“Miracles do happen,” Juliet tells me as we stand huddled against the cold on the edge of a boggy, windswept field in Warwickshire.
The 56-year-old says her prayers were answered after she lost twin boys, and years later, went on to have a healthy baby, called Leo.
“After the death of the twins, I wasn’t sure how my life was going to pan out, and when the diagnosis and prognosis was given for Leo that he might not survive, and the pregnancy was going to be difficult, I didn’t know for sure that God was going to perform a miracle,” she recalls.
“But my faith held on, and I just pressed into that bit of faith I had and kept praying, kept believing, kept speaking to Leo’s spirit in the womb.”
As we chat, we can hear the constant hum of traffic, a short way from this green patch of land, sandwiched between the M6 and M42 motorways near Coleshill.
The site has been chosen to host a huge new national Christian monument, and Juliet’s story will form part of it.
Called Eternal Wall Of Answered Prayer, the white concrete structure will reach the height of 12 double-decker buses and be made up of a million bricks, making it the UK’s largest Christian monument.
“You’ll be able to point your phone at any one of the bricks and your phone will light up, and then it will tell you the story of hope that lies within each one,” the founder of the project, Richard Gamble, explains as he shows me a prototype of what it will look like.
The idea came to him in a flash, he says, as he happened to be dragging a cross around Leicestershire at Easter time in 2004.
He later left his job as a chaplain at Leicester City Football Club to make his dream a reality.
“What we want to communicate to the nation is that Jesus is alive, he’s still active, he’s still listening, and he still answers our prayers,” he says.
“We live in a narrative that we are living in a secular society, but the reality is most people are praying at some points in their life, particularly in the storms of life, and we want to tell them in those moments that there is hope for them.”
Due to its busy location, which is also close to the HS2 rail line, Richard thinks it will be seen by 800,000 people every day.
A private benefactor has donated the land and is covering most of the £40m cost, but Richard and his team are fundraising to cover the finishing touches for the project, like the visitor centre, car parking, and landscaping.
They are appealing for people to come forward with their answered prayers – they have had 125,000 so far.
It’s the job of Michelle Heritage to vet and collate them all.
“People send in answered prayers about situations where they’ve been praying for their marriage, praying to have a child, maybe they’ve been in a conflict zone, and they’re praying for protection, people have been praying for healing, for guidance,” she says.
“It’s just so interesting to see how God answers. Sometimes it’s a yes, sometimes it takes years for people’s prayers to be answered, sometimes it’s a no, and God has journeyed with them and given them peace and strength in really difficult situations.”
Construction is under way, and it is hoped the landmark will be completed in 2028.
