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A boy's story of heaven

IMPERIAL, Neb. — One day in late May, Colton Burpo, the small-town Nebraska boy who says he visited heaven and sat on Jesus' lap, strode into his family's house after walking home from his last day of sixth grade.

The 12-year-old subject of the best-selling book “Heaven Is for Real” greeted his parents, set down his backpack and headed for the kitchen. His tow-headed younger brother, Colby, hustled along beside him. Their big sister, Cassie, wasn't far behind with a gaggle of fellow high school softball players.

Colton, sporting a crew cut and wearing a T-shirt that read “Jesus Loves Geeks,” fortified himself with an after-school snack of Lay's Classic potato chips and Dr Pepper.

He picked up a Nintendo Wii remote control steering wheel to tackle a current challenge in his life: reaching a higher level in the Mario Kart video game.

“I'm trying to unlock Baby Luigi,” Colton said, discussing Mario Kart characters with the same straight-ahead gaze, in the same matter-of-fact tone, that he uses to describe meeting John the Baptist and deceased relatives inside actually pearly gates.

This young man and his family come across as remarkably down to earth, given the amazing story they have to tell. They believe Colton has been to heaven and lived to tell about it.

The world has latched onto the child's story as told by his father, the Rev. Todd Burpo, and co-author Lynn Vincent in “Heaven Is For Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back.”

The book has topped the New York Times best-seller list of nonfiction paperbacks for 20 weeks. It has sold more than 2.6 million copies worldwide. It has been translated into 27 languages.

Book clubs from Sidney, Neb., to Sydney, Australia, are reading it. Todd Burpo is negotiating with Sony Pictures for a possible movie, and a children's book is in the works.

Burpo, pastor of the evangelical Protestant Crossroads Wesleyan Church in Imperial, is creating a new organization, Heaven Is For Real Ministries, based on the book.

Todd Burpo and his wife, Sonja, said they are amazed by the book's success. They expected that the book would struggle to sell its initial printing of 15,000 copies when released in 2010.

Everything Is Bigger

If I was blindfolded and not told where I was being taken, and dropped in the middle of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas…I’d figure it out pretty immediately. The reason is this: Texas is omnipresent.  IN Texas.  The Lone Star State proudly presents its Lone Star Flag everywhere.  EVERYWHERE. Texas Longhorns.  Cowboy boots (I drove past a […]

Texas is omnipresent also in this ballpark.  Lots of Texas state flags decorating the stadium.  Longhorn gargoyles (for lack of a better term) top the stadium.  You can meet at the corner of Nolan Ryan Expressway and The Road To Six Flags.  The main drag leading to the stadium is Ballpark Way.

Everything is bigger in Texas, as the saying goes, and the heat is no exception.  The greater Dallas area is HOT.  I mean, DEATH HEAT.  We’re used to upper-90 degree heat in New York.

There’s the humidity factor here that might make it a bit manageable.  It gets sticky but at least you can breathe.  This heat in Texas is different.

It’s stifling.  And it’s heat in the biblical sense of the word.  There’s no breeze.  It’s not a “dry heat” either.  It’s not exactly humid, it’s certainly not dry.

It’s just HOT.  What else? Oh yeah – Ballpark at Arlington is not a climate-controlled dome.

Oy.

Let me tell you something.  I always prefer baseball being played outdoors.  But this place has certainly lobbied me to reconsider that notion.

So my piece of advice to you, if you find yourself at this ballpark: go to the Super Target (even the retail stores are bigger in Texas), think about how much water you think you need…and put it in your cart.  Then DOUBLE IT.  Trust me.  You will dehydrate quickly.

The good part: Arlington has no restrictions on the amount of liquid you can bring in.  Of course, they need to be sealed, but if you bring in six bottles of water, they won’t tell you to leave it behind.  (Lather yourself up with sunblock too.  Even for a night game).

Now that I’ve gotten the ground rules out of the way, let’s talk about the stadium.

See, I like to tra vel to different stadiums around the country.  I haven’t been to very many American League ballparks, as of now it’s Yankee Stadium (the old and new), Camden Yards, Fenway Park, Tropicana Field, Angel Stadium, and now Arlington.

I like the history of Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium I could take or leave (good nachos though), Trop was AWFUL, I will always love going to Camden Yards and I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw at Angel Stadium (I wasn’t expecting much).

Darrell Waltrip, one-on-one

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