The first of 188 concrete sections of the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer has been completed at a factory in Portugal, a milestone for the monument scheduled to open near Birmingham, England, in 2028.
The Eternal Wall is designed as a giant white infinity ribbon, known as a Möbius strip, made up of 1 million bricks. It has neither a beginning nor an end and will rise 51.5 meters (169 feet) into the sky, with a diameter of 80 meters (262 feet).
Technology built into the design will allow visitors to point a cellphone at any brick and use a dedicated app to access an audio or video story about someone whose prayer was answered.
More than 134,000 answered prayers have been submitted so far. The target for opening day is 250,000.
Richard Gamble, the marketing consultant who conceived the project, traveled to Portugal with Eternal Wall staff, volunteers and donors to witness the milestone.
"I never thought a piece of concrete would make me so emotional," Gamble said.
"For more than two decades Eternal Wall has existed as a picture in my mind, then on drawings and computer screens. To finally stand in front of it and actually touch it was overwhelming.
"People have laughed at the idea and thought I was crazy. But now it physically exists. It's real. It's happening."
The sections will be transported to the Midlands in stages and assembled at the site in Coleshill, on the outskirts of Birmingham, where construction began in November 2025.
The height of 11 double-decker buses, the Eternal Wall is expected to be seen by about 800,000 people each week.
Christian Daily International previously reported that Gamble conceived the project after a time of prayerful reflection two decades ago. He gradually assembled a project team and secured planning permission for the monument on land between the M6 and M42 motorways at Coleshill.
