232 Stories Series: Testify to Glorify with Richard Gamble

The Savvy Sauce

232. Stories Series: Testify to Glorify with Richard Gamble

**Transcription Below**

Psalm 96:3 (NIV) "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples."

Richard Gamble is the founder and visionary behind Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, the world’s largest database of hope stories. Aspiring to make hope visible and renew faith in prayer, Gamble first had the idea for the inspirational structure in 2004 when he was carrying a cross around Leicestershire at Easter to lead people to think about Jesus. He prayed over the idea for ten years until 2014, when he felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit to begin acting upon it.

Gamble has spent many years rallying support for the Eternal Wall, a process which has tested his humility and obedience to follow God’s will. Having successfully garnered hundreds of partnerships who want to see the unique project come to fruition, the iconic monument will be a legacy project, future-proofed to inspire and engage generations, supporting them in their spiritual journey.

A Christian since 1990, Gamble studied at Bible college before working for British Gas. He eventually left the corporate world to make his mark in entrepreneurship, co- founding both a software business and a marketing consultancy. With a love for soccer, he became CEO of Sports Chaplaincy UK, and was former chaplain of Leicester City Football Club (before they were famous and won the Premiership).

Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer

BBC Documentary

Eternal Wall, Crowd Fundraiser Website

Questions We Discuss:

1. Will you share your childhood story of a near death experience?

2. How did God call you to build the Eternal Wall of Prayer?

3. Will you share three of the stories submitted so far for the Eternal Wall of Prayer?

Other Episode Mentioned from The Savvy Sauce:

126 Rhythms of Renewal with Gabe and Rebekah Lyons

Thank You to Our Sponsor: Leman Property Management Company

Connect with The Savvy Sauce through Our Website

Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”

Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“

Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

**Transcription**

[00:00:00]

Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.

[00:00:17]

Laura Dugger: Leman Property Management Company has the apartment you will be able to call home, with over 1,700 apartment units available in Central Illinois. Visit them today at Lemanproperties.com or connect with them on Facebook.

Prepare to hear miracle after miracle that will leave you changed. Richard Gamble is my guest today, and God has given him a clear and thrilling purpose in his life. I can't wait for you to hear more of his stories and his calling, and to also discover ways you are invited to be an active participant.

Here's our chat.

Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Richard.

Richard Gamble: Hey, thank you very much for having me on your show.

Laura Dugger: It is such a pleasure to get to host you today. [00:01:16] Just to get to know you better, I would love to hear your story. So will you start us off with your childhood story of a near-death experience?

Richard Gamble: Yeah, gosh. You've done your research well there, Laura. I think I was about six years old, and I was on holiday with my parents, and they said to go and get my sister who was in the swimming pool. And I leaned over to shout at her, it was tea time, and lost my balance and fell into the pool.

I can remember it really clearly, this sort of weird experience of sort of floating downwards. I wasn't even panicking because I just didn't know how to swim. I'm just going down in the pool, and then a guy in a white suit was walking past, took off his white jacket, dived into the pool, pulled me out, rescued me. [00:02:22] I think he then took me to my parents, and then just disappeared. So it might have been a bloke just happened to be going past in a white suit. I have suspicions that it was an angel.

Laura Dugger: That is so incredible. What a powerful experience, but it makes me wonder, at this time, what was the faith environment like in your home growing up?

Richard Gamble: Oh, no, no faith whatsoever. In fact, even the opposite in that, you know, normally you would christen a child in this country when they're born, but I wasn't christened because there was no faith. So I didn't go to church, didn't have anything like that.

But then when I was 11 years old, I learned that if you put a glass against the wall, you could listen to the conversation next door. So I thought, "Oh, I'll give that a go." [00:03:22] And I overheard my mom saying that she had to go to a hospital for tests for cancer. And even though I had no faith upbringing, I just sat by my bed, put my hands together, and just said, "God, can you look after my mom?" Which He did. But I felt in that moment, the way I describe it, it's sort of like a huge hand around me going, "It's going to be all right." And that was the moment for me as an 11-year-old where I believed that God was alive and wanted to be part of my life.

Laura Dugger: Goodness. At this time, what was that like for your family as well?

Richard Gamble: I didn't really talk about it that much. My mom then had a son that they did decide to christen. I got christened at the age of 14. Fortunately, the vicar didn't try and sort of lift me up and dip me in the baptism pool there. [00:04:25]

But I sort of went on my own exploration, really, Laura. I can remember at that age going to different churches and just seeing religion. I wouldn't have described it like that at the time. But I remember just sitting there and thinking, "This doesn't mean anything."

So I really, on and off, as you do when you're a teenager, sort of went to different places and every time just thought, Oh, not really interested in that. Then when I was 20 years old, I found myself in a hotel — I was on a sort of a university graduate employment scheme - and there were 20 of us debating about whether God existed or not. And I was like, "Yeah, He definitely exists."

One of the 20 there was a Christian and they just invited me to come to church. And I was like, "Yeah, right." [00:05:27] So I went to this church and I'm like, "Wow, this is real. I could tell by the way that people were singing the songs, whether they were interacting, that it really meant something to them.

Then I had this moment where I experienced exactly the same thing that I experienced when I was 11 years old, what I would now describe as the presence of God. So that was the moment for me, I was like, gosh, God is real. He is alive.

Somebody then that night said, "Do you want to come out?" And he took me out to a pub and shared the gospel with me in a pub. And I was like, "Right, what do I do?" That has been a motivating factor for me in my life, that I had an experience with God when I was 11 but I had to wait nine years till somebody shared the gospel with me.

Laura Dugger: Wow. I wonder if that emboldened you to share the gospel with others, because I think of your faith one Easter in particular. [00:06:33] Will you share what you did that day?

Richard Gamble: Yeah. It sounds a bit weird this, Laura, but yeah, I will. I felt that God tell me to carry a cross around my county. It took a bit of persuading to persuade my church leaders that this was a good idea. But I just wanted people to think about Jesus during Easter.

So I walked, I think it was about 80 miles around the county to try and get people to consider the cross instead of... you know, we have the tradition of buying chocolate eggs and all sorts during Easter. I was trying to go, Easter is about Jesus.

I started to pick up ad hoc that there were loads of people that were having conversations about this in their schools and their colleges and in their workplace. [00:07:33] And probably the best one was my father, who again, he's not a Christian, but he was in a governmental meeting. In the middle of this governmental meeting, this lady said, "I saw the weirdest thing today." Said, "I saw this bloke dressed in a suit carrying a cross. What's all that about?" And my dad then said, "Well, that's my son." And then he proceeded to share the gospel with the whole room. A non-believer in a governmental setting is then saying, "This is the gospel. This is what my son believes."

So, for me, that was a real catalyst in my life that said, actually, if we do stuff creative to try and reveal the nature of Christ, it's going to reach a lot of people.

Laura Dugger: Wow. And that seed has continued to bloom. We'll get to that current part of your story, but I just think how incredible that God gave you the grace to be obedient. [00:08:34] Because so many times when He speaks to us, I don't know if this has been your experience too, Richard, but it doesn't make sense in the moment.

It is encouraging to read about Noah building an ark before there's even rain or different things that sound odd in the time, but He shows us, a lot of times, on the other side of obedience what He's doing.

Richard Gamble: Yeah. And of course, Laura, it's a process, isn't it? Because I do remember when I was in my early days of being a Christian, I remember I felt the Holy Spirit say, you know, "Help that lady with her bags." And she was carrying loads of bags. So I said, "Oh, do you want me to help?" And she said, "Yeah." And I helped her. And that was it.

I was expecting her to fall on her knees and say, "What shall I do to be saved or something like that." And she went, "Oh, thank you very much." And that was it. Never saw her again. [00:09:33] I learned from that initial experience the importance of just being obedient to those little nudges. And we don't always know. We don't always see.

My wife and I now, you know, if we feel God's told us to do it, we do it. The danger can often be if you get lost in the detail. But if I do that, what if that happens or what if that happens? We've trained ourselves over the decades, and we've made mistakes as well because we're human, but we've trained ourselves to like, if God gives us the nudge, let's do it. I do believe that even if I've misheard God with the nudge, that He'll love the heart of wanting to be obedient to Him.

Laura Dugger: Yes, I am in complete agreement with you there. You're mentioning your wife. Can you give us a snapshot of your life currently?

Richard Gamble: Yes. So I'm married to Sarah. [00:10:34] We just had our 25th anniversary. We went to Venice, which is beautiful. I've got three, three kids, two boys, one girl. And, yeah, life is life is bumpy at times, but overall, it's good on the journey.

Laura Dugger: Well, and along the journey, when... There's something that I want to draw out. You had just mentioned that God was calling you to show Him in creative ways. You have a current, very creative project that's exciting. And I believe it's approximately 20 years in the making so far. So where did this vision come from to create an eternal wall of answered prayer?

Richard Gamble: So it was while I was on that walk carrying the cross. At the time, I was also being considered for leadership of the church. And I was just praying and I sort of in my heart said to God, "What do you want me to do next?" [00:11:37] And this picture, vision, idea just sort of flashed through my head. I've learned that's one of the ways that God speaks to me, that it's almost like a picture that goes really quick and then you have to grab it to really sort of meditate on it and work out what it is.

But I just felt Him say this idea about building a national landmark, a wall made up of a million bricks where every brick represents an answer prayer. That's really where it was birthed.

So that was 2004. I sort of had 10 years carrying on with life, you know, starting my family and all that that entails and running a software business. And I was sort of thinking about it, talking to people about it, got lots of weird looks every time I mentioned it. But then nine years ago, I just felt the Lord Jesus say to me, Right, green light, time to time to get going. [00:12:39] It's been an incredible adventure. We are incredibly close to achieving this now. We're working towards an opening date of 2026, maybe 2027. And yes, it's been exciting.

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Laura Dugger: I know I've heard you say before that our enemy can't do anything about the blood of the lamb, but he will try to silence the powerful word of our testimony.

Richard Gamble: Yeah. I was reading that scripture. I've read it many times and I thought, "Gosh, if there's one scripture that the enemy doesn't like, it's this one, because it's sort of like an instruction booklet. Like, here is the way we can get over his schemes.

Of course, if that's true, the first half, He's stuffed on the blood of the lamb. We all know that's a done deal. So what He is going to do is He's going to try and silence the testimony. And I think we are seeing that in increasing measure in the Western world in lots of different ways, some of them subtle ways, political correctness, where it's sort of seeped into the church. [00:15:51]

You know, sometimes you'll hear people go, Well, I know that person's been healed of cancer. But come on, let's not say anything because you don't want to offend the person who hasn't been healed of cancer, which is completely contrary to scripture.

In the UK, particularly, there's the sense of, well, I know God has answered a prayer. But why brag about it? And I'm like, Well, I've got a reason. There's about 200 scriptures that talk about proclaiming the deeds of the Lord and how important it is.

I mean, even this week we've had the advertising standards agency have blocked some of our adverts because we talk about miracles. There is an agenda now to silence the testimony. And that's why as Christians, we've got to stand up and we've got to proclaim the deeds of the Lord. We've got to tell people that Jesus is alive, He's still listening when we pray, and He answers. [00:16:51] He's still active in our world in a very real way. That's the message that we need to get over.

Laura Dugger: Yes and amen. Richard, I really do want to say thank you for fighting against any testimonies being silenced. I'd love to hear more of your journey. So what has the pathway looked like from that initial idea to this current reality?

Richard Gamble: Well, let me be really frank. I don't know what I'm doing. It's the first time I've ever built a national landmark. I'm not a practical guy. I'm not an architect. I'm not an engineer. I'm banned from doing DIY in the house because I've set fire to the bathroom, you know. So I've really had to learn to pray in a deeper way.

And I think that's the privilege of the journey. When you take a dream, the privilege of going on that journey is you actually get to know God in a more intimate way. [00:17:54] To describe what we're doing for your listeners, the idea of this landmark iis that it is a giant infinity loop where it's got a million bricks on it. And people will be able to point their phones at any one of the bricks and the phone will light up and it will tell them the testimony, a time where somebody has prayed and found hope in Jesus's answer.

So part of the adventure has been trying to raise the money to just get the design. Then we have to get the planning. Then once we've got the planning, we have to build within a certain time frame to secure the planning.

Then, of course, you know, we are building something similar size to the Statue of Liberty, to give you an idea of scale. You know, it costs a lot of money. And then we have to raise the funds. And so every step of the way, there are times when myself and my team and the volunteers are like, "This is just beyond us. [00:19:01] This is utterly impossible."

One of the lessons, if I might share, Laura, is I love the scripture where... it's Elijah, isn't it, who pours the water on the wood? And what I've learned from that story is when he's asking God for fire to come down from heaven to light the wood and then he pours water on it. And what I've learned from that is if you're faced with a situation that's impossible, impossible has no gradients. It's impossible for God to set fire to the wood unless God does it. So pouring water on it is sort of irrelevant.

That's why, for us, there's been a number of times where we've been faced with impossible situations. To the world's eyes, those impossible situations have just got worse. I mean, I've been trying to raise money through a pandemic, for example. [00:20:00] And yet, for me, I'm like, well, it was always impossible anyway. I just need God to move. Nothing's changed. And that has been a real sort of fundamental for us in our approach.

Laura Dugger: You're reminding me of something I read this morning. I was rereading from a book, Rhythms of Renewal by Rebekah Lyons. She and her husband, Gabe, have actually been previous guests on the podcast. So I will link to their episode. But one quote she says is, "The call and assignment of God is never possible without God." And that's what I hear you saying.

Richard Gamble: Nice. Yeah, that's really good. Very good. Yeah. Yeah. Otherwise, why do it? Man, we have so many impossibilities on this. But the thrill is when you overcome them and you go, Wow, God, look what you've done. Look what you've done.

One interesting part of the journey is just seeing how people react and seeing people going, you're never going to do this, you're never going to do this. And then they see God do something. [00:21:09]

Let me give you an example of a story. So we needed to find the land. That's pretty obvious, isn't it? If you want to build a national landmark, you need to build it on something. I went to Bethel Church in Redding, California. Don't know if you're familiar with that, but we went there for a conference, my wife and I and we just thought, "We need to pray for land." Nobody knew who we were or what we were doing.

And then this lady came up to us and she said, "I've got a word from God for you." And the word was, "God wants you to know He's got some heavenly land prepared for you." Now, that to me is such a thrill that I've gone one side of the planet and somebody has no understanding what I'm doing or what I'm praying for, has then basically said, "Hey, God wants you to know," which is a confirmation.

So I then tell my team back in the UK, this is what God has said, and one of my team says, "Well, if God's told us He's got some land, I'm going to ask Him where it is." [00:22:11] So this team member went away and prayed and I just got an email from her with a Google map circling this map saying, "Hey, this is the land that God's going to give us." Which was like, Okay.

And then I looked at the land and the person who owned that land had emailed me just a few days before. Which, you know, what are the chances? Then I meet with this person, I share my heart on this desire to proclaim the deeds of the Lord across the nations by building a landmark. And at the end of the meeting, I told him that God had given me this vision in 2004 and then he tells me that God had given him the same vision in 2003. I mean, staggering.

But I still didn't tell him about this woman circling the land because I didn't want to emotionally or spiritually sort of manipulate the situation. [00:23:14] So he said he'd go away and pray about it, about how he could help, came back and said, "Oh, we've decided to give you some land." But it wasn't the piece that was circled. And I was like, "You know what? That's good enough for me. I'll take it."

The lady who circled the land was going, "This is not the right one. This is not the right one." I'm like, "He's just given me a piece of land worth a million pounds. I think we'll just... Thank you, Jesus." But after six months, he phoned me up, really awkward conversation, said, "I'm really sorry. I can't give you that land anymore." And then he gave me another piece of land. Still not the one.

Six months later, get another phone call from him saying, "I'm embarrassed, but I can't give you that land either." And I spent the night praying. Then his father said, "Look, loads of people tell me, 'Oh, God's told me to do this. God's told me to do that," he said. "But when I heard Richard's story, I said, "I believe him". And I don't want to be the man who had the opportunity to give him land and passed it by. So give him the best piece of land." [00:24:23]

So he paid an architect to look at all the land that they owned in the country and the architect came back with the piece that the woman had circled in the email to me. How amazing is that?

Laura Dugger: I have goosebumps everywhere hearing that. Incredible.

Richard Gamble: And I think when you've got a story like that, Laura, and we have got loads of them. I mean, literally loads of them. What it does is when you face those impossibles, I recalibrate my mind. I've had to do that even in the past couple of weeks where I've had a situation, I'm like, "Jesus, that is beyond me." But then I go, "Wait a second. Before I start to get fear about what that fact means, I'm going to remind myself of the things that God has done on this project so far. The things that God has said to me, the impossibles that have been overcome, and remind myself that God is not one who changes His mind." [00:25:24] And that then gives you the strength and the faith to keep pressing on.

Laura Dugger: Absolutely. Then when you share those stories, it is so faith-building for each of us. My takeaway from that is the reminder that honestly, we are often trying to teach our four young daughters and God is still trying to teach me this. It is "trust and obey".

Richard Gamble: Yeah. I was listening to a song this morning, I think of Lauren Daigle, about even when the answers aren't there, I'm still going to choose to trust in You. For all of my team, that's been the journey.

Can I share a fun story with you that God did for us?

Laura Dugger: Please do.

Richard Gamble: So we had earlier this year a ceremony on the land to bless the land and just to pray God's blessing and to consecrate the land for all that He's going to do on it over the next hundred years or so. [00:26:27] And we had about 300 different church leaders from across the UK and a broad spectrum.

One of my team was pulling together the agenda for the day and I said, "Look, can we not do anything weird?" I mean, I come from a charismatic background, but I'm just sensitive to other streams of the Christian faith. And I said, "Let's not do anything weird." So she sent me the agenda and in the middle of it... And I don't know if you've heard of this. I haven't before. But it said "blowing the shofar horn". Have you heard of a shofar?

Laura Dugger: I have not.

Richard Gamble: No, it's a Jewish horn that's supposed to cleanse the land. And I was like, "What are you doing?" I said nothing weird. And she was like, "Yeah, but I've talked to the team and we really believe this is what God wants us to do." And I was like, "Okay, all right."

So two weeks later, they still haven't found the shofar and they can't even find somebody to blow the shofar. [00:27:30] And I'm just going, "Guys, we've got too much to do. We've got this big event to organize. Let's just blow a trumpet. It doesn't really matter." And they were like, "No, no, no. We really believe that God wants us to blow the shofar." And I said, "Well, you've got a day to sort it. Otherwise, we're going to Plan B and blowing the trumpet."

So they went off to pray and they came back to the office and one of the office juniors said, "I've just received this weird email." And the email basically said, "I believe that God has called me to blow a shofar across the United Kingdom and I wonder whether you'd give me permission to blow it on the land." I mean, it's just amazing.

And the thing that really challenged me, Laura, I was a bit cross with God about it because I was like, "You know, Jesus, there's quite a lot of things that I'm praying to you about at the moment and blowing a shofar is not really in my top 50." [00:28:32] But interestingly, it was for God. It was more of a priority.

I think if you want to align yourselves with God, you have to align yourself with His priorities on the journey. And so, that for me was quite a humbling and quite an interesting thing to go, How? Why is that more important to you than the money, for example? And of course, the answer is because in God's economy, the money's already sorted. So, yeah, there we go.

Laura Dugger: Wow. I love these stories so much. I'm just wondering, how do you remember all of these? Are you also documenting this along the way?

Richard Gamble: Yeah. So we've got the BBC doing an audio documentary. They've actually released half of it, which I can give you the link for, actually, Laura. And then I've also got somebody doing a film documentary. We want to try and capture the stories because they're just so crazy, some of them. [00:29:36] It's not easy working on this project but you have moments where the team are just blown away and then other moments where people go, "Yeah, that's how it works. That's how God seems to be working on this project.

We've had real blessings in terms of people that when we've had a real need for the right person, that God has provided that right person just at the right time.

So an example would be when we were getting our planning permission, I think you call it zoning in America, I went to a church meeting and I said, "Hey, I've been praying this morning and I really need to find somebody to help me with planning." And it just so happened that in that particular congregation where I was on that day was one of the leading planning barristers for faith projects in the United Kingdom who then proceeded to give us his services for free. [00:30:37] You know, we've just got a catalog of those. And it just is so faith-building.

Laura Dugger: How did you find out about The Savvy Sauce? Did someone share this podcast with you? Hopefully you've been blessed through the content. And now we would love to invite each of you to share these episodes with friends and help us spread the word about The Savvy Sauce. You can share today's episode or go back and choose any one of your other previous favorites to share. Thanks for helping us out.

As you're sharing these stories, it makes me think people have already submitted their stories and their answered prayers to you, even though this project is not complete yet. Could you share maybe three of the stories that have been submitted so far for the eternal wall of prayer?

Richard Gamble: Yeah, happy to. I mean, you get different favorites at different times. But probably a good way to do it is to share with you the range. We get a lot of stories where God moves in the suddenly. [00:31:41] We've had one single mom who hadn't got any food for her kids. You know, she wasn't massively developed, very young in her faith. So she just opened up the Lord's Prayer and started reading through that: Give us this day our daily bread. And as she said bread, the doorbell went and there's a guy from the supermarket saying, you know, that the order has just been canceled next door. Do you want this food for free? And there's a loaf of bread and enough food for her family for a week.

Obviously, we love it when God speaks like that. But of course, there are times when we've got to be more patient. I've got this story, which is from America. We've had a lot of people from the States giving us stories, which is fantastic. I just read a bit of it. She spent years praying for her dad's salvation. Ten days before he passed away after a short battle with cancer, I shared Christ with him. We had conversations about God that seemed to take a lifetime to have. [00:32:49] But in that moment, God gave me the words and I'll be grateful forever. My dad then asked me if it was too late for him to come to know Jesus and my heart leapt out my chest as I assured him it was never too late. And I led him in a prayer of salvation.

So I love that one because, you know, that's probably a prayer that's been going on for decades. You know, sometimes those are the ones that we forget, but just as powerful. You know, all of this is in God's timing.

Another one is one of my favorites is through COVID where this missionary, this young lady felt called to go to Nicaragua. And she arrived in Nicaragua and then it was the pandemic hit and she's suddenly in a lockdown. You can imagine all the prayers that she must have had and believing that God wanted her to go to Nicaragua. [00:33:48] And then all of a sudden she's there, but she can't see anybody. Crazy.

She then starts sort of putting feelers out saying, "Can I help anybody?" And she gets this email from this guy saying, from America who basically raised the money to send some equipment to Nicaragua three years ago. And they'd lost the shipping container. So he was like, you know, "If you can try and find the shipping container, that'd be really cool."

So she managed to get down to customs and over a matter of days basically ended up finding the shipping container, opened it up and it was full of PPE equipment and were able to supply eight hospitals in Nicaragua with all the equipment they needed to handle the pandemic.

What I love about that story is I can imagine that guy raising all that money and then just feeling utterly bereft when they've lost the shipping container. [00:34:58] But the reality is. It was all in the timing of God. And that shipping container was found on the right day in the right moment to supply all those hospitals. I love the way that God often answers our prayers, not in the way we expect, rarely in the timing we expect. And I think that's a good example.

Laura Dugger: Incredible. Richard, I'm also curious, what is your process for finding and collecting these stories of answered prayer from around the world?

Richard Gamble: Well, we were asking the church to come and be a part of it. It's really that simple. If you're a Christian, God has definitely answered one prayer for you, which is his salvation. But we want to get a whole range of stories. We're trying to build this million-plus database of stories of answered prayer. [00:35:54] So we're asking people to go to the website, which is EternalWall.us and just share what has God done in your life.

Here's the beauty of this. Deuteronomy 4:9 says, "Don't forget what your eyes have seen. Don't let it fade from your heart and your memory, and make sure you tell what God has done to your children and your children's children." Well, this is a way that we can do that, because as soon as you share your story, that story will be put in a national archive and that story is going to be shared all over the world long after we've left the planet.

Because what people will be able to do... let's say somebody in North Carolina, they hear about the Eternal Wall, and they go, "Huh, I wonder if there are any stories from North Carolina on there." And they type in and they'll be able to see all the people from that state that are sent through their stories of answered prayer. [00:36:58]

Or they may have a diagnosis. Maybe they've got ankylosing spondylitis and they've just been to a doctor. I say that because that happened in my life where I was diagnosed with an incurable disease. And they'll come across my story and thousands of other people's stories where they've had a diagnosis, but the God who can overcame and they were healed.

So we want this to be a legacy for all Christians across the world that you can share your story, a long after you've left this planet, people will still be reading your story and they'll be finding and discovering the God who answers. I don't think there's any better use of your time than we can do, to be honest.

Laura Dugger: Wow. So grateful. Thank you, Lord, for your healing story. That is a way that we can take a next step. [00:37:57] Is there any other way we could come alongside and participate?

Richard Gamble: Yeah, absolutely. So we need prayer. This project is absolutely built on prayer. We've got a team of people praying all the time. I think I've got 100 people this month fasting and praying for breakthroughs for us, as an example.

We need volunteers to help us find stories of answer prayer. There are loads on social media, for example. It's just a case of people digging them out or finding them or even reading historical books, because we're not only sharing the stories from this generation. But we're sharing them, you know, from 8,500 and onwards. And some of the things that we're digging up are incredible. But we need volunteers to do that.

We need donations as ever with all these things. I'm thrilled to tell you, Laura, that we've raised the money for the monument. [00:38:58] How incredible is that? We just need to raise the money now for the technology and the visitor center. So we need help there.

I'd really encourage your listeners to take some time and share their stories. You may have one story that comes to mind, but I'd really encourage you to try and do 10. Because when you do that, I think you tend to get a deeper level of story.

My one that I'd immediately think of was ankylosing spondylitis. But then when you do 10, you start to go a bit deeper and go, "What has God really done?" And some of the best answer prayers, I think, have to do with character. You know, God has changed my character. I'm a much more patient man than I was when I started this project.

I think of the way that God has helped me in my marriage. So there's a whole range of different stories that we want to share with people who are searching and trying to find the God who answers. [00:40:03] I would really encourage your listeners to help us in that way.

Laura Dugger: Well, again, we would be happy to provide links in the show notes for today's episode where they can find your website and find these next steps. Would you also be willing to share more of your story of healing?

Richard Gamble: Yeah, definitely. It was devastating for me when I had a bit of back pain and then go to a doctor and then he gives me this diagnosis. And I had it for many, many years. I went forward for prayer, Laura, I cannot tell you how many times.

Of course, if you go to a healing meeting, there's always a word of knowledge about somebody with a bad back. I always used to go for it. I was just like, "Okay, maybe today, Lord. Maybe today's the day."

I had it for maybe about 20 years. And then I went to the doctor's and he said, "Look, you know, Mr. Gamble, we can give you the medication to slow this down. [00:41:08] They said, "Your back is like a car in a traffic jam. We can slow it down. But one day that car is going to get to the end of the road and you're going to be stuffed." And I thought, "Huh, okay."

I sort of left that meeting with the doctor quite angry, and I thought, "I'm not going to let the word of an expert overrule the word of God in my life. I'm not going to let him prophesy doom to me." So I changed my prayer and I was like, "Lord, I just pray that you will stop the car. Just stop the car, Lord."

Then I went to this meeting and this guy very differently said, "I'd like to pray for somebody who's got a disease in their spine." And I sprinted. I literally sprinted to the front. I wanted to make sure that I was first to be prayed for. And he said, "Do you mind if I put oil down your back?" And I was like, "No, go for it. Go for anything." [00:42:11] It ruined my shirt, by the way, but it was a price worth paying.

He poured oil down my spine and I just felt heat, just a weird heat going through my body. And I knew I'd been healed. A few weeks later, I went for an MRI scan and the doctor sat down and said, "Well, you're a very lucky boy because this disease has stopped." And then I was able to explain to him that luck was nothing to do with it. That healing must be 15 years ago now and I'm still good. It's not perfect. I still have the ramifications of having that disease in my body for such a time. But I do know that the disease has stopped and I praise and thank God for it.

Laura Dugger: I love that so much because it's called incurable and just points to the miracle of Jesus. I'm going to continue sharing one other quote again from rereading Rhythms of Renewal, where she writes that God is going to offer us, quote, "the grace to fall into rhythms that will fill you with confidence and courage, confirm your calling and give you strength to carry out His purposes." [00:43:29]

Richard, again, it reminds me of your story and what you're doing with this eternal wall of prayer. I'm just assuming that scripture has sustained you throughout this process. So is there any other passage that has been especially meaningful?

Richard Gamble: I mean, there's loads. I spent a Christmas one year just going through the scriptures where it says proclaim the deeds of the Lord. And there's so many. There's so many. I think for me, Psalm 145 just talks about proclaiming the deeds of the Lord to the great assembly. So when we have time to reflect as a team, which we don't have too much, but you just go, We are actually fulfilling scripture. We are actually taking what God is set to do and we're actually doing it. [00:44:29]

And the point of this vision is to proclaim those deeds of the Lord, as it says in Psalm 145, not only to the great assembly, but to the nations. The other one for me is Habakkuk 2:14, where it says, "For the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." And our dream is this. So this is not... it's not a UK landmark that we're building. I don't believe. I believe we're building a globally iconic landmark.

If you think of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, that's globally known. But if you Google it, as many as I know, because we've looked at the numbers, tens of millions of people Google that every year, you just find out about a French guy that built it. [00:45:27]

But when people hear and see the Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer, they're going to Google it and they're going to find a database of a million answer prayers and more. They're going to type this storm of life that they're currently going through and find people who've been in the same situation as them and find that Jesus has answered.

Now, if we do that well in the way that I believe we're going to be doing, then I think we can start to see the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Those are the things that keep us going, that we're playing for big stakes here. And that's why we need the whole church to get on board with this project and tell the nations what Jesus is doing.

Laura Dugger: Let it be so, Lord. Amen. I'll just share one other thing. This was the most important piece that I read this morning. [00:46:31] I've said on the podcast before, it's amazing how the Lord will direct me to certain scripture and then it plays out in the conversation that we get to have that day.

This is from the Amplified version of Acts 20:24 that I want to share with you. It says, " But I do not consider my life as something of value or dear to me, so that I may [with joy] finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify faithfully of the good news of Go's [precious, undeserved] grace [which makes us free of the guilt of sin and grants us eternal life].

Richard Gamble: Love it.

Laura Dugger: It is just a joy to get to talk with you today. Is there anywhere else you would direct us to go after this chat to get to follow along with your journey?

Richard Gamble: Yeah. Good ways to follow the journey is go onto the website. [00:47:32] If you leave your email, we're going to keep you up to date. We've got loads of exciting things that are happening next year. We're going to have to test a mini eternal wall in a wind tunnel, would you believe? You know, all these crazy things that we've got to do to get this built.

But also, you know, you should be able to find us on all social media, YouTube and Facebook in particular. Don't just be a listener today. Get involved, be part of it because you'll be able to tell your children and your grandchildren and their grandchildren about to say that one of their ancestors was part of this amazing project. And for the glory of God, we can tell the nations over the generations how amazing He is. So please be part of it.

Laura Dugger: Love that so much. You may be familiar that we are called The Savvy Sauce because "savvy" is synonymous with practical knowledge. And so as my final question for you today, Richard, what is your savvy sauce? [00:48:34]

Richard Gamble: Mine would be this one. Don't be bound by rules that aren't there. You know, I've learned in life that sometimes people go, yeah, well, that's what we do. And you go, why are we doing that? And they think there's a rule, but there isn't. And I believe that we have a creative Holy Spirit who can lead us and guide us. And if we're in step with Him, we can really break through boundaries. The kingdom of God is forcefully advancing and forceful people lay hold of it. And I believe that's one of the ways is not being bound by rules that aren't there.

Laura Dugger: That's so good. Richard, I'm just so grateful for your boldness and your creativity to testify of God's good news and saving grace. Thank you so much for faithfully working on this purposeful vision. And thank you for being my guest today.

Richard Gamble: Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you so much, Laura. [00:49:35]

Laura Dugger: One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term "gospel" before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves.

This means there is absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a Savior.

But God loved us so much, He made a way for His only Son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with Him. That is good news.

Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. [00:50:35] This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us.

Romans 10.9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

So would you pray with me now? Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to You. Will You clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare You as Lord of their life? We trust You to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring Him for me, so me for Him. You get the opportunity to live your life for Him. [00:51:34] And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So you ready to get started?

First, tell someone. Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes & Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible, and I love it. You can start by reading the Book of John.

Also, get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps, such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.

We want to celebrate with you too, so feel free to leave a comment for us here if you did make a decision to follow Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read Scripture that describes this process.

Finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." [00:52:39] The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.

If you've already received this good news, I pray that you have someone else to share it with today. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.