“No one knew what God had planned for this little yellow book. We thought we would have boxes of books in our garage for the rest of our lives. 12 million books and a few years later, we are still in shock. Heaven is for Real Ministries is the response to what God has done in our lives.”
In May of 2011...
...the life of the Burpo family was starting to get a little crazy. Running after three children, pastoring a church, fighting fires and helping install garage doors was plenty...but then came this little yellow book. Overnight, Heaven is for Real became the fastest selling Christian book of all time. Congregations and organizations all over the globe wanted the Burpos to leave their comfortable town of 2000 to come and share their story in person. Publishing companies wanted more resources and books to be written. And the icing on the cake? Movie studios started to call to talk about what it would look like to turn the Burpo's story into a major motion picture.
But in the midst of all of the insanity, one thing remained true to the Burpo family. All of this...this story, this book, this movie...did not belong to them. It belonged to the God of the universe that met with their three year old son.
So, instead of being overwhelmed by all of the things coming at them, Todd and Sonja Burpo decided to create Heaven is for Real Ministries as a response to all the God was doing in their lives.
So what is Heaven is for Real Ministries?
Well...a lot of things. But primarily we exist to ensure that through this journey of writing, speaking, and working with many different organizations and people, Colton's story remains just that...Colton's story.
Our team here at HIFRM does many things. We answer correspondence. We book speaking engagements. We fulfill online orders for books signed by Todd and Colton. We book plane tickets and hotel rooms. But most importantly...we pray.
We pray for our upcoming events and media opportunities. We pray for all of the prayer requests from hurting people that we receive daily. And we pray that God continues to use this ministry and this story to bring people to him.
For more information about Heaven is for Real Ministries, feel free to email our Executive Director Jeff Gayle.