So people in heaven are dead? I am 100% sure that is not what the bible says. If I can ask a person to pray for me, what does it matter if they are in heaven or in Africa or France or whatever? They are still people. Someone in heaven is no less of a person than someone in China or Iceland. If I want to get a message to (our real president) Trump, I could write a letter to him directly, AND I could also write a letter to someone close to him asking for their assistance in reaching Trump. That is what Catholics do when we pray to saints. We are just asking another person who is closer to God to help us get our message to God. That is exactly the same as the example of asking people from your church to pray for you.