You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. It is with a heavy heart that I air this recording today as my guest, my friend, Ron Carroll, has gone home to be with the Lord since the time of this recording just a few weeks ago. 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. Welcome back Q&A with Kolov, questions and answers, where you get a personal phone call from the Russian nightmare.
That's right. And you get to ask me a couple of questions. And with me today, a long time dear friend of mine from Kings Mountain. I almost said Tennessee. Kings Mountain, North Carolina, Ron Carroll. Ron, welcome to Q&A with Kolov.
Hey, thanks Nikita. If you said Tennessee, that's okay. I was born in East Tennessee. I'm sure you knew that, right? Well, tell our listeners though, like even if I knew that, you were born in East Tennessee, in the hills of Tennessee, right?
That's right. And now, so were you an only child? Did you have brothers and sisters or what? I have a younger brother. He's 10 years younger than me.
I prayed for a younger brother. Redheaded, all that stuff, man. And he is it. He is a redhead. He's redheaded and he's a full blood redhead, huh? Yeah. Freckles, redheaded and all that stuff.
Whenever he tries to say that I don't love him or I'm like, look, man, I prayed for you, red hair. And you know, and they said, mother, they said, mom couldn't have kids, couldn't have any more. So that was a blessing, yeah. So you have a miracle story, which we're not going to dive deep into that. I'm going to encourage people to go over to the Man Up show to catch your full story, how you have overcome three open heart surgeries. So you're a miracle walking story and your brother is a miracle story then.
Could never have any more kids and here he comes. Yep, that's right. That's right. I prayed for a younger brother and God gave him to me. That's pretty cool. And of course, you know, as we've talked in the past, you know, your, your dad was a pretty good athlete, a golden gloves boxer, pro baseball player. And of course you went on to be a professional athlete as well in spite of those open heart surgeries.
How many years did you play pro softball? Well, as we were catching up, I laid it at the altar at 33 and that's really of a place where softball is, that's your prime early thirties. But the Lord, the Lord was calling me to lay it down. And the amazing thing about that, I didn't know why, but he showed me years later, it was just this laying at the altar. Now my wife saw in my own heart that the softball never was first for me.
It was a big part of my identity, but I didn't know that until the Lord started to work on my heart with it. But my wife saw me lay it down and now of course she supports me wholeheartedly, uh, traveling with the prison ministry. And I think that was a big part of it when I laid, I laid softball down.
So what about like eight years, 10 years, roughly, uh, that you were on the, on that softball circuit? Yeah, well, it took a little, you know, I come up just like everybody else going through the ranks, church ball, all that kind of stuff. And, uh, God put some friends around me. I really had some lucky breaks. Um, I was really fortunate. God put some people in my life that helped me. And, and then, you know, when my dad playing with those big level teams that opened up a few doors, but I still had to put in the work, you know, they, they could only guide me to it.
They couldn't do the work for me. And of course I failed many times. Um, but I never gave up. Yup.
And you had to put in the work course here. I know you got a daughter who's now married with a baby, your first grandchild on the way and two younger boys who are embracing sports now as well. Yeah.
Yeah, they are. Okay. And of course, uh, your, your, your wife, Nikki plays lead, helps lead worship, Riley, your daughter sings on the platform and worship as well, part of the worship team.
And, and so you, you truly a incredible life and by laying down the softball, of course, I know the Lord opened up some doors. You've been pastoring Christian freedom church here in Kings mountain, North Carolina for, uh, for eight years now. Correct? Yeah.
Yeah. We, uh, without getting too long, a story, or we went through basically a church split. And, um, so I was serving as a deacon at the time. Uh, the people that left, I loved and the people that stayed, I loved, but the Lord did not give me peace about, about leaving. Uh, the only preaching I was doing at the time was for, uh, on behalf of mastery prison ministry were self-funded. So I would go and share what the Lord showed me through that ministry. And then when I started to look at the congregation, I started to look at God's body hurting.
Uh, I just couldn't, I couldn't be passive when it came to that. It just broke my heart. And I had a new, um, I don't know, just a new love for the body of Christ and, and to fight for her about brings me to tears. And I think about it because I look and, uh, and they were hurting, you know, and, uh, God was taking us through a different season and it's been, it's been a blessing, man. It's been such a blessing.
He could do. Yeah. Incredible journey. Of course I know more of, of that story and it is a fascinating story.
And again, I want to encourage people to go over to the man up show and catch a lot more of Ron's story and, and the, I just learned we have something else in common too. And that's the, that's the number 33. Did you know?
That's what I, you know, I was thinking about that when you share it, when you preached, I wrote it down in my notes and, uh, I thought that was pretty powerful. So you laid down softball at 33. I, I, so this is kind of cool.
Check this out. You laid down softball 33. I laid down pro wrestling at 33 and then a man named Jesus laid down his life at 33. How cool is that rod? How cool is that?
Okay. All right, listen now before we get to your questions, we will get to your questions here, but before we do that, I need one prison story. You've been in some maximum maximum prisons.
I mean guys on death row and you go in with your team and you guys have home run hitting tournaments. And I remember one time, here's what comes to mind in my mind. Maybe you remember this story or, or whatever story you want to share about standing at home plate or something and, and, or, or they were, they were warning you about the prison you were going into. Like you didn't have any guards or something or, or tell it, not that, if not that story, tell a powerful prison story. Um, well that one, that one's pretty cool. Um, but there's a couple that come to my mind right off. We were, uh, last time we were in California, we were in a high security prison and, uh, we were tired, man.
We were tired. We go in and Mike Hamilton is over a mastery prison ministry has done it for a little over 20 years. Amazing, amazing man of God anointed to preach in the prisons. Um, and so I get to travel with them, but this last yard we went to was just, I mean, is one of those where you just kind of have a moment with the Lord. And, um, this last year I'm standing out in the outfield and, and the, uh, one of the head, one of the head security men came over to me, uh, before the event. And he said, he said, sir, um, to kind of talk to you for a second. And I said, yes, sir. And he said, I wanted you to know that, uh, my name is Sergeant Ramirez and, uh, this is a high security facility. And he said, I wanted to see if you could re relay a message to the other, to the team, your team. And, um, he said, in these events, sometimes things happen that someone could get stabbed. Someone could, you know, it just, it happens, you know, and he said, so I want you, right. Yeah.
Well, that's what I'm saying. You know, I'm standing there and I'm tired and I'm, and he said, he said, what, uh, what I want you to do is if anything like that were to go on, if it was a fight or a confrontation or anything like that, anything breaks out. Yeah. He said, I want you, I want you to run, uh, uh, to, to the guard shack over here. I want you to run there. Okay. I want you to stay there.
I want you to run there. And he said, if you don't mind, could you tell the other guys the same thing? Cause a lot of times when we have these events, that's what we have to be careful about. There could be a confrontation as much. So as someone actually getting, uh, among prisoners is his meeting.
Yeah. You know, the guys, you know, and so, uh, you know, I never forgot that and there's many other stories I could tell you, but the reason I never forgot about it is cause I woke up, I woke, I was tired in my flesh and I was like, Lord almost forgot how I get here. Almost forgot how I get protection when I come in here. So thank you. And I did, I went over and told the guys about it.
It woke them up too. And, um, and so now before I ever step on, on to the altar or ever step up to the pulpit, I'm reminded of that, that one particular prison story, you know, don't try to do this in your own strength cause you can't. Right, right, right, right, right. But, and then one story of an interaction real quick, a quick story of an interaction with a prisoner, like, like, and you like, you know, already know the backstory on the guy. Like he's in there for life cause he like murdered like three people or something. Right. Or I'll tell you one, it may not be that intense, but we were in Phoenix, Arizona, just how God, you know, God has a plan.
He, he's no panic and glory. He has all these things worked out, but we're hitting in Phoenix, Arizona. And, um, uh, I have a little bit of an unorthodox grip. My dad showed me that and, um, and, uh, Rusty Bumgarter, another friend helped me with that, but it's overlap.
You don't hold it all 10 pages, put one hand on top of the other. So when I was hitting, um, uh, some of the inmates asked me about it. And so I'm standing at home plate and just know it was hot out there and it was very, you know, uh, I was, my heart got up pretty good for the event.
So three inmates after we got done, we're standing at home plate with me, all of them, quite a bit bigger than me. And, uh, they said, look, man, we want you to show us that overlap grip. Can you teach it to us? And I said, it took me a long time, uh, to learn that, but I'll show you, I'll show you right here.
I don't know if I can teach him. I'll show you. So Nikita, all three of these men are just like overshadowing me kind of like what you were doing, uh, with, with Stallone there. They couldn't see me. Uh, but, uh, so I'm showing them the grip. I'm telling you this happened.
I promise you. It's just so, so crazy. I couldn't make it up. One of the guys looked at me, they jumped back and he said, Whoa, what's wrong with you, man? And I was like, well, nothing. I'm just showing you. He said, what's wrong with you? He said, you're not wearing a watch, but you're ticking, dude. Why are you?
What's going on here? I said, well, now you've given me a chance to share my testimony. I got these guys.
I'm serious. You think I'm crazy. I got these guys leaning in. I said, do you want to hear my heart? And they're like, yeah. So they're putting their ear. I've been visualizing. They're putting their ear up to your chest to like job leading to leaving his head on the chest of Jesus.
They're listening to your heart literally. And I would, I would try to crank it up a little bit. You know, I was trying to go, yo, that'll happen. But that happened, man.
I mean, you know, I'm scared. I was pretty nervous at that particular one because there was a, uh, Aryan nation gang. And uh, uh, I think it was the blood. I can't remember, but there was a, there was about to be a gang fight before that one.
And there was really no place to run or climb. You just had to have your antennas up and look for the guards yet. So man, I was just like, Lord, it's so awesome that you in the midst of all this would have guys leaning in to listen to my heart.
That is incredible. So, so they hear it, literally hear a ticket. Like they, they probably think it like, like this guy's got some kind of strap, some Bob strap tube or something, right? But yeah, that's what, yeah. They were like, hold on, man.
You're not wearing a watch, but we hear, we hear you chicken right now. You are a ticket. It's an opportunity for you to share your testimony, your story of salvation with these guys. And of course over, over 10,000 now have made a decision to come to Christ. Ron, how can, if people wanted to support the softball ministry, is there a way to do that? Is there a website or something or how they can, yeah, they can go to a mastery, prison ministry.com.
Okay. Or they can go to the church and they, there's an area where they can note that they want those, those funds to go to, uh, to mastery. I'm raising my own funds right now to go. The gods started booking their flights today. We have, uh, four prisons.
We'll, we'll visit in California last week of April. Um, these prisons, excuse me, I'm sorry. These prisons are like cities. They have, uh, three and four yards.
Yeah. And so in a day's time, we'll go visit every, every yard. And you know, and, and my friend, Mike Hamilton was share the gospel. He is anointed to preach in prisons. And, uh, the gods love it.
So yeah, yeah, they can, they can contribute that. We can go on the website and, and, uh, uh, there's a QR code on there. Um, and so yeah, Christian, christianfreedomchurch.com or mastery, mastery, mastery, prison, ministry, or ministries, uh, mastery prison ministry.
Okay. M R Y or T R Y ministry.com. If you want to support, if God puts on your heart to support what these guys are doing, going in and witnessing and, and, uh, loving on all these, all these prisoners, you're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com. If you are a business owner and would like to advertise your company or product on the man up show and or Q and A with Koloff, contact me directly.
Nakita koloff at koloff.net. The man up show is honored to have Dr. Johnny Gayton is one of our longest running supportive sponsors. Dr. Gayton is regarded as one of the world's leading elite eye surgeons. He is motivated by his faith in doing all things heartily as unto the Lord. His desire to do his best has contributed to success in his eye care practice performing over 70,000 eye surgeries. In addition, he's a world renowned speaker, writer, and author.
Go to eyeassociates.com for more information. Nakita 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, Nakita Koloff fans and like it and follow today. All right. Well, let's, uh, let's take some time here and give you an opportunity to ask me a couple of questions.
Fire, fire your first question away. So I know you just, um, you know, made a, made a big transition of, of, of doing the, the man camps, even though you kind of gave me a hard time that it's been almost eight years drawing that out there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm just inspired by, you know, being a relatively new pastor walking, I say eight years, but walking by faith, uh, what's been the toughest part of that, of, of just, you know, uh, coming from something where you had a very lucrative career and I know the last 25 years or so, maybe longer years is just, you've walked by faith and whatever, how, what's been the biggest struggle there? Yeah.
And, and actually, I mean, really close to 30 years, uh, you know, that has been a walk of faith. In other words, in other words, to lay it out for the listeners, the last payroll, like if I was on, you know, most people, you'll get paid now direct deposit or whatever. Right.
But in the old days used to get a weekly check or biweekly, or, you know, some people once a month or whatever, but they, you know, the checks in the mailbox or, or in their work box or, or handed to them or whatever. Right. And so really my last corporate, uh, payroll was a little company called WCW, which stands for world championship wrestling in November of 92. Wow. November of 92. Now I didn't make tens of millions of dollars for the record, like Luger and all these other sting and all these other guys.
I didn't even come close to that in my entire career, let alone one, one year. Okay. So put that in perspective, which saw all that to say a walk of faith. Uh, there's been no steady checks or no checks in the mail, so to speak since November of 1992. So it has been a real walk of faith, just trusting the Lord, believing that he's going to provide. And I can say fast forward all these years later, you know, there's always food on my table. There's clothes on my back, a roof over my head. Uh, you know, God's blessed me with, you know, through, through support of others, a nice car to drive from town to town. And so I'm very grateful for all of that. And then I say all that to say, Ron, the Lord has really had to teach me what it means to be a cheerful giver and, and to be, here's the other part, generous on every occasion. And the reason he's had to really stretch me on that is because of my upbringing in the, in the projects of Minneapolis.
Yeah. I had to overcome what I call a poverty mentality and how I describe that is clutching everything I earn, clutching, you know, my, my money, you know, with, with closed hands and learn to just open up my hands and, and that whatever I get from the Lord monetarily or financially is to now be a good steward of it. And, and seeing where he wants me to now, so that into others, just as, you know, your church, you know, kingdom, you know, Christian, Christian freedom, you know, is a monthly supporter of Kolah for Christ Ministries. And so I've had to learn to be a, to be a good steward and be a cheerful giver and, and generous on every occasion. So that's probably been my biggest challenge over the last 30 years, walking by faith. So that's a great question. Nobody's ever asked that before.
It's a great question. So, well, I, you know, it's a, uh, it's, I can, I can relate, you know, growing up poor and, uh, being very goal oriented and just, you know, having to be at that place of, uh, uh, sort of, you know, we talked about it, I surrendered our businesses, uh, surrendered a gym, sold, you know, to be, cause I felt God calling me to our church to be available. He told me he had assignments for me. So I knew that if he told me that, then he wouldn't require me to do it on my own. And so, um, yeah, that's why I was just hoping to get, and it was very encouraging. I just, I look at everything that God's done through you and all those years, uh, know how, uh, disciplined you are and how, uh, you know, just a go getter you are, but also having to say, okay, Lord, do you, do you want me to go here? Do you want me to do this? I know you're going to provide, you know?
Yes. And I'll say this for our listeners as well, encourage all of you out there, you know, especially if you're in a dire financial, uh, position situation currently right now, that, that you need to understand God's principles of Ty giving ties and offerings. You need to under, you need to study that Prince, those principles out. If you're not familiar with them, they are God's principles. He does honor his principles.
So when you honor him and specifically in the area of finances, he will honor you, maybe not in the ways you think it might look like, uh, but he's going to provide, if he gives you a vision for something, I assure you, if it comes from him, he's going to also give you the provision to fulfill that vision as well. And so, you know, just embrace that. So great, great, great, great questions.
So you got one more for, we got time for one more if you've got it. Um, for me, a question for, I know someone else was calling in and, uh, you gotta, uh, you know, so for me, um, who would you, who would you say was the biggest, um, mentor? I wrote down in our notes the other day when I was listening, I said, you know, it was basically two ways we can learn mentors and mistakes, but I, uh, who would you say was your biggest mentor far as helping you grow in Christ? Like we talk about, uh, iron sharpening friends and, and, and leaders and mentors. So, uh, again, another great question, and I'm a, I'm a big believer that, you know, the, uh, every, every new follower of Christ, of Christ should, should and needs to be mentored and, and, or, you know, a church word, discipled, right. That we need to be discipled. I liked that mentor. We learned from mentors and, or mistakes.
Um, and so, yeah, I feel fortunate. I've got a really kind of a list of guys that, that I can look to. My pastor, uh, of 30 plus years, Jay Stewart, um, has, has been a great mentor over the years and, and continues to be, we, we meet on a monthly basis for accountability, uh, and just transparency and share with one another. Uh, early on, uh, Tom Widden, who was the pastor of the church where I gave my life to Christ, who's no longer with us. Uh, but Tom, Tom Widden in the early days, he was the, the senior pastor and actually Jay was on staff there as an associate and, and he has now been the lead pastor for the last 20, 20, 25 years.
Um, of course, Lex is, is a battle buddy and iron sharpening iron. Lex Luger, Ronnie Dean Raven, uh, he's nicknamed... That's what I was wondering, you've mentioned that in the past. Ronnie Dean, nicknamed the preaching machine.
Ronnie's out of Missouri. We met 25 years ago. He's in his mid seventies. He has been preaching for over 60 years.
So just do the math on that. And he literally has documented, written, documented over 10,000 sermons now. Um, and we speak on a regular basis. And, and, uh, in fact, I'll be with him later this year doing tag teaming on some ministry again. And, uh, and so he's been a great mentor and, and leader, uh, and, you know, modeling that for me as well. And, uh, so that's just a, a, a few of the names.
Let me interject this real quick too. So there's some who I've never met and per se, or, or don't know really on a personal level. Uh, but I view them as mentors. I've become an avid reader, but I also follow a lot of guys on YouTube online now. And one of which is Francis Chan. Um, he is one that I appreciate and a lot of different styles of, of ministry, Ron.
So I don't try to just look for one particular style. Uh, and, and so I try to just learn from anyone and everyone, whether it's a sermon online or a book that I read, I, I eat the meat, I spit out the bones, uh, cause I feel I can learn from everybody. So there's several guys and one guy did get the meat just briefly. This guy by the name of Alan Jackson, not the country and Western singer. Um, but he's a pastor over in East Tennessee, Murphys, Murphysboro, Tennessee. If you ever want to follow someone who's, who is grounded and, and speaks God's truth. And he passes a ginormous church there in Murphysboro, Tennessee, Alan Jackson, go online, check him out. I met him last year at the NRB convention and, uh, him and his wife. And I said, Hey, uh, I'm a fan from afar. I've probably watched over a hundred of your sermons so far. And that was a year ago.
And I was watching one literally just this morning on my way to the radio station. So yeah, so important, great question, Ron, and all our listeners out there, you need mentors. You need people, you need a Paul and a Barnabas and eventually a Timothy, meaning you need somebody who can sit, who is a seasoned Christ follower to mentor you. You need a battle buddy, a Barnabas who will hold you accountable. And you eventually need a Timothy, a young man who you can pour into. And so into there you go.
So there you have it. Ron Carroll, Christian freedom church, Kings mountain, North Carolina, almost said Tennessee again. Well, I got Tennessee on the brain T for Tennessee. Anyway, Ron, I love you. You're a beautiful family, man. I appreciate you. Thank you for being on the show today. Thank you for having me, man.
It's an honor. Awesome. And for all of you out there and listening land, make sure to go over and check out his full story on the Man Up show. Spread the word. Hey, encourage people to subscribe and download the Truth Radio app and or of course these shows Q&A with Koloff and the Man Up show. Until next time, go out today and have a God filled and live 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 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 Q&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. Are you looking for the perfect gift for your pastor?
Well, look no further. Bless him with a trip to the Holy Land with yours truly, Nikita Koloff, the Russian nightmare. I'll be hosting this once in a lifetime trip, December 27th, 2023 to January 5th, 2024.
Your pastor will never be the same. Go to koloff.net to get registered today. Nikita Koloff here.
If you're needing to buy a car and have marginal credit and considering using buy here, pay here, that's worse than taking the Russian sickle. Winston-Salem Motor Cars will put you behind the wheel of a car you can rely on while helping rebuild, repair, or establish your credit score. Conveniently located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem. Be sure to check them out today at wsmc1.com because you are number one. This is the Truth Network.
