From FBI to Freedom Fighter

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23 kilos, the Russian nightmare, the Kita Kolob. Now, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Today, today, does the FBI, do those three letters ring a bell?

Does that mean anything to you, FBI? Well, we're gonna delve into some stories today with this man, Chris Plance. Welcome to the Man Up show.

Man, thank you for having me. I hope you can hear me in the Russian Siberian thunder where I'm sure you're there flitting firewood and getting ready for your next bow. That's right. How did you know, Chris? How did you know? I'm bare chested in Siberia, right?

Even in below zero weather. So there you go. You just got that rattling uniform outside flitting wood.

That's exactly right. So, so Chris, I get the impression like you were a wrestling fan growing up, but would that be, is that a true statement? You know, you were here in a Kita, so you love, I love, you said so many good things about the South, because truthfully, of course, you're not from the South, but you got it because you were in this environment, I'm guessing with the wrestling, because wrestling was huge in the South, but it was the old for us.

It was called the Mid-South and I had the junkyard dog and Ted DiBiase and some others, man, not as me as much. You're going to laugh at this. Your grandma, tell me it was your grandma, Chris. Dude, my grandmother, she came on Saturday night at seven o'clock. You better shut up and sit down and get a seat.

And she'd have a folding chair out ready to hit somebody. Come on, come on. No, I'm serious, dude.

I'm serious, right? Well, so hey, Chris, here's what's funny about, you know, you're not the first to tell me about grandma or grandpa, right? And it's like, hey, they love two things. Like some will say they love two things. My grandma loved pro wrestling and she loved church. That was the two things she loved, right?

Or, you know. Man, when you came to the kid, it was so funny because she hated you because you were the Russian at that time, you know, and for her, not because my granny was such an awesome Christian, such a huge inspiration in my life. And I told you kind of this at night, I think I told the crowd or whatever, for her to see you as your Christian real self in front of hundreds of men talking about Jesus, then she would have flipped out, man, flipped out. Would I, Chris, would I have won her over at that point? Oh, you would have won her over big time.

But man, I'm telling you, and you know this, I think you said you had a guy jump on you sometimes or something. Man, they believed what was going on out there. It was funny. Back in those days, they did. Hey, listen, back in those days, like I said, I've heard the hundreds of times, the grandma or grandpa story in that, one, you could not tell them, do not even imply that it wasn't real, right? Because they'd fight you over that, right? And how many times they sat in front of that television, whether it was a folding chair or some of them should have had a foam brick, right?

So they could throw it at those dirty Russians, Ivan and Nikita Kolov. Oh, they hated you, man. They talk about you during the week and it was going to whoop your butt and stuff. I know, I know, I know. And you mentioned, we're going to get into this, but before we get into this, you mentioned my being down there with, of course, you're down in Louisiana. You mentioned the Mid-South and you threw a few names out there.

I'll throw a couple of others out there for you too. Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Hacksaw Jim Duggan. He'd load his leg up.

He'd load his leg up, man. Yup, the Hacksaw. And my nemesis actually, Magnum TA, spent some time in the Mid-South before coming to the Carolinas to the Mid-Atlantic, Magnum TA. And you mentioned JYD, Junkyard Dog. Of course, he was very famous.

And yeah, a lot of the guys... I don't know if you can do this on air, but you tripped me out because you knew his government name. You said his government name. I don't know if you can say it, but that was funny. Well, Sylvester Ritter. Ah, you did it, man. That was funny, dude.

Well, a lot of people... He was from Wadesboro, North Carolina. Did you know that? No, sir. No, sir. No, sir.

Wadesboro, North Carolina. Sylvester Ritter. That is a clean Nikita. Our... Junkyard Dog. He was awesome. So, well, Mid-South and yeah, it was... Of course, I better mention this name, Cowboy Bill Watts. Yeah, yeah. Huge, huge name, man.

And of course, he eventually became the promoter of the territory. And one more name just popped in my head too, the Big Cat, Ernie Ladd. The Big Cat, yeah. No, dude, you're bringing back old, old memories to that living room where you better not... Oh, man, that's cool, dude. Well, and I... Chris, so you brought me in for... Again, I don't wanna get ahead of myself here, but you brought me in for a big men's outreach that you guys do down there, speak down in Louisiana. But before we get there, tell our listeners, just a quick backstory on Chris Plantz. You got family, you got... Tell us... Are you from Louisiana? I mean, fill us in.

Yes, sir. Yeah, no, man, I went K through 12 at this little bitty school. It was a division, or it was 1A. Man, a town of about a thousand people, but we had a high school football team. You would have died if you'd have seen it, but it was cool.

16 members on the team. But anyway, so that kind of atmosphere, a K through 12 school, brought up in church, accepted Christ. When I was in the third grade, I've never backed up on that, Nikita. I've grown a million times over. You know, a million things God's taught to me and done to me, but I was saved. I accepted God and His Son, Jesus Christ, as to be in my heart. Knew I was a sinner, even at that young age, and asked for a personal relationship with Him, I was saved.

We didn't have much going on in that town. About 17 years old, I was graduating a little bit early. My mom, she cried like a baby, but I went into the Army, served six years in the Army, served overseas, in combat in Iraq, the big sandbox, and did some neat things. One of these that the window didn't close, come back, Louisiana Tech University, and got an engineering degree, which was hilarious if you knew where I come from in the little school, the background, but God wanted me to have that engineering degree. I got it, and a couple years out of college, I'm working for General Motors, and the FBI called me and said, man, Chris, you've done some neat things in the Army, and you got an engineering degree, would you be, you know, willing to work with us? And I went through about a nine month of, and you know, I thought, man, this is so awesome.

You know, all I knew about them was the movie Point Break, Nikita, but I'm like, this is gonna be great. And I really had that kind of career. I did this in true bank raise, but I, man, so I got hired on about early 2003, went to Quantico, was first in my class. I had the fabled career, went to Little Rock, made the SWAT team a year in, started working violent crimes, major offenders, saw my first cocaine that wasn't on Miami Vice, just worked gangs and drugs there. Not long after that, they sent me to the Mexican border, the Del Rio or Uvalde section where they're having so many problems now.

I work cartels there, true cartels, seen 250 kilos, 500 kilos, 250 million in cash. It's just nuts. And I had a threat to my life down there about four years in.

It's just a nut story. And literally got that call in the middle of the day, get your kid, get your wife, get out of town. And we left and I ended up back home, if you will, in Shreveport, Louisiana.

That's about 45 minutes from that little town I grew up in a cotton valley. And, and there I started about 2010. And I started a crimes against children task force.

And about that time when the internet was really blowing up with human trafficking, Nikita, and sure enough, the prostitution, I know it's the oldest business in the world. But it blows up because now all a man's got to do is sit in this hotel room and hit a button. And they're hitting the buttons like crazy. It made it just super easy. They didn't have to talk to anybody. They didn't, the guy that wouldn't normally do it on a business trip.

He ain't got to ask no taxi cab driver, no bail hop, just bam, hit a button. And, um, it blew it up. So therefore, supply and demand. So therefore all the underage girls. And so we started, we started this task force, uh, gotten involved with this woman, Cassie Hammett, that just purchased that all she does is a ministry from Jesus to get these girls back on track. So we started coming, man, Nikita, I was in the hotel room when the 14 year old girl walks in, and there's a dude selling her and the 16 year old girl walks in and, and over and over and over. And, uh, it even became a model for the country.

The FBI was using it, uh, Cassie Hammett won a director's award. Um, but, uh, about 2019, 20, early 2020, um, I'm, I'm over 18 years in, I'm looking to wind down. They asked me to be supervisor.

I was going to get my 20. I had my six years military, get my 26 year retirement. Um, and I, and I'm flying through this Nikita, you, you know, I am, but, um, they, uh, first thing they did, I became supervisor when I became supervisor. I always had a Bible on my desk always, but when I became supervisor, uh, one of the guys from headquarters comes in and tells me, Chris, you're supervising people now that aren't Christian. You got to take that Bible off the desk. And I was like, man, I cannot do that. And in fact, if I get mad at myself, the thing that I might've did overtly, I added another Bible.

I added two Bible. Cause I was that tight Nikita, a little bit like you in the ring. I'm like, no, I'm doing this. In your face, right? I'm going to be in your face on this, right? Yeah.

Yeah. And, uh, so then, uh, I had this, this is different for some people, but it's an unbelievable out of the box ministry that you would love, especially when you was younger. Uh, I started going to this gym called price fit in, in bozer city. And the theory, when I first walked in, they had me, the theory is you walk out of work out as a group, you start with prayer and you start with a Jesus devotion, a short one, you know, 10 minute kind of thing. And then you work out for about 45 minutes in a, like a bootcamp environment together as Christians.

And I fell in love with it. And one day a week, cause you got time on the books to work out at his gym and you would want your agents working out. But one day a week, I said, I raised my hand cause God told me to, and it was when I finally started coming out of the pew and Nikita finally started doing real things for God outside of the brick and mortar church. And I said, Hey, I will do one of these devotions. And the man there, Billy weather all, he put me a Wednesday at like nine o'clock.

So from nine to nine 15, I was prayer and Devo, and then we'd work out. And so they asked me to stop working out the Christian GM. They asked me to stop doing that devotion. Um, and then the next thing was, uh, they sent me these LGBTQ posters that our tax money paid for really nice to put up all over the office.

And I, I refuse to do that. And the last thing I think that really got me, they had a man from headquarters call. Um, his name was Brian born during, and he called me and they had, Hey, uh, there's a transgender meet in Shreveport. And I would like for you to go to this meeting and talk about the FBI and try to recruit a transgender to the FBI as a special agent.

And I was talking to him about, man, I can't do that. And he immediately got on me about, you know, his mind is religion. And of course, Nikita me, you had, we don't hate the word religion. We don't like the word religion.

It's about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, what God says in that living word of the Bible for us to do. You're listening to the truth network and truth network.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 truth network.com. But he starts busting me about religion. I said, sir, listen, Brian.

Yeah. Um, you know, the way I believe God and Jesus, um, you know, it's the sin to be a transgender. We don't need transgenders in this position we're in, but I broke it down to him like this. I said, man, I've been on FBI SWAT team for 15 years. I've been in the rooms where bad, bad things happen. And you have to, we, we call it to be a real light term, eliminate a threat. There's a bad guy in there wanting to do bad things. And, and the threshold has been met and you have to eliminate a threat. And this guy had never done that. And I said, sir, you don't want to be in that room having to make life and death decisions in a second's notice. And you don't even know inside.

You can't come to grips whether you're a man or a woman. And when I said that he hung up on me, uh, Nikita. And then, um, on, on May the 3rd, 2021, I said open, I'm sorry, March the 3rd, 2021. I said openly, um, at one of those devos and the FBI had started watching the devos. They put them out on Facebook that I was going to start this thing that you came and was so graciously came and spoke to us. It's hard for us to get big headliners like you, but, um, spoke to us, but, um, I said, I'm going to start men of courage in, in Webster parish. And that March the 3rd, I did that March the 9th. They come in and suspended me initially off just some crazy, horrible stuff. And, um, and then initially fired me, Nikita. I got, I got fired and didn't make my 20 years, but, um, I'm doing this men of courage. I had my Damascus road moment. I'm doing exactly what God wanted me to do.

Um, and, and as Christians, we got to find out sometimes that's very uncomfortable. And you do it all the time. You do it every day. I couldn't believe you told me the other day, when was the last time you drew a real paycheck? You walk it every day, but I'm just now learning.

I've been doing it for two years now and I have not missed a meal yet, Nikita. You know what I'm saying? Well, I do, I do hold, hold on, Chris, hold on right there. You've given us a lot to chew on. Okay.

So hold on one second here. You've given us a lot to chew on. So, so one, let me just first say, thank you for serving our nation.

Let me first say that, um, and serving in our, our military. And then secondly, you know, your stand, we, we have a, we have a show here at the truth radio network called, uh, lantern rescue, and, uh, may have to try to connect you with these guys at some point. These are special ops guys. Similar. It sounds like a similar background to you that, that go into foreign nations and, and, and rescue rescue people out of human trafficking. Yeah.

I'd love to be a part of that. That's cool. Yeah. So they rescue, they rescue people out of human trafficking, you know, out of, out of the sex slavery. Cause it, I mean, it's, it's still, you said it's the old prostitution is the oldest thing, you know, in going on, but, but, uh, all that to say, so, so really what I'm hearing, you were placed in some, some, uh, situations where they were asking you and just correct me if I'm wrong to compromise your beliefs and compromise, compromise your faith. And, and you just chose not to, not to do that. You chose not to compromise health. You held fast to your convictions and, uh, and, and, and because of that, you, you, if you want to say suffer the consequences of, of being fired from your job, would that be accurate?

That's very accurate. Uh, and it keyed up one of my favorite and I guarantee you two verses in the Bible, Joshua of all people. I mean, one of the greatest, most boldest, most courageous men in the Bible, Joshua 24, 15. And for some reason that verse, I just wasn't saying it no more to get it. It hit me in my heart. It hit me like a board as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord. And it was just like, no, I'm not crossing this line no more, man. I'm done. You know?

So that's what happened, buddy. Well, and, and, and, you know, you, you also hit on a couple, you know, there's several, several hot topics out there, right? Right now in America, right? And really around the world, but especially front and center in America, you know, as, as we, as I, uh, host this interview with you, my pastor, my pastor, uh, God had put it on his heart to do a 3,400 mile bicycle ride across country for the unborn, right?

Yeah. For the, you started, you started in California, he's gone all the way across to, to Charleston, South Carolina, uh, for, uh, an organization called Love Life. And, uh, for those, if you'd like to learn more about that, go to Love Life, lovelife.org. And, and, um, but here's the point I'm making, Chris, and it ties in with your story is, you know, you're, you're a Christ follower, you're a believer, you have, you have certain convictions and, and people can probably hear it in your voice. I would hope that, that, you know, you're not one to back down from your convictions. You're not going to cow, cow tail. I think, is that how they say it? I don't know how they say it. Okay.

So, you know, they're just not going to cave in right to, to the cultural pressures and make a stand. And I know you did that too. I know recently you were sharing with me when I was down there with you in Louisiana, uh, how you mentioned about your, your supervisor saying, take that Bible off your desk.

But I also, you, you had shared a story how you went before the, the, uh, I guess the county board or how your county was going to make every teacher take their Bible off their desk in every school down there. Right. But you, you went in and you took a stand on that too. And because you did, they backed off, didn't they? They backed down.

Yep. At the end of the meeting, the superintendent got up and he said, man, it's over. Every teacher can put the bottles back on the desk. They can put crosses back up. They can wear t-shirts, talk about Jesus, wear crosses. It's over. And, and, uh, that's, that was called Jesus had me go in there and tell them a specific something.

Um, and it was, it was cool because he was talking and not me to Kita and it was so cool. And, um, he said, yes, but the, you know, I'm really quick to Kita that the problem I think really truly the problem is, is because Christians have quit taking a stance is why we are that, that, that was a school board here in Webster Paris. And they were, every one of them acknowledged they were Christian, but yet every one of them said it was okay to make teachers take bottles off the desk. That is not, that is not what we're supposed to do as Christians Nikita.

No, I, I, right. We are, we are called, I mean, at some point, I mean, you know, Jesus went into the temple and turned tables over. I mean, I'm not advocating that just by the way, for all you listening out there, you know, but, but, but, but Jesus went and turned the tables over. He said, Hey, you've turned this into a den of thieves. This is a house of, this is to be a house of prayer.

Right? I mean, there's many times he confronted and you used the word earlier, religious, right? The religion religious.

And I agree it's about relationship, not about religion. That's not a favorite word of mine, but man, he confronted the religious of his day. And I commend you, you know, to stand up to that school board who I was, when you told me they all professed to be a Christ follower, yet they were all caving into the culture and, and agreeing that it was okay to force these teachers to take their Bibles off their desks and crosses out of their classrooms.

So kudos to you, Chris, for having that boldness. And, and so, so we're, before we run out of time, I want to make sure we get this in. So you brought me into Louisiana to speak, you know, you've got this organization, Men of Courage, and so you're hosting these on a regular basis and I'm bringing in speakers. You're doing, you're doing, I know that Friday you couldn't even take me to the airport cause you were, you were doing a Bible study under the big tree in the downtown, in the open market, right?

And anyone could come, right? Would your company, business, or you personally like to partner with me in supporting Kolof for Christ Ministries, the Man Up Show, and Man Up Minutes? Go to kolof.net and click the donate button.

You can give monthly, annually, or one time. God bless you for making a difference around the world. Yes, Nikita, I'm all about, there's plenty of church, church, and of course we mix that word up, especially in the South probably, Nikita, more than the North. When we talk about the church, and this is horrible, but we're talking about the brick and mortar building, and I know not everybody understands this, but at the same time, that's not the church. Me and Nikita are the church, and we're having church right here. The church is the kingdom of God, and that's us. The body, his body, that's us, but we got talking about the brick and mortar church too much, and so all of our stuff is outside the brick and mortar church.

We don't have a building, Nikita. We do everything outside, in the public, in the open, like in Nehemiah, when he had all the Israel's come in and confess their sins outside, and I'm not saying we're doing that, and we should be doing that, but my point is, we do everything outside, in the public, for people to see, man. Yeah, you're not backing down, you're not shying away from letting others know where your faith is, and you're seeing, and I know we'll have to have you back on for another show to be able to tell some of the success stories of transformation and lives that you've seen touched and changed, and I know you shared with me, you said, we'll do these big Men of Courage dinners. You give them a free dinner, a free meal, and I know I was down there, as you said, a couple hundred people there, a couple hundred guys there, and you said they'll come back.

They may not make a decision that night, but they'll come back a week later, two weeks later, and say, man, I'm compelled to give my life to Jesus after hearing that story or that testimony, right? Now, Chris, how can people find out more about Men of Courage? Is there a website? Yeah, no, I have a website, it's Webster, like Webster Dictionary, but WebsterMenofCourage.org, Webster, W-E-B-S-T-E-R, S-T-E-R, MenofCourage.org, and there's a website that talks about it. I should be doing a better job keeping up with the website, but I got a million fires.

You talked to me a little bit about that, taking a little time off, but my point is, I've just been running, I've been running for two years, but there's a website there, and it's got some things you can see on it. But hey, man, I wanted to listen to this real quick, Nikita. That week, after you talked, so many men bragged on you and what you had to say, and yours was really about the unity of the church. That's what we've been screaming, but man, I had three really good texts. Can you meet me here? Can you talk to me more after that week?

That's the way it goes after that week, man. So you had men reach out, and yeah, so Men of Courage, and check out Chris's website, and you're making a difference, Chris, and in one sense, I'll kind of summarize our conversation today by saying, really, the FBI kind of did you a favor, didn't they, Chris, when they showed you the door? Because they gave you the opportunity to step out in faith, to step out in faith and pursue the passions that God has always had in your heart, and now you're not constrained, right? Say it that way, whether it's the FBI or you're listening out there in our listening land, maybe your company that you work for is not real pro-Christian or doesn't like the idea of you having a Bible on your desk, but hopefully by Chris's story today, he's ignited maybe a fire in you to be more bold in your faith, and I don't mean get in somebody's face.

I just mean being bold and not shying away or backing down from letting others know you're a Christ follower. I hope that's your biggest takeaway from Chris today, and so the FBI sends him out the door, and lo and behold, he launches into this ministry now that he's been running hard and proclaiming the good news for the last two years, and Chris, I know the Lord has some more wonderful things for you in store in the future as well, and as you said, you hadn't missed a meal. God provides, doesn't he?

Yeah, he does. He provides for all your needs, Nikita. I promise you that, man. Thanks for being on the show today, and thank all of you out there for tuning in to another episode. Hope you were inspired by Chris's story today, and until next time, go out and make it your best day ever. God bless you. 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 Koloff.net and donate today.

Hi, Nikita Koloff. 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. If you are enjoying The Man Up Show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe, and leave a comment. Visit smc1.com because you are number one. Hey, go to koloff.net to get registered today. This is the Truth Network.