According to the Bible, it was when God had had enough of human wickedness and violence that he sent a message<\/a> to Noah, telling him to build an ark.<\/p>\n For Richard Gamble, his message from the Lord Almighty came as he lumbered through the village of Burbage \u2013 carrying a wooden cross \u2013 on a 77-mile tour of Leicestershire to spread the word of Jesus. <\/p>\n \u201cI felt a flash through my mind from God of an idea to build a wall of a million bricks by a motorway,\u201d Mr Gamble, aged 56, said. \u201cEvery brick [was to] represent an answered prayer, a testimony, a miracle. It was the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n It was an ambitious idea, even knocked down<\/a> as \u201cutter bonkers\u201d by some. But after a decade of praying about it, he decided to quit his job to make the vision a reality, kick-started by another message from God, that there was some \u201cheavenly land prepared\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cYou go deeper and it gets weirder,\u201d the former Leicester City Football Club chaplain told The Independent, as he revealed he was sent a map with a circle showing the monument<\/a>\u2019s destined location from a woman who received it from God, while brushing her teeth.<\/p>\n Now, after a challenging decade spent overcoming crowdfunding targets, planning obstacles and spiralling costs, work has finally started on the 167ft-high loop-shaped monument<\/a>, to be made out of glistening white concrete. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Richard Gamble received the idea from God for the monument while carrying a wooden cross on a 77-mile tour of Leicestershire 21 years ago (The Independent \/ Alex Ross)<\/p>\n Cast in 188 segments in Portugal and measuring at two-and-half times the height of the Angel of the North<\/a>, the sculpture, called Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, will be unveiled in 2028, at a cost of \u00a340m. <\/p>\n On Wednesday, the long-awaited turf-cutting ceremony took place. Around 200 smartly-dressed people gathered expectantly under a cloudy sky on a muddy farmer\u2019s field wedged between the M6 and M42 just east of Birmingham<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some gasped while others applauded as a drone was sent up into the sky to illustrate the colossus height of the sculpture. Architect Paul Bulkeley, stood on a small stage, boasted it would be 12 double-decker buses high. \u201cYour eyes will be drawn heavenward,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Each of the 1m bricks will hold an answered prayer which will be viewed via augmented reality on mobile phones by visitors, said Michelle Heritage, whose job it is to collect and vet prayers. With 125,000 collected so far, she appealed to the small crowd for help to find more.<\/p>\n Then, an emotional Mr Gamble took to the stage, at one point welling up while assessing the magnitude of the work so far. \u201cFor those 7,800-odd days it\u2019s been a dream, but today it\u2019s a reality,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is going to be built, a national landmark about Jesus, in the heart of the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Spades were handed out and a countdown sounded before the first cuts were made into the muddy earth. Among those smiling for pictures was Conservative peer Lord Robert Edmiston<\/a>, whose company IM Group has weighed in with more than \u00a330m of the cost.<\/p>\n The company donated the parcel of land, which is also next to the London-Birmingham<\/a> HS2 line and Birmingham International Airport. It means the monument will be seen by more than half a million people each day.<\/p>\n Lord Edmiston, who set up evangelical charity Christian<\/a> Vision in 1988, bemoaned the country\u2019s Christian<\/a> heritage \u201csometimes getting lost\u201d and called for a return to the religion\u2019s values.<\/p>\n![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_1136.jpeg\")
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