Story Of Reconclie

This is Robbie Dilmore from The Christian Car Guy and Kingdom Pursuit, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build a kingdom. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it and share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. All right, let's talk. A daily program powered by the Truth Network.

This is kind of a great thing and I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Welcome to Truth Talk Live with Nikita Kolov, the Russian nightmare. Hey, I want to welcome you back. I hope you're tuning in each and every day for Truth Talk Live. And what a privilege, what an honor to be here today, live with all of you out there in Listening Land.

What a great topic we have today. We're going to discuss the nuclear family, the blended family, maybe a single parent home. And it's all going to center around restoration and reconciliation. So you're going to get the opportunity to call in and maybe share your own personal story, something that happened in your own family where God stepped in and he restored, maybe he restored your marriage.

Hey, maybe he restored a relationship between you and your son or you and your daughter, or maybe you saw your son and your daughter, their relationship restored. We're going to talk about all of that and you're going to get that opportunity. Hey, we're also in each segment going to have a little trip around the world.

Wait, what? Where in the world we're going to call this little segment? And here's the deal. I'm going to give some clues. And for the caller that calls in with the right answer, the first caller, you're going to receive, you ready for this? An autographed eight by 10 of the Russian nightmare. And it's going to have Uncle Ivan Kolov's signature on it as well. Wow.

What a bonus. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to go ahead and jump in. So you're going to call 866-348-7884. I'll say it again, 866-348-7884 into the first caller with the right answer.

You're going to receive in the mail an eight by 10 autographed photo. First clue. Here we go. Ready? Are you listening?

You got your listening ears on? This city's castle sits on a rock formed by ancient volcanic eruption. Now, if you don't get the answer right on the first clue, I'll give you a second and last but not least, a third clue. But so to the first caller who has the right answer, where in the world? I'll give you that clue one more time.

This city's castle sits on a rock formed by ancient volcanic eruption. Call in 866-348-7884. And so, all right. So restoration, reconciliation. And you know, the reason I picked this topic is because it's very near and dear to me. Close to home, you might say. Some may not know any of my stories. Some of you may know some of my stories. Some of you may know all of the story. But I come from a nuclear family born up in the great state of Minnesota.

I'm the youngest of four. But my dad, when I was about, I guess, about three years old. Maybe not Russian. He's not a Russian bone in his body, Robbie. It was Pete.

Pete had no Russian bone in his body. And Pete was an army guy, right? So he was an army guy and it's quite a story in and of itself. Alcoholic for 25 years.

Addicted to nicotine for many, many years. And made a decision that, you know, he just no longer wanted to be, I say a married man, he actually stayed married to my mom for a period of years later. Didn't immediately file for divorce. But did leave.

Moved out. And so it left me, I guess you might say, fatherless. And it left me really no male figure, no male mentor to look up to. To be able to really decide one way or the other.

Yeah, I want to be like him or no, I don't want to be like him, you know, one way or the other. But I had two older brothers, but they were eight, nine years, 12 years old. So they were up and gone and out, right? So just kind of left my mom, my sister, and then she's five years older than me.

So she's out. And so that's just me and my mom, right? And so my view of the world became formed by school, maybe television shows, conversations, right? Eventually sports and locker rooms and all of that began to really kind of define who I was as a man. And so it gave me a real, I guess how I would say it, it gave me kind of a skewed view of manhood.

And so when I think about the early days, I developed a poverty mindset as well because the early, early days of my life, we were in what they call the projects of Minneapolis or the, I call them the ghettos of Minneapolis, but I guess the official name was the Minneapolis Housing Authority. But anyway, there'll be more to this story. I'm going to hold it right there and we'll continue the story.

Second clue, also known as Auld Recce. We're looking for somewhere in the world. Call in 866-348-7884 to win that autographed photo of yours truly, the Russian nightmare. And when we come back from break, I will continue the story of reconciliation and restoration.

So you're not going to want to go anywhere. And hey, who's out there? Who wants a free autographed 8x10 photo? He's got the chain around his neck. He's got, there's two belts.

There's two World Tag Team Championship belts in the photo as well, as well as Uncle Ivan. And the city is on a volcano? An old ancient city's castle sits on a rock formed by an ancient volcanic eruption, also known as Auld Recce. Auld Recce? Auld, yeah, A-U-... Oh, like Auld Exein. Yeah, like Auld Exein.

866-348-7884. We'll be right back with a whole lot more Russian Nightmares. This is the Truth Network. Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back, welcome back Nikita Kolov, the Russian Nightmare Truth Talk Live, and we're talking about restoration and reconciliation, family. We're talking about family.

And still waiting on that first call, or am I? I must have given you a tough one this first time out. The city's castle.

This city's castle sits on a rock formed by an ancient volcanic eruption, also known as Auld Recce, R-E-E-K-I-E. And probably the easiest clue I can probably give you is, well let's see, there's a pretty famous golf tournament in this city and part of the UK. So just throw that out there. 866-348-7884.

Call in for your free 8x10 autograph of the Russian Nightmares. So we're talking about my own family, the nuclear family, and being raised in a single parent home. My mom, as we affectionately say here in the South, bless her little heart, did the best that she could possibly do in raising four children. My dad, unfortunately, did not financially support my mom, so we became by, I guess you'd say by default, a product of welfare.

And so didn't have a whole lot of money. She was for 40 plus years, almost 50 years, a teacher's aide. So not even a teacher, a teacher's aide. And what that translates into is you make even less than teachers make, which teachers don't unfortunately make as much as I feel they should.

But anyway, in the education of our children. So fortunately for me, my mom in between fourth and fifth grade got us out to the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota. And it was there that set me on really a different trajectory. I was able to actually start earning some income of my own. I like to say I became an entrepreneur at a very young age.

Got a paper route and delivery of newspapers in my local neighborhood there. And eventually stumbled across a magazine called Iron Man Magazine, where it was a body building magazine. I fell in love with weights and weight lifting and started watching football and got a vision and a dream for myself. You ever done that? Can you think back and kind of planned out, charted out your whole life? I guess I was at this point about the age of 12 and just had the whole life figured out. Anyone out there been like that? You're going to get the opportunity to call in at 866-348-7884.

And if you have a story of reconciliation and restoration within your own family, you're going to have an opportunity to share that with me as well. You know what I wanted to be when I was 13 or 14? Have I ever told you? I don't think that you have.

You might have, but refresh my memory. I wanted to be a professional fish guide. Like I wanted to take people out deep sea fishing in a boat. That's the way I planned out my life. Like man, I want to take people out fishing because I love to fish. And I was like that would be the ultimate job, right? Right, take people out fishing. You love to fish, take people out fishing and get paid for it as well.

Yeah, that was it. And so it's fascinating that today I get to take out all sorts of kids. You know, my dad's boat out on the lake.

I live on a lake. And every time I do that, I think this is really a pretty cool job. Well, and even better than that, Robbie, what I like even better than that is you became a fisher of men.

Oh, well said. You became a fisher of men. My dream of playing pro football didn't fully materialize, unlike your dream of being a professional or a fisherman. Fish guide, whatever. Fish guide, guide.

I'm thinking like a fish guy, right? So that didn't materialize for me, but through the weightlifting, through the football, and being an athlete, fast forward. And a door of opportunity opened up because a lot of listeners out there are like, now who am I listening to? The Russian who?

The Russian Nightmare doesn't sound very Russian because again, you might not be familiar with Nikita Golov, The Russian Nightmare. That was my wrestling name and my chosen profession. So even though I didn't go into the football arena, you might say I went into the wrestling, or as I say here, wrasslin' arena and all that.

So fast forward, so I have this wrestling career. I eventually end up getting married and create a blooded family. Two older girls that I just embraced as my own and raised them as my own.

They would be 41 and 37 now. And the oldest one calls me daddy at 41 years of age. The other one calls me poppy. And then two younger girls who call me papa and dad.

So there's a variety of names. So in my life journey from nuclear family to blended family, well from single parent home to blended family. Went through a divorce, the unfortunate divorce, but yet maintained that relationship with my children. And what I would deem or feel a very healthy relationship with the children and now 11 grandchildren and counting.

Hard to keep all those birthdays straight. In the midst of that though, there was a time where the Lord really put it on my heart. After giving my heart to the Lord, the Lord then put it on my heart to start reaching out to my dad. And it's not that we never saw each other or never had any contact, but if we did it was very limited or very little contact or conversation. And so he put it on my heart to begin to reach out to him, to call him on a weekly basis.

And probably the biggest challenge, now I'm in my 40s and he's in his 80s at this point. And what ends up happening is the Lord also challenges me to start telling him I love him every time. I'm like, Lord, like really? Like come on.

I never told him I loved him, he never told me he loved me. Went to this camp, the Lord had me write a letter to my dad at the camp and then the Lord said go ahead and mail that to my dad. I'm like, really Lord?

Like really? So what did they tell you to write in that letter? Just to really just pour my heart out. What would I want my dad to say to me if we had had this traditional relationship of father-son? What would I want to hear him say? What would I say to him? If I had the opportunity, what would I say to him? And so really it was just kind of an opportunity to just kind of pour my heart out. And then when the Lord said go ahead and mail that to him, I'm like oh my gosh, like really? And I wasn't honestly thinking back, I wasn't brutal in the letter in any stretch of the imagination while at the same time I was very honest in the letter. And in turn ended up getting one from him several weeks later, just a man of few words.

All that to say, over the course of about five or six months, me making regular calls, me sending that letter, me getting a letter, me telling him every time I love you, right, eventually something happens, something happens that brings some reconciliation and restoration. Stay tuned for more of the story. Truth Talk Live! This is the Truth Network.

Welcome back. Nikita Koloff, your host, Truth Talk Live. Before I continue the story, Robbie, I've given three clues there.

I'm wondering if you know this famous golf course over in the UK somewhere. I know, I know, I know. Pick me, pick me, I got it. Robbie, you got your hand raised first, go for it.

Could it possibly be Edinburgh, Scotland? Ding, ding, ding, ding, winner, winner. I've always wanted that picture too, by the way. I've never had an 8x10 of the Russian nightmare, and Ivan.

And Ivan, and the World Tag Team belt in the picture as well, so you got it. Oh, you got it. All right. All right, I'm going to throw another quick, because our other callers just didn't get the answers right, but hey, call in anyway. We're going to get you on the phone regardless, whether you got the right answer or the wrong answer, and we'll have some fun with it. 866-348-7884. Also, if you've got a story of reconciliation and restoration in your own family, call in, because, you know, we'll interrupt my story, because I want to hear your story.

So 866-348-7884, if you got the answer for the autographed photo, or you got a story of reconciliation or restoration in your own family, come on. Call in to the Russian nightmare. All right, first clue, here we go, nickname Phoenix City, because it has survived many wars, conflicts, and invasions throughout its history. What city? Where in the world?

What city am I looking for there? Call in. So I left you hanging before our last break through a series of consistent phone calls to my dad, sending him a letter, receiving a letter back, telling him I loved him every time before he hung up or we hung up the phone. Finally, eventually, fast forward to his, it was his birthday, he was born Cinco de Mayo, 1924, Cinco de Mayo, May 5th, actually the same day as my daughter Tawny Bear. And so anyway, so I'm, you know, wishing him a happy birthday, you know, yada yada, just having a conversation, and as I was, as he was now accustomed to, hey dad, one more thing before I hang up, why don't you know I love you dad. And for the first time, I got a response other than thank you, oh that's nice, uh huh, okay, I got I love you too son.

I love you too son. And I was just kind of like finally kind of like speechless, you know, for the moment, and I'm like wow, thanks dad. So that series of months and calls and letter led to an opportunity to start to see him more, Robbie. And as churches found out about his story of reconciliation with the Father, Heavenly Father, as my dad would say when he grabbed the old rugged cross, I mean he couldn't tell that story without choking up, like getting a lump in his throat and tearing up. And so churches started bringing him to share his story, and then I would preach, so we have like Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all present there, in the services, right. I mean he became a part of my prayer team, he was a prayer warrior, man. I come to find out and learn that he was on the Billy Graham prayer team when Billy Graham had his offices in Minneapolis. My dad was a part of the prayer team, my dad had his own radio show, Robbie, right, he had his own radio show, yeah, on Christian radio, and for years. And so he began to travel with me in his 80s, in his 80s, he's traveling, flying, went on a cruise with me, I mean just an amazing story of reconciliation, how the Lord redeemed that relationship.

And I remember, Robbie, we were in Iowa, I brought him down, I flew into Minneapolis, we made a road trip together, right, and I was going to be inducted into a hall of fame there in Waterloo, Iowa. And I'll never forget, several highlights there, and we had a room together, so we're rooming together, right, Father, Son, you know, right, so we're rooming together. And man, I had to chuckle, because I woke him up one morning, I'm like, Dad, we gotta get going, man, he like leaped out of bed, and then he hit me, I go, I do that very same thing. Like if I wake up, I'm like, boom, leap out of bed, right, like I'm not one to linger. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm just like my dad, you know.

Wow. And then I went for a walk, and I sat on this bus stop across from the hotel thinking he was up taking a nap, and then I started laughing, Robbie, and I'm like, okay, God, I see what you're doing here. So, you have reconciled my relationship with my dad, restored that relationship, a Father-Son relationship, because you want to give me a live and living color example of what a Father-Son relationship looks like or should look like with you. As your son, as the Son of the Most High, and it was just like an aha moment for me, because Robbie, I asked, when I first got saved, gave my life to Jesus, I was like, how can I love like a Father, Heavenly Father, I can't see, when I don't even know how to love a Father, I can see. And the Lord brought that relationship back together to show me how I can learn to love my Heavenly Father as I was learning to love my earthly father. So, that was a question you actually asked at that point, right? You just gave your heart to Christ.

Yeah. And, yeah, I bet you couldn't think about how could I love this guy. Yeah, I'm supposed to love this God, this Father God, Abba Father, this Daddy, Papa, Abba, as the Bible calls him, right, on a very intimate basis, right? How am I supposed to learn to love him? I don't even know how to love my earthly dad.

I have no real relationship with my earthly dad. Yeah, I'm gonna bet there's a lot of folks out there right now that really relate to that. Yeah. And that really are in that process of how do I do that? And I love that idea of the letter, and that's why I think it's kind of important to know, you know, your own feelings.

Like, what would I want to hear? What, you know. Yeah, yeah. And even if he's not alive. Yep. Yeah, well, yeah. Maybe you're out there, your dad's not alive. Again, 866-348-7884. If you want to call in, share your story of redemption and reconciliation.

Right, exactly, Robbie. It's like, you know, he doesn't even have to be alive, but like if you pour your heart out on paper and release that, that in itself can bring reconciliation and redemption and restoration, right, to your own heart. Maybe you don't have the greatest relationship with your dad, or as you said, you're wondering, man, how do I love this guy? This guy doesn't even love me. My dad didn't even know how to hug, man. Like, I had to teach him how to hug. He was like hugging a book rack.

Right? Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, and he was gonna get hugged by me whether he wanted it or not. Like, there was no choice for him in the matter.

So, for those of you that, you know, I know Nikita well because we've had a chance to work together for a few years, and he's one of the most disciplined people you'd ever be around. I mean, like, every aspect of his life is completely different from his finances to, you know, what he eats to, oh my goodness. I mean, it just goes on and on. So, one of my favorite stories, and apparently you got this after your dad too, is he decides he's gonna quit smoking, and how many years did he smoke? Thirty-five years. Five years. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Like, when he grabbed the old rugged cross, he was immediately delivered from alcohol. Like, 25 years alcoholic. Boom. Set free.

Delivered. He struggled with nicotine just because it's a drug, right? Nicotine's a drug. It's an addictive drug, right? Says that it's an addictive drug.

And so, he's still got 10 more years of that. He said Romans 12, 1, offer your body up as a living sacrifice. Every time he read it or hear it, he'd get convicted, throw a pack away, and then go back and, you know, and he'd go, God, you gotta help me with this addiction. And he said, God would say, Pete, you quit.

I'll help. That was it. For, like, 10 years. He goes, truth of the matter is, in my heart of hearts, like, deep down, I really didn't want to quit until I got to that place where I'm like, I'm gonna quit. He goes, and then I did. He stepped in.

He was 53 and lived to be 92. So, God set him free. I love that story that, I'll help you when you quit. Pete, you quit?

I'll help. It's like, people want, want just God to wave the magic wand. Like, nobody forced him to start smoking, right? But he had to really, really dig deep and want to quit, right?

So. So, I bet you've never heard my story of when I quit smoking. So, well, I was a car salesman for 47 years. Of course I spoke. Did that mean, like, every car salesman spoke? They do. Apparently.

They did it that day. So, anyway, after I married Tammy, Tammy's father died of lung cancer, and so she hated cigarettes. I can't believe she even married me. I mean, because I was, like, three packs a day. Like, I smoked. And, but she wouldn't let me, you know, we made an agreement after the kids were born, because it kept on having ear infections, that, you know, I wouldn't smoke in the house.

Right. And it drove me nuts. Then I got hepatitis. And I got really, really, really sick. And I'm laying in the bed, right?

I got a fever of 103, and I can't go outside to smoke, right? I'm in the bed, and for, like, two days I can't get out of the bed. And as it, you know, it's, being married to me is like being married to Bonnie Hall. Let's make a deal. Okay, Tammy, we've got to make a deal. So, we're going to find out what that deal is on the other side of the break, but we've got to hear your story. Right?

Yeah. We'll finish my story and clue number two for where in the world as well. 866-348-7884. I'm dying to hear from you. We'll be right back. Truth Talk Live! This is the Truth Network. Alright, alright, alright. Welcome back.

Truth Talk Live! with yours truly, Nikita Kolov. And we got a caller, Brent from Durham, with an answer. We're going to see if Brent's got the right answer.

Brent, you're on the air. Hey, it's Warsaw, Poland. Warsaw, Poland.

Ding, ding, ding, ding. Brent, great job. Warsaw, Poland, you are correct. You are going to get an 8x10 autograph photo from The Russian Nightmare. Now, Brent, I'm curious, beyond knowing your geography, are you a fan of wrestling in any way, shape, or form? No, sir. Okay.

Well, of course you can always hand off the photo to somebody who is Brent, but we're going to mail you a free 8x10 autograph photo. Yes, sir. I appreciate that, gentlemen. Well, I appreciate you and I appreciate you.

Are you an avid listener of Truth Talk? Yes, I am. Yes, sir.

Wonderful, wonderful. Well, you're over there in Durham. You're not far from Raleigh, where I actually debuted in my wrestling career. You ever heard of the Dorton Arena, Brent? No, sir. I'm actually from Gaffney, South Carolina.

I have been to watch wrestling just south of Charlotte there. Okay. I'm actually a truck driver. I'm actually just traveling through here four times a week and I listen to Truth Network while I'm driving the truck. I gotcha.

Well, we appreciate you being a fan of Truth Talk and thank you for calling in with that answer, Warsaw, Poland. We'll get that mailed out to you, alright, Brent? Alright, so we'll get that off to Brent. Appreciate him calling in.

Alright, Robbie, you can't leave our listeners hanging. Alright, so there I was, out of favor of 103, stuck in the bed. I hadn't smoked for two days and I'm sitting there thinking, you know, if I was going to quit, it seems like this would be an opportune time, but how can I work this to my favor, right? And so being the Monty Hall, let's make a deal kind of guy that I am, I called Tammy in the bedroom. I said, Tammy, I've been thinking about it. I haven't smoked for, you know, three or four days here.

And you know, I've always wanted to quit. And so what if I, what if I made a deal with you that if I quit smoking, could we take the money that we saved buying all the cigarettes and cigarettes weren't, you know, at that point in a dollar a pack or something. It still adds up though.

It still adds up. I said, so could we take that money and create for me a hunting trip to Colorado? Like, you know, I'd like to hunt for you for me. I said, so I can go hunt. I'm going to take that money that I would with my thought being that a, I would enjoy the hunting trip, but b, every time I went to light a cigarette, I would think, do I want to light this cigarette or do I want to go hunting?

Do I want to like this? You know, I needed some kind of giant incentive for myself. Yeah. And she took the bait like completely. Well, I imagine your dad might've gone through something similar that there were points. My wife looked at me and she said, if you don't smoke a cigarette, I am leaving. Like I cannot take this anymore. If you don't quit smoking.

No, no. She wanted me to smoke. So I would back off how tense I was. Oh, gotcha. You were on edge.

Smoke this cigarette now. No, I gotta go hunting, right? Gotcha. I'm with you. And so just talk about a tale of reconciliation, right?

And restoration. Yeah. So my dad called about six months into this deal and he says, son, how would you like to go to Vancouver, Canada fishing with me and your brother? Ooh, the fishermen.

I had not fished with my dad and my brother since like, you know, probably, you know, somewhere in the late sixties, maybe early seventies. Wow. Decades. Right. Yeah. And my little brother will tell you to this day, that is his favorite memory of his entire life is the three of us. It wasn't just a reconciliation of me and my dad.

My dad had had a pretty good relationship, but me, my dad, my brother had not. Yeah. Wow. And so it was an interesting kind of, you know, getting all in the end. A little twist to the story there.

It was a twist to the story and it was just, and so yes, I quit smoking and I was in actually 1991. And then also, you know, Tammy and I are still married. It's a miracle. Praise the Lord.

Well, God is in the miracle working business and he's in the restoration business. So hopefully, you know, you're listening to my story, just a little bit of Robbie story right there. And, and you're being encouraged if you don't have a great relationship with someone in your family, doesn't have to be a father son.

It can just be someone in your family. And you know, Robbie, the, the rest of the story, if you will, the Paul Harvey of my story is. So my dad and I, you know, end up having this, this really wonderful relationship with each other. Fast forward, he's 92 years old. I sense, you know, life, you know, it's, it's almost like David, Lena, Solomon, you know, you know, and given Solomon the charge, you know, I go the way of all the earth, right?

I'm sensing that. And I go up for father's day and I have a series of questions I ask him. Like I had no idea, like he helped liberate a concentration camp in Germany.

He helped liberate it. And he went into vivid detail. And the picture I got is like, he's mentally there right then as he's describing it to me. And, and he goes back, I asked him what his, if he remembered a favorite teacher from school. It was like his third grade teacher, like named her, described her, what him, what, how, why she left such an impression on him in third grade.

I mean, it was fascinating. And, and then, and that was father's day. And then, and then I went, when I departed and left, I'm like, I need to go back up soon because I don't know how many more days he has left.

Lord direct me back up that fall. And sure enough, I was there for a couple, three days with him. He was in assisted living at that point. And, and the last night that we were together, he muscles himself up out of his easy boy chair to give me a hug.

Right. Been teaching him how to get, and, and I said, I'll be by to see you tomorrow, dad. The last words off his lips that night were, I love you son. The very last words off his lips.

I love you son. And we got the call the next day at my sister's house that he was unresponsive after lunch. I shot over there, spent the night there, slept in that lazy boy chair as I heard his breathing.

Oh wow. Diminish, you know, throughout the night. I probably didn't get any sleep that night. And then, and then at 7 AM in the next morning, just leaned over and whispered in his ear, dad, you can go home to be with Jesus. Lori and I will be okay.

We'll be all right. And within about 15 minutes, Robbie breathed his last breath, went home to be with the Lord. And, but what an incredible memory. Last words off his lips. I love you son.

When it took months and months and months just to get him to say it for the very first time. Right. And so, we're almost out of time. There's time for somebody to call. Well, and they ought to.

They're thinking they gotta, they gotta share what happened with their dad. 866-348-7884. While we're waiting for you to call in, I'm going to give you one more question. We're going to throw one more out here. We got Brent is going to get an eight by ten.

Robbie sitting here right here with me. This one should be easy for you because of air traffic regulations, building buildings in this city cannot be higher than 280 meters. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and give you a second clue since, since we're, we're running out. Malay is one of the city's official languages. Malay, M-A-L-A-Y is one of the city's official languages.

And I am going to go ahead and give a third clue. Located to the south of Malaysia. Let's see who knows their geography. Where in the world?

That's what I would say to that question. Located to the south of Malaysia. Okay. 866-348-7884.

I'm experiencing some Malaysia right now. Or, and or if you have a story, we've got a few minutes left. We're not out of time. We're almost out of time, but we're not a, hey, we'd love to hear your story of reconciliation. If you've got a quick story that you'd like to share 886-348-7884, or if you'd like to share where in the world, those clues I just gave you for an eight by 10 autographed photo of the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov. I'll tell you a cool restoration story that I happen to know.

Like your uncle. Yes. He had a really cool restoration story too, right? Uncle Ivan did. And so I travel with Ivan, right? So I'm up and down the roads with him. And, and Ivan loved to indulge in some extracurricular activities.

To which I did not. And so I, I knew the man's lifestyle. We roomed together, you know, shared hotel rooms. We, we wrestled together. You know, we traveled in the same car together.

His lifestyle was slightly different from mine. And so I give my life to Christ. 17 October 1993.

God puts it on my heart. It's 1995. I meet this evangelist from South Africa and he's doing revivals in Concord, North Carolina. Ivan's living in Mint Hill, outside of Charlotte at the time. I'm like, I call him up.

I'm like, on a Monday. I'll never forget Robbie. I'm like, Ivan, you should come up, man. We got these whole meetings like every night this week from this, this guy from South Africa.

It was a very soft invite, right? And man, I think you love him. He's a really cool dude. Tells some great stories.

He's pretty funny. I'd love to introduce you to him. Man, you should come up.

I gave him the address. He goes, yeah, okay, Nikki. You should call me Nikki, right? Oh, okay, Nikki.

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and so fast forward two nights, Wednesday night, places packed out, you know, and, and I didn't know he was there. You know, there's no, there's no cell phones.

There's no text messages. But when the altar call came at the end of the night, when the altar call came, I'm helping this 80 something year old guy to the altar to give his life to Jesus. He could barely walk and I'm helping him. And when I turn the corner, there's Ivan standing at the altar and oh my gosh, I was like overwhelmed. I went up, hugged his neck and, and man, he met Jesus that night, Robbie and clean slate. I mean, he was set free of speaking of tobacco, chewing tobacco that night, tobacco addiction, drugs, alcohol.

I don't know another cuss word ever came out of his mouth. He was restored, redeemed and reconciled to his heavenly daddy that night in Concord, North Carolina. And from that point on any autograph signing, anything he ever did, man, he'd have his Bible sitting on the table and he wouldn't say a thing unless somebody would make a reference to the Bible. And man, then he just opened up and began to tell the story of his encounter with Jesus and how Jesus redeemed him. And one day I get to hug his neck again.

One day. I don't, I heard that this week that, you know, you've made a disciple when they're out there making disciples. That's the key. Disciples making disciples. Hey, it needs to go three generations.

You make disciples and let those disciples make disciples. Let it go three generations. Thanks for tuning into Truth Talk Live. Until next time, your host, Nikita Kolov, The Russian Nightmare. See you soon.