One of the most surprising reflections on my 20-year mission to build a national monument to God's answered prayers is that the most difficult challenge has not been raising the millions of pounds needed to build it.
While fundraising in these tricky times is not easy, God has proved his faithfulness and thousands of people globally have backed the vision. The Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer will include a million bricks, each one scannable on a smart phone to reveal testimony of God's goodness. Fundraising is never easy – especially when it's millions of pounds – but we hope to make a very big announcement in 2025 that will move this project to the next stage.
You might be shocked to read, however, that raising and believing for funds hasn't been our only challenge. An obstacle we are still trying to battle has been the actual gathering of the answered prayers. We have just over 40,000 submissions to date – cancerous tumours have vanished, marriages have been restored and barren women have given birth (and that's just a few) – but it's been surprisingly difficult to get Christians to send in their reports.
So why – when presented with such an incredible opportunity to document God's power to the world – are Christians shying away from sending in their stories?
Culture clash
Firstly, some have elevated culture over scripture. I remember once at a public consultation sharing about the project and a Christian came up to me and said, "I know that God answers prayer, but why do you have to brag about it?" I just politely smiled ... I suppose that's the British way, isn't it?
We have in our cultural psyche a reluctance to share our religious experiences because for many of us, what takes place in our spiritual life is a very private matter, not one to be discussed in public. Yet this is counter spiritual. There are over 200 scriptures that encourage us to remember what God has done and to share those experiences.
The Bible is very clear. Deuteronomy 4:9 talks about the importance of not only remembering what God has done but ensuring that we don't let it fade from our own heart and pass it down the generations. Psalm 145:3-6 talks about the importance of commending the works of Jesus to another; telling them; meditating on them and proclaiming them.
Woke worries
Some have elevated politics over scripture. We live in a world where there is an aversion to offend, and because the power of offence lies in the offended, many try to plot a dubious course of avoiding this subjective harm. When this is applied to sharing stories of answered prayer, we often see the church 'on mute'. The conversation often goes like this: "I've been healed of cancer but I don't want to tell anybody because I don't want anyone who is suffering from cancer to be offended or upset that they've not been healed and I have."
It is God who heals, and scripture again is very clear on this issue. The Bible talks about how when one part of the body is impacted, we are all impacted! Therefore when one person is healed, or God has provided finance for a loved one, we should rejoice with them!
A huge part of the Christian life is experiencing suffering and drawing ever closer to God in that experience, but I have encountered many places where the emphasis is on the latter, and the former is sadly forgotten.
Modern times
The third issue is my belief people elevate ease over difficulty. We are living in times when people like the immediate, and this is why gathering financial donations has been easier than stories of answered prayer.
It is easy to give a donation; easy to pull up your phone and in seconds set up a monthly donation. We are grateful for the 18,000 people who have done just that, and we need more to do the same, yet sharing our testimony of answered prayer takes time. It takes effort to sit down and think about the stories and then to share them, and we live in a world that's full of demands and distractions.
In two decades of pursuing this I haven't encountered one person not utterly thrilled and encouraged in their faith after dedicating time to sit and remember what God has done in their life and recording it. By going through the process, many remember stories they had forgotten.
The beauty of the Eternal Wall is that a million people will submit their stories so that long after they have left this earth, generations to come will be able to read them and find the Jesus who answers.
So why not give it a go today and be part of the world's biggest database of miracle stories? You can share an answered prayer and learn more about the Eternal Wall at www.eternalwall.org.uk.
Richard Gamble is the visionary and founder of the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, a huge monument which will open in Coleshill near Birmingham.
