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prayer. The charity believes that this will be the largest previously. So, we had
database of hope stories in the world. Each brick will that incredible favour
represent answered prayer. of God and we believe
Referencing another UK iconic landmark, Richard spoke he’s with us.’
of his hopes for this new installation. Strange to think that
‘The concept is to build a piece of public art much we could be another brick
akin to the Angel of the North, in a way that provokes in the wall. Not the dark
conversation about prayer and declares to the nation that structure imagined by
Jesus is alive, that he is still listening and is still answering.’ Pink Floyd in 1979 but a
The Royal Institute of British Architects ran a wall of hope. Indeed, the strapline for the Eternal Wall of
competition, and the winner was Snug Architects whose Answered Prayer is to ‘make hope visible’. And a million
Möbius strip caught the eye of the judges. bricks in the Midlands, between two busy motorways, is
about as visible as it gets.
A colossal structure
‘It’s like a huge infinity loop,’ explained Richard. Huge is 1 https://www.eternalwall.org.uk
no understatement. Its height will be 51 metres: as tall as
Nelson’s Column or the Arc de Triomphe. And its width
will be vast as well: ‘To give you an idea of size, it will be
like two Angels of the North on top of each other,’ said
Richard. Made up of a million bricks, each one will literally
tell a story to curious visitors, as Richard continued:
‘They’ll be able to point their phone at any of the bricks,
their phone will light up and it will tell them a story of
answered prayer.’
The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer is being built on
a site between the M6 and M42 motorways. It is estimated
that about 800,000 people will pass the installation every
week and it will be visible six miles away. This multi-million
pound venture is being funded by wealthy individual donors
as well as crowdfunding. The land has been gifted by Lord
Edmiston and North Warwickshire Borough Council’s
planning committee unanimously endorsed the application.
But this vision has been 17 years in the making and
its passage has been bumpy at times. Richard again takes
up the story:
‘I presented this idea in parliament five years ago. While ABOUT RICHARD GAMBLE
I was talking to MPs, I just had this little whisper in my Richard Gamble, the visionary behind the
ear, “You’ve got no money, no land and you’re making colossal project to build Eternal Wall, became a
it up as you go along”. My wife and I then went over to Christian in 1990.
a conference in the States and this lady came over to us He studied at bible college and then worked
and said, “I believe God wants you to know he’s got some
heavenly land prepared for you.”’ for British Gas before leaving the big corporate
When they arrived back in the UK, Richard shared this world to make his mark in entrepreneurship,
conversation with someone in his team. She committed co-founding both a software business and a
to further prayer and within a short time she presented marketing consultancy.
Richard with an image on Google Maps. This was the With a keen love of football, he became CEO
place that God had prepared for the project. Richard was of Sports Chaplaincy UK, and was former
flabbergasted.
chaplain of Leicester City Football Club.
Just a coincidence?
‘What she didn’t know was just a few days previously, a
landowner had emailed me to arrange a meeting. Utterly
incredibly, at the end of the meeting he tells me he had the
same vision to build a national landmark about Jesus, 17
and a half years ago.’
The gift of land was not the same as the one circled on You can hear Gethin interviewing
the Google Maps image, but it was gratefully received. Richard Gamble on Podcast 4.
Over a period of months, the site changed several times,
until the donor asked his agents to identify the best spot Listen on The Plain Truth website:
available on his land portfolio. ‘And guess what,’ says www.plain-truth.org.uk/pt-podcasts
Richard, ‘it was where the lady had circled over two years

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