HoHoHo Santa in the Summer

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting 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. This is the United States Champion.

He became my personal savior. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolod.

Now, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Welcome back to another episode, the Man Up show, yours truly, Nikita Kolod.

Now, I'm not much of a singer, but you're ready for this? You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout.

I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town. With me today, Santa Max. That's right.

Santa in the summertime. Max, welcome to the Man Up show. Well, thank you very much. It's good to be here, brother. So, hopefully, we caught some people's attention right there, Max. I mean, there's so much we're going to, there's so much we could talk about.

Now, we're limited on time today, but let's jump into this thing. If people were to see your picture, you know, they would put it side by side in Webster's dictionary, because if anyone looked like Santa, you certainly do with that beard and the look about you. But you've been playing the role of Santa for how many years now? 23 years.

23 years. And I know, man, in your book, like, you do this in Charlotte, in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. And, I mean, your book from sunup to sundown, like, for 45, 60 days is something crazy, right? The booking is filled, yeah. Yeah, the schedule is quite tight.

We start around the 10th, 11th of November, typically, and go to Christmas Eve. One thing I did last year, not this past year, but the year before, was I had gotten sick on Christmas Eve, and we were booked solid from 9 o'clock in the morning to 9 o'clock at night every seven minutes. And I came down with a stomach bug.

Well, it was actually food poisoning, and I won't go into that, but it was food poisoning. So I had to cancel Christmas Eve. So what I did was we offered them either a refund or a resetting and did it on the 26th. And it was amazing. We filled up on the 26th, and I thought, what? Post-Christmas. It's crazy.

It's just absolutely crazy. No Santa's around after the 25th, but I did it, you know, it just turned out that way. Anyway. So, pause right there for a moment. So 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every seven minutes, surely you take a break to eat a sandwich or something, right? I do take breaks. I take a 45-minute lunch break. When I'm doing the 99, I take two breaks.

I have one in the morning and one in the evening. So 23 years you've been doing this. Of course, you know, I did a little research on you. Of course, I know one of the more familiar questions you're probably asked all the time is, how did I become Santa? And I looked at what you said. My first comment to God was, really, God?

Like, really? You want me to be Santa? Okay. Actually, I followed that with a question. Actually, I started it with, what, God? Are you kidding?

Don't you have an opening? You know, that was the actual words out of my mouth. I looked heavenward because I was raised in a very strict holiness-style church, family, Bible college and all that, and down in Greenville, South Carolina. I was very, very strict.

And I knew the history and the mingling of the pagan, some of the pagan traditions brought into Christmas, you know, into Christ's path. And I just didn't want to have anything to do with it. You know, I just, it's not for me. So I did not have my daughter when I was raising her. I did not have Christmas celebrations so much. You know, it's just no Christmas. Yeah, just don't do all that nonsense. There's no Santa Claus.

I didn't want to raise or teach you that. Right. And so, when I was asked by, at that time, Kodak to represent Santa, and what Kodak did was, if you remember back in the mall, Santa days, when they would give you pictures, now it's all gone digital, but you can still get pictures, but you would go there, you'd get in line, you'd see the Santa at the mall, and they'd take pictures, then you'd get to pick one or two of them out, and then that's what you got, right? The camera kiosk kit, you could, at that time, rent from Kodak for other events during the year. So I had rented from them a very nice kiosk to do a special event where school kids were coming to my property for a festival that we did.

We had a creation, we had a fall festival called Pumpkin Patch, and there was a lot of animals there, a lot of rescued animals, and I would talk about creationism and just kind of put a Christian spend or perspective on what they were hearing. But anyway, I went there to rent the material, the camera, and the guy says, hey, I want you to be a Santa. You'd make a great Santa. You got that white beard, you'd be a good Santa. And I was, you know, I was like, yeah, right.

Yeah, I don't think so. But I didn't want to say no to him. I was wanting to do business with him. I wanted to remain friendly, and I didn't want to insult him by saying, oh, hell no. So anyway, bottom line is, I told him, as a pastor, I go, hey, listen, I'll pray about it. Yeah, you can call me.

Sure, I'll pray about it. And I left, and my wife understood that to me. Hell hadn't froze over. He's not going to do it. But when he called me months later, which I didn't expect him to do, but he did. And when he did, I was like, oh my goodness, you know. And I started to say no, and I was just quickened. You said you'd pray about it. I was reminded of that.

And it was a powerful prick. You said you'd pray about it. And I was like, oh, and I haven't, but I already know the answer. But you said you'd pray about it. So I quickly came back to the guy that said, look, let me check my schedule, and can you call me in the morning? He said, sure. I said, okay, let me check my schedule. I'll call you in the morning. Well, he called me in the morning, and he did.

And when I hung up the phone, I said, okay, God, I already know the answer to this. You know, I already know what you want. And I know you would never want me to be a Santa Claus.

And unless you tell me today some way about me being Santa, my answer is no. And then I apologize. And I'm sorry to even bother you with this stupid prayer, but I did say I'd pray about it, and I prayed about it.

Thank you very much. Now I'm going to work. So I had a hundred and four of them. I went out working, knowing that my answer in the next day was going to be no. And then my wife gets home, and she had run into a woman that day who asked, you know, what's Max doing?

And because I had a lot of animals, I did a rescue. And she says, well, she says, just this morning, he got a call from a fellow that wanted him to be a Santa. And before she could finish the sentence and say, but I know my husband, and there's no way that's happening. She says, oh, you make a great Santa. Let me tell you what happened to me. And long story short, she was an atheist, had had an accident, had a brain injury, memory loss, had to be introduced to her husband and family again, and was relearning everything.

And, you know, time had gone by. She took this little girl, her little girl to see a Santa at the mall, because the girl wanted to see Santa. So she'd let her go see Santa. And when Santa asked her, honey, what do you want for Christmas?

What do you want for Christmas? Uh, she says, I want mommy to know who I am. She doesn't remember me. And when you're a Santa and you hear something that off the wall, it behooves you to investigate, especially in this day and time, um, you know, is this child abducted? Is that what's going on here?

You know? Um, and so I called the mother, uh, he called this man called the Santa called the mother over and said, your child has an unusual request. She wants to know if she wants you to remember who she is.

Can you tell me what in the world she's talking about? And the mom kind of sheepishly, she said, laughed and said, look, Santa, I'm sorry. She said, I was in a car accident. I lost my memory. And, and my daughter thinks I don't remember her. I had to be reentered to my family.

Just gave me a real short version of it. He said, well, you might as well pray for her. And, um, and she laughed at him and she says, oh, knock yourself out.

Yeah. Just knock yourself out. I'm not an atheist. Uh, it makes you feel good.

Go for it. But I'm an atheist. So he says, okay. It's just, what are you a preacher or something?

He goes, actually I am. And I believe God can do the same. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. And he healed back then.

He heals today. And so you pray, Lord, I just ask that you grant this little girl hold request that this family might come to know you and come into your kingdom in Jesus' name. That's it. Just a simple prayer. Simple prayer. Yeah. That was it. Yeah.

I just pray that you, you do that. And they left. Well, she gets home. She goes to bed that night, wakes up the next morning before she could open her eyes or her mind is flooded with memories that she had in the way of having, they said she would never have again. And she's starting to weep. I mean, she goes, takes a shower. She washed, she goes, she goes straight over to Santa. And if he shows up, she walks right up to him and says, okay, tell me about the God you serve. I didn't know him.

Come on. And right there on the Santa said, accepted him as her savior and changed her life. And today her whole family is involved in ministry and, and just, God's just blessed them in a fantastic way. So I knew then when my wife came home and told me that story, I was like, oh no. I mean, I looked up at the sky and I was like, God, really?

There's not an opening for a jackass. But I went, I did it. And the first year God sealed it, that this was a ministry, a marketplace ministry where people that don't go to church, you know, the Bible says, go ye. It didn't say come hither, you know, go ye into all the world. And fortunately the church has become kind of inclusive and many people have been offended by their inclusiveness and their judgmental attitudes. And that's sad because that's not what we are called to be as the body of Christ, the true church of the body of Christ. We can't be that way.

We have to love everybody everywhere. Right. Well, and, and of course you kind of leading into, uh, you know, my next comment and question in that you say yes. So you're like, okay, fine Lord. I'll, you know, I'll do it. If that's what you want me to do.

And here you are, of course, 23 years later, you're, you're still doing it, but I, I, I'm fascinated too. Cause you know, I'm looking at some, some of the notes here and, you know, the Santa Claus personality, uh, is being used by you in the marketplace, as you mentioned in the marketplace to minister his word. Um, and, and you say that God only just needs a willing vessel, right?

So whether you're playing Santa Claus or whatever it is you're doing, you know, you really hit on something. A majority of the ministry can take place out in the marketplace, correct? That's where it's supposed to be. Right. That's where it's supposed to be.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Uh, you, you reach people out, you go ye into all the world to preach the gospel. You know, you know, the teaching is in the church.

You're, you're meeting place, you're coming together for just fellowship and for, and for helping to support one another and to learn and to, you know, make discovery. But your ministry is, there was a church up in Virginia near Roanoke and as you leave the church up, there's a banner over the door. It says you are now entering your men, your, your, uh, your mission.

Yeah, yeah. You're now entering your mission field. And the thing, the problem with the, I go to church on Sunday mentality is I get dressed up, I go to church, I don't use bad words and that's my Christian life. And then, but Monday comes and I'm a different person.

You know, I can do whatever. Well, the fact is you're not going to church. The truth is you are the church, the spirit of God dwells in you. You know, when I stand at the door and knock, he's not talking about that brick and mortar building out there. You can't build God a brick and mortar building.

Are you kidding me? He's God. He's omnipotent. He's omnipresent.

Come on. And so and so we've got the mentality that, so the problem with that is when you leave, you feel like you've left this, the holy place and you're back out into the world. The fact is you are the church in the world. You are the light and you don't put that under a bushel or in a, in a brick box with a steeple on top.

You go out there and you shine the light to everyone. You're listening 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. Would your company, business, or you personally like to partner with me in supporting Koloff for Christ Ministries, the Man Up Show and Man Up Minutes? Go to koloff.net and click the donate button.

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Well, I have news for you. Now you can get the whole story on my audio book, Nikita, A Tale of the Ring of Redemption, narrated in my own voice, gaining all perspective and insight into my whole life, including my redemption. 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 take salt and you put it on a piece of meat, a flesh, and it does not rot. All it took for Sodom and Gomorrah not to have been annihilated was 10 granules of salt. Yeah, look at it that way.

So I think a lot of times, you know, all around you there's the world and all that's going on, but the protection and the sanity, what keeps freedom and liberty and and goodness is just the presence of believers in that area that are letting the light shine. That's it. That's all it takes. So for Max, Santa is a mission. It's not just you, you know, getting paid to dress up like Santa for people to show up and get their photographs.

They're going to do that, which by the way, Max, you know, one of my, for the record, one of my favorite movies is Miracle on 34th Street. You easily, easily could have fulfilled that role, played that role for Miracle on 34th Street. Like no kid, like anybody listens to this conversation today and goes and Googles you and looks you up and finds out more about, they're immediately going to go, oh my gosh, like he's like Santa personified, you know, but, but that said, that said, so Santa Max is, is, is a mission in and of itself. Your character, what, you know, what you're portraying is giving you the opportunity. It's kind of like me being a wrestler, right? Like, like God's given me a platform of wrestling to promote, you know, to share his gospel message.

He's given you the role of Santa to share his gospel message, but, but your mission is broader than just playing the role of Santa. Cause I know, you know, I know for example, you've been to Hong Kong, you've been to Kenya, Indonesia, Ecuador, Belize. Um, and um, what, what's the most, what's the most recent trip you've been on? Mongolia. The last couple of years, I've been working kind of in Mongolia, uh, doing some advisement and, uh, putting together a team there. Um, and, and, uh, aligning things that right now I'm waiting on government permits to put up a geothermal greenhouse, uh, with solar power that will operate off grid in the remote regions of Mongolia. But I want it to where they're not having to burn coal.

Um, I want it to where they can operate a greenhouse, uh, 24, seven, 12 months out of the year, even when it's 30 to 50 below zero outside, it's seven degrees in there and you're able to grow oranges, you know? Um, I think that's, that's doable and I know it's doable, but that's, that's what I'm working on. So is that kind of, is, is, is that kind of your, your background outside of the role of Santa, is that kind of your, your background of education or what's prompted you to, to do, to do that? Well, I had first studied years ago. I've always been, I've always been, cause I was raised on the mission field. I've always had a heart for mission. So I've always taken these little trips and gone places to help, but, um, and, and do whatever I can, you know, Katrina, even for example, you know, after Katrina went down and helped build houses just because that's what you do as a body of Christ. And when, uh, when that happened, I realized how much, how important water was. Uh, it really kind of brought it up to my forefront. So I studied and learned how to repel the repair, the UN wells that were put across Africa cause the war Lord sometimes to come there and drop the plungers so that the people, the local people can't have water. They have to go to the war Lords to get water.

So that's how they, they control them. Um, so I learned how to repair that. Then I learned how to do water filtration, um, making, making water drinkable, you know, and, uh, going to places like that earthquake down in Haiti and stuff, you know, you can go places and you can make a difference. So I had, I got certified in that and then the tsunami hit there in Indonesia, in Thailand and all, but there was a quarter million people that were killed there in Indonesia in Banda Aceh in the Northern part.

And they were just late on my heart. You're going, you know, this is what they call the Christmas, you know, it's called the Christmas, uh, there's a day after I believe, but it was a Christmas time and a Christmas tsunami. Um, what was that? I think it's 2004.

I'm not certain, but somewhere along there. So I knew I was going and God miraculously provided, I mean, that is, that is just a story into itself, but, um, when God provided airways, he provided medicine and he, uh, all kinds of, of, of medical supplies. I had a paratrooper duffle bag, you know, like the parachutes are put in and have military duffle bags, huge thing I'd got at Fort Bragg. And, um, I had that being packed full of just, just drugs. I don't even know what they were, the doctors and the hospitals donated them. And I, so I had that with me.

And then I had, I had gotten on a Christian radio station, was just talking about it just days after. So I says, I'm going, if there's anybody here that wants to assist, I need water filtration, or I need punch for water filtration. I need, uh, air tickets.

I need some, maybe air miles. Uh, if anybody can help with that, uh, you know, and I just put out the word and a Muslim brother was driving from down in Nashville. He was driving north on 65, passing through the radio, uh, channel range. And it was going through the stations, trying to find something to listen to. It heard the words, and he stopped to listen.

And he, he was moved on so much. He pulled off the side of the road, called the call letters of the radio station and said, I've got, I want to donate the water purification system. Gave me this beautiful $8,000 water purification system. Turns out the same model and make as the one on the mercy ship because I needed some parts that were damaged in flight over there. And when I got over there and got all the way to Bontaache and you know, we have these meetings, all the NGOs having meetings every couple times a week, and, uh, bring everybody up to date on stats and everything and kind of debriefing, you know? Yeah. And they said the captain, the ship goes, if anybody has any needs, we have full service on that ship. We can, we have a machine shop. We have a, you know, we got this, we got that. Is it anybody need anything? And I raised my hand.

I said, I've got a water purification system with UV light and got all these other systems with it. And I says, and, um, somebody damaged it at the airport and they said, bring it. So Swiss came helicopter guys. They, the Swiss military were there. They let me put it on a helicopter and we flew it out to the mercy ship. Turns out it's the same model they had on the mercy ship. So they had all the spare parts.

Turns out, but God, but God, God, God. Yeah. In fact, I was there for a week trying to find parts in, in Jakarta and find anything. There's just no parts for it there.

Right. And, uh, wasted all that time, but I was trying to get a ride up there. I couldn't even get a ride from Jakarta up to Banda Aceh because that whole region had been closed due to, uh, the game and the, uh, the, the, the civil war that was going on between the extremists from the North wanting Sharia law in the extreme Muslim doctrine across all of Indonesia. And they were fighting the Indonesian government.

There was an actual war going on foreigners didn't go up there until the tsunami took place. And then, um, um, I finally found a bus that went overnight and got up there. And at three o'clock in the morning, it comes grinding to a halt. And there was a roadblock out in the middle of the jungle. I mean, we're talking jungle and, um, there's, you know, roadblock and these guys and AKs and all black get on board, start walking down the aisle and, uh, they grabbed some guy kicking the screen and pull him off. They get back to me and point a gun to me. They held their hand out. I gave them my passport. They looked at that solid American. They just grabbed me and just pulled me off the bus.

I didn't go kick him screaming. I just went, I mean, I figured right then I'm, I'm a dead man and I'm just going to preach. Like David Wilkerson said, when, uh, Nikki Cruz told him he was with the Malmals in New York city back in the, what was that?

Fifties sixties, early sixties. And Nikki, uh, Dave Wilkerson told Nikki, he says, you know, he would tell him about the love of Jesus and Nikki Cruz with the Malmals. He says, I took out of switch places. I've cut you into a thousand pieces.

Right. And David responded and said, and every piece will scream out. I love you. You know, so I already, I would already come to that, um, understanding with the peace in my, in my heart. I told my wife and child when I left, I hold them goodbye. It says I may not see you again. You understand that I love you and I may not see you again, you know, but, um, cause I knew where I was going. And, um, so, but I was taken off the bus and, uh, they, uh, they started questioning cause they pulled all my stuff out from underneath.

They had all my bags there and there's a lot of them. And they go, what is all this? What are you doing here?

What is this? And well, at that time I figure I'm dead. I got a little bit of a sarcastic smart mouth. And so I would tell him, so I don't know if you guys have heard or not, but you know, a whole lot of people died up north.

You know, I don't know if you've heard it or not, like everybody, everybody know about it. You know, I don't know if you've heard or not, but a whole bunch of people died up north and they need some help. And so I've got water. I got to make the water clean so they can drink water because they need water to drink. And I got medicine for the doctors to give to the people that are sick.

And, uh, you know, I'm going up there to help them. And, uh, they, they were looking at one another and looking back at me and the little 12 year old kid was on the bus. The only one that could speak English, everything was being translated to a 12 year old.

Imagine that, you know, your life is hanging on the thread of a 12 year old understanding of English. And so I was in there and I just, but I figured I'm going to be a martyr tonight. That's okay. You know, I'm ready. And, uh, and so this one to my left, he takes his hand, he reaches up and he starts pulling on my beard, you know? Yeah, that's a real period.

That's, that's, it's kind of long. And he kind of has this brow is kind of Rick whatever he goes, are you, are you a Muslim? You know?

And I smile and I says, well, by definition, yes, I'm a servant of God, but I, I follow the teachings of the one you call ISSA, which is the Arabic name for Jesus. And they were, Oh, Oh, they're all like, Oh, you know, and looking at one another, jibber jabber a little bit. And, uh, they said, they'd look back and they go, we, we've never heard of this group.

You know, we've never heard of this sect. And I laughed and I said, well, in America, there's a few of us like that, you know? Well, that just, that just broke the ice. It just broke all the enemy's plans. It just, it just default.

default. They all started laughing. They patted me on the back.

They put all my stuff back in the bus, help me back up on the bus. I mean, it was just as cordial and nice as they could be, you know? So God had, God has had on the whole situation, obviously. So. Absolutely. Absolutely.

And worked everything out. Well, we're, we are almost out of time, Max, and we're going to have to, I know you have, when we, you and I sat down and talked, you had a thousand and one stories and we're going to have to get you back on the show again, but let me ask you this before we have to go. Where, where could, where can people find out more about, uh, you know, I'm just going to say this based on the story you just told, you give a whole different perspective on, on Santa and what all Santa does. I'm just saying in the off season, um, where can people go to find out more about Santa Max? Okay. It's pretty simple.

S A N T A M A X. One word, Santa max.co. That's my webpage.

Santa max.co. Okay. Right now understand 98% of the people that come to see me are just kids coming to see Santa to tell them what they want. But every now and then, and my prayer at the beginning of every season is God give me ears to hear and eyes to see.

It's good. You know, quick to understand those that are having a Kairos moment, those that are coming here by appointment, this is their appointed time or whatever reason. And we've had miracles that we'll talk about another time, but God has sent all to me and right there, I will pray with them on that set. I absolutely will do that because that is the most important thing.

So yes, but Santa max.co is an easy way to kind of look me up. Awesome. Well, thank you for being a part of the show today and, and for all of you out there listening land, thank you for tuning into another episode and go out and live a God filled God blessed day until next time. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to colab.net and donate 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. I, Nikita Kollof, 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 Kollof here.

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