me, Ted, and Jason, and then a whole group of people, it was obvious they were all together. And it's just like the three of us, right? And we're out there sailing, seeing that at some point, they start playing music, and they all get into this circle, and start doing what I would call this Russian Cossack dance. Come to find out, this whole group was from Russia. Like real Russians. Like real, right?

Never funny. Hang on, I looked at Ted, I handed him my camera, I go, Ted, you have to document this, the Russian nightmare. Like the not real Russian is going to jump in line here with the real Russians and jump in on this dance with them. And so I did, they saw me come and they split, I just put my arms around their shoulders, and we're going one way, we're going the other way, on the Sea of Galilee doing a Russian Cossack dance with a bunch of real Russians, the Russian, only God could orchestrate that. Of all the groups to have on that ship, a group that was touring Israel from Russia. Anyway, and then last but not least, just very quickly, last but not least, I was in the shower getting ready to walk, we had just left the Dead Sea that morning, and bobbing in the Dead Sea, and showering up to walk the streets of Jerusalem for the very first time. And again, you're walking these cobblestones and you're going, wow, some of these same streets, you know, the disciples and Jesus and others walk these same streets, wow.

So anyway, those were some of the highlights. One more time, I don't know, we even said, how would people find out about, because you take tours over there, how would people find out about that? You can find out, you can go to our website at the church, delwoodbaptist.org, or you can go to mine and Sean's website, it's enstrong, e-n-d-s-t-r-o-n-g.org, and the tour details will be there.

So check those out. If you've never been on a tour to Israel, you might consider going, and these guys have a special tour, we didn't really, go listen to the, it should be archived, go listen to the Man Up show, and I interviewed both him and his music minister and associate pastor, Sean Porter, and get the full story on these tours to Israel, and maybe that's something you want to add to your bucket list, or it's on your bucket list and you're looking for a good group to go with, I can highly recommend these guys. And who knows, maybe one day you and I will be on the same tour and, or rubbing shoulders together in the Holy Land, so Pastor Bobbie, great to have you in the studio today, thanks for being on Q&A with Kolob. Thank you very much.

And thanks for tuning in, we'll catch you next time on another episode. Have a God blessed day. 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 kolob.net and donate today. Hi, Nikita Kolob.

Be sure to check out the Man Up show, now available on television, broadcast, and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. Nikita Kolob here.

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