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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. Man, I have fun with these shows. Are you having fun listening to them? I hope so, because this is where I get the opportunity to connect with people from all kinds of backgrounds. Whether they're wrestling fans, or as we say here in the South, wrasslin' fans, or just all walks of life. And today, I'm honored to have with me, well, maybe I should say former mayor of Goldston, North Carolina, Tim Kunnup. Tim, welcome to the Q&A show. Hey, Nikita, thank you so much, brother. It is an honor for me to be here with you. Well, it's great to have you, Tim. And I didn't know, you know, you've been holding out on me.
I didn't know you were mayor. Did I say Goldston? Am I saying that right?
Yeah, that is right. Goldston, yes. Goldston, North Carolina. You know, I'm still learning English, you know, from my Russian days, you know.
Yeah, I know, I know. Yeah, so some of these words are foreign to me here, but 23 years mayor of Goldston, tiny little town in kind of eastern part of North Carolina. Is that correct? Actually, in Chatham County, we're south of Raleigh.
Okay. So, yeah, more to the center, I guess. South of Raleigh, and enough of that. I know I've actually been through Goldston. I don't know if I've ever wrestled there or not, but I know I've been through it on my way. Isn't that kind of on the way to kind of like to New Bern, kind of out towards the coast, or am I? You could get there that way.
So we're north, let's see, south of Raleigh, north of Fayetteville. Yep, yep. Yes, sir. Okay, I'm getting my bearings a little bit better here now, so okay.
Yeah. All right, so what prompted you to want to be mayor? Oh, man. So my wife was originally from Goldston, and we had moved around a bit in our early years of marriage, and I had ended up unemployed, and I said, where do you want to go, honey? And she said, you know, I'd love to go back home.
Okay. So it was about 1990 we came back and moved back here to Goldston, and I got involved about 93 and served on the board, the town board. And then after that, the position came open. I said, well, you know what, maybe I'll give this a shot.
Well, little did I know that it would go on for 23 years. Never intended that. But, you know, like I say, it's a small town, I wore a lot of hats, you know, everything from the budget to somebody calling me at night and telling me that somebody ran over a deer in front of the house and wanted me to come get it, you know.
Some of the mayoral duties that some people may not know about. Know about, right. Yeah. They're ready to be done.
Come and pick up this deer from in front of my house, okay. So, you know, but it was a great run. I enjoyed it. I love the people, you know, like I say, small community and, you know, we made a lot of progress over the years and getting some things done and so forth. And then, you know, I finally got to the point that I said, you know what, it is time for me to get out and let a young person take over. I'm all about getting some young people involved. Wow, that's awesome.
I sat down three years ago. Okay. Now, you made mention of your bride.
Tell us a little bit about your bride of 39 years and your family. Yeah. Okay, great.
Yeah, sure. I married Camille Harris Knupp from Gostin. She was Camille Harris. And we got married, actually, I tell a little quick funny story, her brother and I were best friends in high school and Camille was six years younger than us. So when I tell the story, I always tell people, I said, you know, it sort of frowned upon when I was in the senior high school and Camille was in the sixth grade.
It was sort of frowned upon us dating at that time. I think there's an expression for that, Tim. I think it's called robbing the cradle, I think.
Robbing the cradle. That's right. I did.
I did. I came back and she had grown up and I saw her and fell in love with her then. We got married in 1985 and since then the Lord's blessed us with two daughters. We adopted our daughters out of San Antonio, Texas, and brought them here to North Carolina and raised them from infants.
And they have grown up. I've got my youngest daughter now lives in China. She's a teacher in China, been there five years, trying to get her back home, but she found a young man in China and married him.
So we're trying to get all the documents for him to come back here. Then my oldest daughter lives right here in Golson, married, and she has three beautiful children, my grandchildren. And we're really blessed to be right here with her and getting to spend time with our grandkids. That's amazing. And I know you do some, in addition to spending time with the family, you do something significant over in Pakistan as well, right? Yes, sir.
Yes, sir. Well, real quick, I had the opportunity to go with a good friend of mine who is an evangelist out of Greensboro, Chance Walters. And super young man, and he has traveled the world preaching, and I've been many, many places with him. And several years ago, I think it was 2018, we were in Pakistan and holding a crusade there. And I met a young gentleman, a Pakistani, his name is Arif Mustag. And Arif and I became very close, and after I came back to the U.S., we continued to communicate. And about three, we were doing small things, helping people, I'd send him, I'd raise some money, send him money to help families and so forth. One day I said, Arif, the Lord has just really put it on me, what can we do to make a difference in the lives of people that you are working with?
Now, he is a Christian pastor, I don't know if I've said that, but he runs a Christian ministry in Pakistan. And he came back to me and said, Tim, we can dig wells, water wells. And I thought, oh boy, that's going to be expensive. And I said, well, get it together and tell me how much it's going to cost for us to do this, and we'll look at it.
He comes back and he says, I can dig a well for $400. I said, that is incredible. So we started that ministry, it was about three years ago, and since then the Lord has enabled us to bless different people in little villages in Pakistan.
We just did our 33rd well last week. And so we will, you know, it's all hand dug, whales are very primitive, the way they do it, the two men do it, and Arif always sends me pictures and videos from start to finish. That's amazing. And then when they finish it, we will have a service and call in the people of the village. And Arif will have a Christian service and bless the whale, and it's just been really wonderful.
I love it, I enjoy doing that. Is there a website or something, like if people wanted to learn more, or Facebook or something? Where can people find out more about that?
Okay, so if they, you'll find the most videos on Facebook under just my personal Facebook. Which is what? Which is just look up Tim Kunnup.
T-I-M-C-U-N-N-U-P. U-P. Yep, okay. And the name of the ministry is Grace Light Ministries of Pakistan. And if they wanted to look it up, he does have a website, you could look up there. But to really, if anyone of course is interested in sponsoring a whale, they can call me directly at my cell phone, which is 919-548-5946.
And I will be glad to discuss it with them, I can send them videos or pictures or anything they want to see. And I can assure you too that it's $400 and 100% of that goes to the whale. To digging wells, that's amazing.
That's a pretty good return on investment there. I'm thinking about storing up treasure in heaven. And speaking of ministry Tim, you'd recently experienced a camp, if I'm not mistaken. I don't want to talk out of turn here, but take a minute and tell our listeners about your experience of man camp recently. Oh man, I tell you what, we could spend a long time talking about that. You know, I've got so many things that I could share. I know we have a brief moment of time together here.
I guess I'd start out by saying to every man that may be listening, whether you are Christian or unsaved or on the fence or where you're headed in life or whatever, this is something you need to do. It was an experience I really didn't know what I was getting into. And I tell you, I was thinking, I thought, well man camp. Okay, this is going to be sort of a get back to nature kind of thing, you know. And it was. But I tell you, the better calling for it would be get back to Jesus.
It's good. We really, it was an opportunity to go. In my class, we had 16 men, and they were from everywhere in the United States and even Canada. Had one gentleman from Canada. And got to make a brotherhood among these young men, all ages.
I think I may have been one of the older ones, me and a couple guys, and I think we had one young man who was 22. But it was an opportunity to come together and really dig deep, and I'm saying deep, into your spiritual life and look at yourself and where you are and where you need to be. You know, and of course I don't want to give away anything, but you know, one of the nuggets that I took away, and there's many, many, many, is something that you say, Nikita, which is two eyes to see, two ears to hear, and one mouth to speak. Listen, more than you speak.
And that was a strong quote for me that, you know, hit home. 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. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com 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.
You can give monthly, annually, or one time. God bless you for making a difference around the world. When your eyesight is at stake, it pays to travel to one of the world's leading eye surgeons. Dr. Johnny Gaten is an author, speaker, Christian leader, and a committed family man. He is also a pioneering cataract and glaucoma surgeon.
That's why I chose him for my eye surgery. Check out Dr. Johnny Gaten at eyesightassociates.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 And also just looking within and on a personal level and discovering things that had been put back many, many years ago. And even in my Christian life, I had done away with some things. I guess maybe Satan had done that, you know, and this camp allowed me to bring forth some things that I personally needed to deal with. And another nugget here that really stuck with me is God commands us, not invites, but commands us to repent and obey. And that's a big part that, for me personally, that I went through with this. You know, I sort of like to think that I'm a good guy, go to church, and, you know, I'm involved.
But I'll tell you, Nikita, I learned once again that you can't just put your toe in the water. You know, you've got to submerge yourself in your Christian life, and it has to be a commitment far greater than you've ever thought about before. You know, that dedication of being in the Word and your prayer life. And another big thing about Man Camp, your family will see a difference in you.
If you go and really put yourself into the camp and get out of it what is given to you, you are going to come home, your wife, children, grandchildren, folks at church, everywhere around you, they're going to see a difference in you. That's good. That's good.
Yeah. Yeah, it was great. It was great. Well, and I appreciate you sharing some of your insights and for those listening out there, especially for the ladies who listen in, you know, week in and week out. And if you've got that special man in your life, I hope something Tim said today might spark something in you to encourage that man of yours, that husband, that dad, that brother, that son, that man in your life. And I was making some notes, Tim, as you were talking, as I'm, you know, thinking, ah, it's going to be a nice little nature trip, but finding out, no, it's a getting back to Jesus moment. You know, just pulling away, getting away, opportunity to reflect within, just really. And I used the word submersing and I wrote a, I wrote deep dive, you know, and he talked about sticking your toe in the water and, and, and man camp really is an opportunity for those who embrace it.
I wrote that down too. Cause you're saying for those who really embrace it, it's an opportunity really to deep dive and, and really do some internal reflection. And, and, and if you, if you really do embrace it, man, as Tim said, you can go home and, and really you don't even have to say a word. Like he just said, I, we have so many testimonies and so many stories of people, of guys from all walks of life and of all ages, as, as Tim said, that have testimonies.
You go to the website, man camp dot info, go to all one word, man, camp dot info, and you'll see some powerful testimonies and stories of how campus has impacted other people's lives in addition to Tim's. And so I appreciate you sharing that Tim and, and man, it's, uh, hopefully there's a listener out there that's going to really take to heart what, uh, what you said and, and consider coming. And so, well, all right. So yeah, we could talk, I'm with you.
We could talk all day about camp, but of course I want to be respectful of your time as well. And in Q and a with Koloff and give you the opportunity to ask me a couple of questions. So let's, let's segue into your questions, Tim. Oh, okay. Yes, sir. Well, um, uh, uh, I've had several questions that I have come up with that I wanted to ask you, but I know I need to limit it. So, um, let's, let's start, um, this is one that I pondered a lot when you, when you went to the top in your career, which as we know, you know, anybody knows you, you were thrown into it and it was a short period of time and you went, you know, straight up, straight up to the top. Right.
Uh, I think 13 months or something like that. Uh, yeah. Yeah. So my question is, how did you handle the thing? Because I know it had to come with massive pressure on your psyche, you know, and, uh, I'm just, I'm just, you know, looking at you and I think about, you know, you being out there and the ring. And these coliseums with 30,000 people in them and everybody screaming and hollering and all of a sudden, I mean, you've gone from a fried fish to caviar. And, uh, how did you handle that?
Well, fried fish to caviar, that's quite a visual I just got there. Um, but, uh, I mean, it's, so what's interesting is, is, uh, um, just trying to think of how to, uh, how to put this into words is, you know, because of my background, again, some, some know more of the story, some don't, don't know the story. Um, and coming from the projects of Minneapolis. Oh yeah.
Oh yeah. And, uh, yeah, the projects and, and, and so coming, you know, from where I didn't really have much of anything looking back, you know, as a kid, you know, do you know you're poor? I mean, you know, in one sense, no, but you know, looking back, I'm like, wow, we really were poor, you know, welfare and poor. And so, uh, and the way I broke into wrestling, it wasn't me dreaming of being one growing up. And so it was a door of opportunity that opened up. And so my mindset was, it was more of a business than it was, you know, fulfilling a quote dream.
Right. And so because I took it with that approach, um, and because I grew up in a kind of a poverty in a poverty, you know, a setting, you know, I hired a personal business manager is one of the first to do that. And cause I didn't want the stardom to go to my head and hopefully get a big head and like, you know, some unfortunately do. Um, so to try to keep that in check, you know, I had everything sent to the business manager and, and just lived off what I call some, you know, some meager earnings.
Um, and, and so that's what helped me, I believe, keep it in check and not let it go to my head and begin to, as the phrase goes, believe my own advertising and get hung up and caught up in that so that when I made the decision, you know, to walk away at the age of 33. Um, you know, here again, you know, I was grateful for the career I had, um, but yet looking forward to things that laid ahead, which I didn't know all what that was, but nevertheless, you know, is still approaching it that way. So is that, I hope makes sense to answer the question. That it makes sense. And, you know, that's sort of what I, I have always thought in knowing you for the period of time that I've known you is that I've never, I don't see, I don't see with a big ego, you know, even when you were at the height of your career. Right.
And with that, I just wanted to make mention that, um, you know, your personality, Nikita working with me and it's so calming and, and, and, you know, a lot of times you would, you would be intimidated if someone meeting somebody who has been as famous as you, if you will, you know, you could be intimidated, but you, you put a calmness out. And I know, uh, in man camp, you talked about, um, the Lord opening up the doors of love and teaching you what love is. Yeah. True love and true love.
Yeah. And I, I just want to, uh, um, say, you know, we feel that and, uh, we appreciate that in, in, uh, in your ministry. I appreciate that. Thank you for those kind words.
And, you know, that's just what, what are the approaches that, um, from this point on, I hope, you know, hope to take is one of just a heart of gratitude and great, you know, just grateful, grateful for the wrestling career, grateful for the ministry that God has given me the opportunity to be a part of and, and all that. So, all right. You got, you said you got another question for me too.
Let me throw this one at you. Um, yeah, this one, uh, I sort of know the answer, but at the same time, I want to hear you talk about it. Have you ever, Nikita, considered, um, in your ministry, uh, settling down and just having a church and being the lead pastor of a church? Has that ever been something that you've thought about? That's, that's a great question.
Okay. Um, so, you know, when I think about scripture talks about the fivefold ministry, right? The, the prophet, the evangelist, the teacher, the pastor, right?
And, uh, and I'm missing one there. I'm missing the fifth one, but, but all that to say, whenever I looked at that, the, those five positions in ministry, let's just say that, um, I have to honestly say, I was like, Lord, I feel like pastor is at the bottom rung. Like, like don't, please don't ever call me to pastor a church. You called me to be an evangelist and a teacher and teach people and evangelize and win souls to the kingdom. And then in 2018, I had the opportunity of doing a short interim, uh, pastoring, uh, for, uh, for a dear friend of ours. Their, their church is going through a transition. They, they were like, so for about a four month period there, I got a taste of, uh, not full scale, but a taste of, of pastoring. And Tim, I've preached in over 1300 churches and had lots of conversations with other pastors. And I'm like, definitely Lord, don't call me to pastor a church.
For real, let me just come in, blow up and blow out, you know, blow in, blow up and blow out, you know, the, the guest speaker, the guest evangelist. And so anyway, um, I'm not, I'm not completely, uh, against the idea. Um, but at the same time, I do feel like I'm, you know, some expression is, or one expression would be I'm in my lane. In other words, I'm, I'm doing what God's calling me to do. And if that ever shifted or changed, it's not that I wouldn't be open to that. Uh, but at the same time, it's not like high on my list, like, gee, Lord, I can't wait till you get, get me a local church and, and I could do all that. So great question though, I've never been asked that before.
That's a great question. Yeah, never have. No, no, never have. So, all right, we got time for one more. I know you said you had a bunch, but we've got time for one more if you want to throw one more question out there. Just sort of going back to, um, Rasslin. Okay. Rasslin.
Rasslin, that's right. Yes, sir. Um, what lessons from your time in the ring do you find most applicable to your life as a Christian? Wow, that's a good one, Tim.
That's a good one. Well, um, I guess going back to what we were just talking about, you know, you know, whether, whether people get a big head from their success, whether it's, you know, professional wrestling and, or, or any sport or even the corporate world, climbing the corporate ladder, right? Becoming the CEO of a company or, you know, the owner of a company. And, and I guess the word that comes to mind is the word humility. Humility.
Oh yeah. And so I guess the challenge for any of us, all of us really, no matter how successful we become is maintaining a level of humility, right? Being humble, being humble. And so, so I, that's probably, I guess, one of the lessons that even though I had a, a, a meteoric rise to stardom, some say in professional wrestling, um, to maintain a level of humility, even though I was, had the success I had, and then parlaying that, you know, into real life and into ministry. And so, you know, not, not getting all puffed up with pride, even as a minister, um, and thinking I'm all that and a bag of chips, right? And, you know, just realizing Tim at any given time, you know, God, God doesn't look too favorably at, at the prideful, but he, he looks quite favorably at the humble. Um, and so, um, I've, I've learned that even through all the successes in life, uh, including ministry, that I have to keep pride in check and focus on remaining humble, uh, before him and humble before man.
And if I'll do that, uh, then, uh, then I feel like I've, I've, uh, achieved real success in life. So, yes, sir. Well, great, great questions, Tim.
And just what a great story. Mayor Tim. Mayor Tim cut up. Mayor Tim.
Mayor Tim. I want to throw in one more thing real quick. Okay. Uh, Nikita, um, as far as man camp goes, the Lord, the Lord led me when I was there to, um, to give a full scholarship for someone, uh, in man camp to go to man camp. Okay. And, um, I just want to offer today, uh, the Lord's called me again, uh, because I believe in this program so much and I want every man to experience it.
Um, I would like to give two half scholarships. Okay. Okay. For, uh, uh, upcoming man camp and, um, if any man is listening and, uh, financially, you think you're thinking this might be able, you're able, don't let money stand in your way.
I'm just telling you that. And, um, um, I just want to put that out there, Nikita. Well, Tim, that is very gracious of you.
Thank you. And I know, I know there, one, there'll be, whether there's some men listening or, or, or a man that I'm looking at. I know there's certainly somebody out there, um, that can benefit from, from that offer. And so, uh, I thank you so much, Tim, and, and you can be certain that we'll, we'll put that investment to, to good use and, and there'll be, there'll be some men impacted.
Tim can up mayor Tim can up. Uh, uh, we thank you for being a part of Q and a with Koloff today. God bless you, Nikita. Thank you, brother. I love you. I appreciate you.
I love you and your heart as well. And to all the listening out there in the listening world, you know, what's coming next. I'm going to challenge you to go out today and live a God filled, God blessed life. 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. If you are enjoying Q and a with Koloff, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe and leave a comment. 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. Nikita Koloff here.
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